Ramble On

The UK produces somewhere in the region of 500 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Mature, dense forests are amongst the most effective carbon capture and storage sinks that we know. Paul Lister, the heir to the MFI fortune, having already planted over 800,000 trees, intends to reforest and rewild some 50,000 acres of Scottish highlands. These facts speak for themselves. Regardless of what you think about Paul Lister – madman, businessman or philanthropist – what he is doing is nothing short of exceptional. Though, for some reason a naive group of ramblers tend to disagree.

Now, we’ve heard it all before, the incessant humdrum tones of free-thinking, liberals badgering on about the importance of tackling global warming. As they tell us again and again the same old hypotheses of what’ll happen if we fail to take it seriously, it’s easy to switch off. It’s not that we don’t believe them. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s that we feel un-empowered, entirely incapable of contributing toward any significant change. The fact that the UK has approximately 220,000 farmland holdings which cover roughly 71% of the land mass, underscores the issue. With a population approaching 65 million, this equates to roughly 0.34% of the population controlling what we do with the vast majority of our countryside (and country!).

Unfortunately for us, our farmers are encouraged to keep their land in ‘good agricultural and environmental condition’ (GAEC) in order to receive full government subsidies. Which, skipping all the technicalities, requires keeping the land clear of any foliage to enable grazing, water flow, land conversions, etc. Whilst many farmers argue for the necessity of vast grazing pastures, the evidence is heavily stacked against them (see George Monbiot’s Feral or his blog for details). Ultimately, this means that taxpayers, the un-empowered majority, are paying farmers to destroy the land. We finance a subversion of landscapes which are, or could quite easily become, effective carbon capture and storage sinks. In turn, we create broad, bare and lifeless areas, uninhabitable to the majority of our native fauna.

This is why we switch off. When presented with the facts about global warming, most would agree that creating carbon-absorbing landscapes should be at the top of our priorities. Mitigating the inevitability of widespread population crises, the consequence of a world torn apart by extreme weather systems, with food and resource shortages and inexorable political mismanagement, is clearly in everyone’s interest (mine, yours, all systems, states and businesses, even ramblers; everyone’s!). Yet, it appears we’re doing quite the opposite. Far from mitigating, we’re proliferating, and it feels almost impossible for us to do anything otherwise.

And that’s why Paul Lister’s plans are admirable and why the ramblers ought to retract their condemnation of his work: Lister is going against the grain. He is doing what the disenfranchised would do, had they the power. He’s building something that serves the interests of everyone. He’s building a carbon storage sink, and we ought to encourage more people in comparable positions to do the same.

In an attempt to avoid appearing entirely biased I will concede that the subject of the ramblers discontent truly is an issue, albeit one of far less magnitude. Lister’s vision of rewilding his Alladale Estate is controversial for a variety of reasons. Not least being his plan to fence off the entire area, which currently spans 23,000 acres. Not only would this cut off a number of public footpaths (potentially contravening The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000) but having recently applied for a zoo licence, some believe Lister intends on creating a lucrative paradise for native fauna, simulating private South African wildlife reserves which allow access exclusively to those wealthy enough to pay a hefty premium. So, those who disregard Lister’s plans do so for reasons of law, liberty or equality.

I tend to sympathise with these arguments. I think it’d be an incredible feet if were able to ramble on throughout a rewilded highlands. Just imagine walking through a vast densely packed forest with trees as thick as coaches are long, exploring natural marshlands, rivers and lakes, following the tracks of elk or wolves even, watching nuthatches break nuts upon the trunks of trees older than our great-great-great… great grandfathers, or sea eagles plummeting through the canopies; imagine being able to appreciate the true honesty of a healthy and diverse natural woodland. That being said, tackling global warming clearly supersedes any desires we have to explore an enchanted wood or quell issues of liberty and equality. It’s not that liberty and equality are unimportant – far from it! It’s that when sacrifices are necessary, we mustn’t sacrifice our chances of escaping the event horizon of global warming.

I’m not entirely sure what Lister’s bigger plans are. I’m also undecided as to whether he yet deserves the title of philanthropist. But I do know that his rewilding projects are extremely commendable and serve to preserve something much greater than a mere walkway.

Quit rambling, ramblers.

A.C. Stark