Here at CAT, teaching soil health assessment provides an opportunity for students in our Graduate School of the Environment to investigate the components of soil health and how these might be measured in the field. It introduces students to a range of soil indicators and, of course, provides an opportunity to get their hands dirty!

Soil health assessment forms a key part of our module ‘The Science of Sustainable Food Production’, which is offered to Graduate School students in several of our postgraduate degrees, particularly our Sustainable Food and Natural Resources MSc and Sustainability and Ecology MSc.

Why is the topic important?

Sustainable or regenerative agricultural practice is inevitably concerned with the condition of the soil.

Agriculture can be damaging to soils when soil structure is degraded through compaction or tillage, when nutrients are harvested without replacement, or when soil biodiversity is lost through excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers.

Given that 95% of our food comes from soils, the question of how we can produce food without degrading our soils is central to questions of food security and environmental protection.

Healthy soils are vital not only for providing an environment for crop growth, they also store carbon and purify water, are an essential component of healthy ecosystems, and help prevent flooding and drought.

What are the main aspects to consider?

Soils are a dynamic complex of mineral and organic material (living and dead). Describing and measuring their characteristics has been a preoccupation of soil scientists for many decades. As a result, there are many measures – or indicators – of soil quality that scientists and growers use.

To provide a user-friendly system of soil health assessment to farmers, researchers at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) reviewed 45 biological, chemical and physical indicators of soil health, ranging from measurements of key nutrients to calculations of pore space (very important for water availability and microbial life). They then narrowed the list down to nine measures to include on a ‘scorecard’ that farmers could easily use to track the state of their soil and assess the impact of different practices.

This scorecard provides us with an opportunity to engage students in a critical discussion of how and why we select indicators for environmental variables. Students then practice using some of these methods in the field.

What are the teaching methods?

When we teach students about soil health assessment, we practice three field methods to assess soil structure, biological activity and chemistry.

These involve a visual assessment of soil structure (known by the acronym VESS), earthworm counts, and pH testing. In addition, we use a ‘feel’ test to assess the soil texture: whether it is clay, loam, or sandy soil.

When teaching soil health assessment, students go out onto the CAT site and identify areas where they might expect to find different soil conditions. For example, in the CAT vegetable beds, under trees in woodlands, or in the wildflower meadow. This encourages them to think about the factors that influence soil development, and they then work through the various tests.

How do students use this learning?

Students use their increased knowledge about soil health indicators when they research and review farming and land use methods. For example, in our ‘Ecosystem Services’ module students conduct experiments on the impact of soil additives such as biochar on crop development.

These practical skills can also be used in their dissertations or if they take up roles in agriculture or as expert advisors.

One example of a CAT student who investigated soil health further in their dissertation was Ffion Thomas. Ffion’s dissertation title – ‘Does growing crops in soil amended with biochar reduce pest and pathogen damage and alter crop growth?’ – led to further research in the topic through a PhD. Ffion is now researching sustainable approaches to managing ash dieback disease using soil amendments such as biochar and exploring the role soil health plays in tree health, at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University.

More recently, MSc Sustainable Food and Natural Resources students have completed dissertations looking at the impact of winter cover crops on soil properties including analysing soil moisture and drought tolerance.

About the author

Dr Rebecca Kent is the Programme Leader of CAT’s MSc in Sustainable Food and Natural Resources. Rebecca previously studied soil erosion in Jamaica and more recently she has conducted research in the areas of rural development, food security and environmental management. She has taught at a number of UK universities.

Study with us

Find out more about CAT Masters degrees, join an upcoming on-site or virtual open day, and explore what funding might be available to you – visit our Graduate School web pages or contact Alis here or on +44 (0)1654 705953.

The post Why we teach… soil health assessment appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

‘Protecting our Planet 23’ will see 100,000+ school pupils taking part in livestreamed talks and activities, accompanied by recorded sessions and classroom resources, all full of information and inspiration on climate change, biodiversity loss, and how we can protect our incredible planet.

Sessions from CAT will look at the importance of forest ecosystems and how we can protect and restore forests and address climate change.

Professor Richard Lucas will lead live link-ups from CAT’s Living Wales Exhibition, joined online by researchers from around the world. From Welsh woodlands and Italian mountain forests to Australian mangroves and Malaysian tropical forests, we will explore the wonders of these amazing ecosystems, the impacts of human activities, the action being taken to secure a better future, and what more needs to be done.

The day also includes a live introduction from the RRS Sir David Attenborough polar research vessel team and a live session with Planet Earth III producers featuring stories from the current series.

Teachers, schools, home educators and families can all register to join the day – find out more and reserve your spot here: https://www.stem.org.uk/enrichment/protecting-our-planet-day

Find out more about CAT’s work with schools, including school visits to our eco centre and online workshops, at cat.org.uk/school-visits/

Protecting our Planet 23 is run by STEM Learning, an organisation that supports education in science, technology, engineering and maths.

The post CAT joins Protecting our Planet Day for schools appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

Ecological assessment is the measurement of the structure, quality and function of an ecosystem or, on a small scale, a habitat. It can involve measuring biodiversity (structure); a chemical variable, such as the concentration of a nutrient available in soil or water, or a metal contaminant (quality); or whether an ecosystem is effective in storing carbon or water to prevent flooding (function). Understanding these aspects is a key part of our MSc Sustainability and Ecology programme and also useful for students studying MSc Sustainable Food and Natural Resources.

Why is the topic important?

Ecological assessment is used in many aspects of natural resource management and to measure environmental change. It can establish academic information about an ecosystem, check adherence to policy and legislation relating to land management, and investigate whether management has had a desired impact on an ecosystem’s functioning or species diversity. For instance, when seeking to restore an ecosystem, how can we know if or when the work has been successful? What does a successful ecological restoration look like?

A current and growing practice is to pay a landowner to protect land. For example, a farmer might be paid to farm in environmentally sensitive ways. For payments to be linked to success, methods are needed to measure changing ecosystem variables. In the future, these measurements may be a defining aspect of how ecosystem protection is funded. This approach is called ‘payments for ecosystem services’ or PES. Underlying it is a need to be able to measure ecological health, and especially the ability of an ecosystem to provide services such as clean air, water, habitat for pollinators, or sequestering carbon.

An ecosystem that is intact and healthy provides value to the people who use or visit it, to people who value biodiversity itself, and to global-scale ecological health. We therefore need to be able to compare a healthy ecosystem with a degraded ecosystem on the same or a similar site. Ecological assessment is important for conservation and likely to lie at the heart of ecosystem protection approaches globally.

What are the main aspects to consider?

Ecosystems are complex interconnected webs of many organisms interacting via biogeochemical pathways. There are, therefore, a myriad of different ways an ecosystem can be assessed. Is the interest in biodiversity focused on the level of species, for instance asking how many different species there are? If so, are we interested in animal species? Insects? Microbes? Does identifying species even matter? Perhaps what the species ‘do’ matters more? Looking at the abundance of woody species, top predators, ecological engineers or microbial nitrogen-fixers, for example, could tell us more about the ecosystem and what is happening than merely making a list of species. Or, if looking at physico-chemical variables, there are literally thousands to choose from, and as many different ways to measure them. Measuring how well an ecosystem functions to provide services is similarly complex. How can we measure if an ecosystem cleans water, or is resilient to climate change, or makes people happy, for example?

One of the main challenges in ecological assessment methods is to know what we are aiming for and then to select methods that help us achieve that aim. These generally need to be simple, affordable and useable by ecologists all over the world with varied access to resources. But they also need to be reliable, so that they give answers about the ecosystem’s structure, function and health overall. This is the holy grail of finding ‘ecological indicators’.

What are the main teaching methods?

We begin by envisaging what a healthy ecosystem looks like, and what a damaged and degraded ecosystem might look like in comparison. We draw on academic research to support our discussions. We then focus on some commonly used and often globally relevant ecological assessment methods and get our hands dirty trying them out in the field. We sample invertebrates in the Dulas river at the bottom of the CAT site, carry out bird surveys in CAT’s woodland, Coed Gwern, and map habitat around the visitor centre.

While looking at the temperate aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems around CAT, we trial and critique methods that would be applicable to equivalent environments in tropical, dry Mediterranean or colder alpine environments. Our students joining us at distance, often from all over the globe, can also try these methods out and report back on their findings when we meet online.

Through this experiential learning, we can see which methods will require the ecologist to have specialist species identification skills or expensive scientific kit and which rely on a few easy-to-recognise species or physico-chemical characteristics. We also investigate which methods are multimetric, drawing on a range of species, chemical and physical information, and which are drawn from the understanding of local people and traditional ecological knowledge.

We then look to place our learning in wider contexts. At CAT, we like to ask the big questions to which there is no single answer. Is an ecosystem that appears healthy one that can withstand the pressures of climate change? How do we recognise, and value, an ecosystem that is resilient to disease? How do the results from local ecological assessment methods fit into global remote sensing and satellite image data on ecosystems? How do we incorporate the indigenous knowledge that local people have to enable a more holistic understanding? And what can we do with all this information?

After the module teaching period, the students work on their assignments. One of these is a consultancy-style report in which they assess a habitat of their choice, critique the ecological assessment methods they have chosen to use, and outline management recommendations for that site.

How do students use this learning?

Recent students have used the skills gained in this module when studying for their MSc dissertations, carrying out research into topics such as insect diversity in green roofs, bird communities related to the form of urban parks, and evaluating the probable success of seaweed bed restorations. Students have gone on to become advisers for Natural England, work with the National Trust, or become land managers for the Wildlife Trusts, as well as working for councils and environmental education providers. Others have gone on to further research towards a PhD, and have found that this hands-on experience, coupled with looking at the big picture, stands them in good stead for deeper study.

The issues covered in this module reflect a growing area of ecological assessment vital for the current EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and for UK policy such as the UK government’s Biodiversity Net Gain Initiative and new farm payments which may, or may not, come about through the new Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs). Preventing and mitigating the current global ecological collapse is going to take more students with hands-on ecological assessment skills, alongside big picture thinking and real-world problem solving.

About the author

Jane is Programme Leader for MSc Sustainability and Ecology and Sustainability and Behaviour Change, and developed the MSc Sustainable Food and Natural Resources programme. She has professional experience in developing ecological assessment methods to evaluate freshwater and wetland environments, a PhD in freshwater ecology, and has taught environmental science, biogeography and ecology at universities for over 15 years.

Study with us

Find out more about studying an MSc or MRes course at CAT, by joining an upcoming virtual open day on 28 April or an on-site open day on 19 May, before our application deadline on 31 May. Contact Alis to make an enquiry or call us on +44 (0)1654 705953

The post Why we teach… ecological assessment appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that without volunteers the Centre for Alternative Technology would not exist. The passion and hard graft of volunteers believing in an idea is how CAT was born. They came in many forms at the beginning – CAT was started by a group of committed volunteers, including engineers, architects, builders and growers, as well as those who were happy to volunteer with administration and fundraising.

Almost 50 years on, we still heavily rely on the support of dedicated volunteers – they are the glue that holds together all the moving parts. Generations of volunteers have created, shaped and enriched the site as we know it today.

My name is Dulcie, and I have the great pleasure of being the volunteer co-ordinator here at CAT.

I consider myself privileged to be in a role that has the responsibility of continuing and nurturing the volunteering legacy. It is a joy to meet and work alongside volunteers, sharing ideas and developing lasting relationships. I endeavour to build a sense of team and belonging to our volunteers, making sure they know they are valued for what they do and who they are, and that they have the opportunity to build their skills and knowledge by learning-by-doing alongside our experienced staff. Every individual brings with them unique talents, knowledge, spirit and an infectious energy that guides our work.

I started this role in the midst of the pandemic, which saw the world, and any volunteering opportunities, come to a grinding halt. Those months, when both staff and volunteers were forcibly absent, had an enormous impact on site. The bracken and brambles encroached, the tree nursery was lost in a jungle of hogweed, and a horde of Himalayan balsam descended on the meadow – not to mention the rogue sheep!

Last October, 18 months after the first lockdown, we were finally able to welcome residential volunteers back to CAT. Contributing to the upkeep of our gardens and woodlands and giving a helping hand in other key areas, these fantastic volunteers have been fundamental in getting us back on track. Not only has it been amazing to have extra hands again – the turbulence and social isolation of the last few years has made the presence and rapport of volunteers even more meaningful.

Most volunteers work with either our woodlands and water team or our gardens team. The woodlands and water team help to manage our woodlands, our off-grid water and sanitation systems and make improvements around site using our natural resources. We have 18 acres of sustainably managed woodland, so there is never a shortage of jobs to do!

Most recently, the team finished their bridge build, which involved a lot of problem solving, physical labour and, regrettably, soggy feet. This new bridge offers users of the woodland more accessibility and is much more visually pleasing than the previous structure.

Our meadow has also received a long overdue haircut: staff and volunteers have been scything the swathes of bracken, bramble and balsam that had begun to take over.

In the gardens, their green fingers have been kept busy with daily composting, harvesting for our café, and assisting with the ongoing maintenance and development of the display gardens.

The vibrancy and diversity of the gardens this summer was an incredible testament to the commitment of the gardening team. The site truly burst into life, captivating our visitors as well as providing pollinators with an abundance of pollen and nectar-rich plants. The team had to work especially hard this summer as the temperatures soared and numerous heatwaves rolled in. Consistent watering became more important than ever, but they did tremendously – I definitely didn’t envy them being in a polytunnel in 35 degree heat!

As the seasons shift, so do our primary tasks and responsibilities. The woodlands team have been preparing for the winter season by marking trees that need to felled or monitored. We leave a lot of deadwood in situ, as it’s a great source of nutrients and shelter for a wide range of species, but trees that overlook paths or parking spaces have to be carefully managed and sometimes removed.

Meanwhile, in the gardens, our leaf litter area is currently undergoing a revamp, ready to put all the freshly fallen autumn leaves to good use.  There is a cycle of life contained in leaf litter – although a little hard work is involved, these fallen leaves are valuable; they can be composted, making a rich organic mulch and soil improver, given a little time and encouragement.

A “life-changing” experience

“As a mid-life career changer, coming to live and work at CAT as a residential volunteer has indeed been life-changing. It’s helped me put down roots in a new part of the world after two decades in London, and I now plan to study here and develop a more nature-focused career. All the site staff and volunteers look out for each other, it’s almost like being part of an extended family. I’ve loved my time at CAT and am excited about what comes next.” Joe Downie, Woodland and Water volunteer (October 2021 – September 2022)

“CAT allowed me the space and time to disconnect and just be, but ultimately reconnect to nature and myself. My time volunteering gave me more clarity on where I wanted to go in life, but more importantly who I wanted to be. I’m forever grateful for the experiences I had and the people I met along the way. Diolch CAT…. for being a space of regeneration, of nature and the human spirit.” Julia Robertson, Woodland and Water volunteer (October 2021 – March 2022)

Find out more about volunteering

Volunteers built the foundations of CAT almost five decades ago, and they are still at the core today – our beating heart. We welcome you to join a great team, learn a variety of skills, forge new friendships and discover nature in unique ways. Our volunteers have gone on to various paths, including green woodworking, setting up community woodlands, forestry and further degree level study gravitating around conservation, gardening and sustainability.

If you’d like to join us and be an important part of CAT’s story, click here for more information about volunteering at CAT

The post Helping hands: volunteering at CAT appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

One of the last migrant birds to return after over-wintering in Africa, the Spotted Flycatcher (Latin name: Muscicapa striata, or Gwybedog Mannog in Welsh) arrives in late April or early May and can be seen across the UK through to September.

Here at CAT we spotted our first of the year on 17 May, closely followed by its cousin the Pied Flycatcher on 21 May. The adult birds quickly got to work building nests to rear their young. Rather unusually, this year we were able to keep an eye on two Spotted Flycatchers nests right in the middle of the CAT visitor centre. The external eves of an engineering workshop were the ideal spot for one nesting pair, and the other made their home above the door of our woodland workshop (which luckily has two doors, allowing us to use a different entrance once the female was sitting on her eggs).

An ideal home

In both cases, the nests were built near woodland edges, giving the adult birds the ideal conditions to be able to perch on a branch and then dart out with deadly accuracy into the clearing to catch some juicy winged insects. This is their main way of feeding, and makes them easy to spot despite their small size (about the same as a house sparrow) and “drab” appearance – well, this is how the guidebooks describe them, personally I think their speckled crown is rather beautiful.

In terms of habitat, the Spotted Flycatcher is one of many woodland birds which really does need the space provided by clearings within and between trees. In prehistoric times, such spaces would have been made by large mammals, such as elephants and wooly mammoths, crashing through the woodland, as well as by natural tree-fall. These days, with large woodland mammals now absent, creation and maintenance of broadleaf woodland glades and rides needs to be done sensitively, by humans (or by reintroduced mammals like bison) as part of a sustainable approach to woodland management that will have multiple benefits for wildlife as well as people. The birds are also found in wood pasture, and in many villages with suitable trees.

Going hungry

But back to those Spotted Flycatcher nests. Sadly, the woodland workshop nest failed, with the three chicks hatching but perishing just a few days before they were due to fledge. More happily, in the engineering workshop nest a successful brood of four chicks was raised over two weeks, fledging on 5 July.

The reason for the first nest failure is likely to be a lack of insects on the wing. Their main diet is flying insects, such as moths, butterflies, damselflies and craneflies. Wasps and bees are made safe to eat by rubbing the sting end on their perch to remove it. If the weather is bad, they can search trees and shrubs for other insects, but if poor weather persists many nests fail as these smaller invertebrates tend to be eaten by the parents rather than fed to the young. It’s possible this is what happened in our failed nest.

Certainly, our butterfly surveys so far this year, especially for early June, have suggested very low butterfly numbers overall. We experienced a very dry spring and then a cool and wet spell in late May and early June, which could have had an impact on insect abundance.

In our nearby woodland, Coed Gwern, it was a similar story for the Pied Flycatchers, where only around 20% of chicks fledged. Yet our swallow families, who have been busy since May making dozens of nests all over the CAT site, appear to have had a good breeding season, with some raising second broods. Unfortunately, the Spotted Flycatchers didn’t appear to try for a second time as we didn’t see them on site after early July.

Long term trends

As ever, it’s hard to draw definitive conclusions from one season, but that’s where longer term recording efforts come in. Sadly, the long-term picture isn’t looking good. Older birdwatchers might remember Spotted Flycatchers as common birds of UK gardens, parks and orchards, but a population decline of between 90 and 94% between 1967 and 2018 has set alarm bells ringing.

Due to the rapid decline, the bird is now a UK “Red List” species, which means it’s in big trouble, and needs our help (see box). As with many other migratory species, pinning down the exact reasons for the decline is very difficult. The decline may be due to a number of factors, including: habitat loss and lack of food in their African wintering grounds; difficulties on the migration route; a general fall in the abundance of insects; the changing climate (which underpins many of these factors); increased nest predation; and changes in, or decline of, woodland management in Britain.

A helping hand

To give them a helping hand in the face of these threats, the advice for woodland managers is to:

• Provide open nest boxes and/or half coconut shells in suitable woodland habitats;
• Retain ivy and other climbing plants to provide cover for natural nest sites;
• Create and maintain open woodland features such as glades and rides through selective felling and pruning, and prevent woodland becoming too dense;
• Encourage a diversity of structure within the field and shrub layers, through control of grazing levels (e.g. by deer) to encourage an increase in insects and food availability whatever the weather.

Such measures may also help other woodland birds that are struggling, and give a boost to woodland biodiversity more generally. Here at CAT we manage our woodlands with a nature-first approach, and we provide advice and training to help others to do the same. In gardens, meanwhile, we can help all birds by gardening in ways that support insect life, without the use of harmful chemicals, growing plants that will provide seeds and berries, and creating nesting spaces with hedges, shrubs and nest boxes.

The Spotted Flycatcher is just one of 70 bird species on the UK Red List, accounting for around one in three UK bird species and nearly double the number that were on the list 25 years ago. Also on the list are other species found in the CAT woodlands such at Willow Tit and Woodcock, and species familiar to us all, such as Swift, House Sparrow and Starling. Urgent action on climate change and habitat loss is needed to help them back from the brink, but action at a more local level to provide food, water and shelter can make a big difference for struggling birds. We hope that by managing our woodlands and gardens in ways that support these magical creatures, we’ll be providing a summer residence for Spotted Flycatchers for many years to come, whilst inspiring many more people to do what they can to support wildlife in woodlands, gardens and green spaces across the UK.

What do we mean by a ‘Red List species’?

Red Lists are globally recognised as a way of identifying the level of threat faced by different species on a national, regional and global level, and are an important tool in bringing attention to areas of concern.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List was created in 1964 through a collaboration of worldwide government agencies, conservation organisations, universities, museums, and other members. Categories span a continuum from ‘Least Concern’ for abundant and thriving species to ‘Critically Endangered’ for those that are likely to
disappear in the near future. A Red List species is anything that is assessed to be Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable.

In the UK, ‘Birds of Conservation Concern’, commonly known as the ‘UK Red List for birds’ is produced by experts from the number of conservation organisations, and is updated roughly every six years. It assesses 245 species with breeding, passage or wintering populations in the UK, designating each as Red, Amber or Green. Birds can be added to the Red List for a number of reasons, including being threatened with global extinction, undergoing severe population decline in the UK, or seeing severe contraction of Chicks being fed at one of the CAT nesting sites (photograph taken from their UK breeding range. a distance with zoom so as not to disturb the nest site).

About the author

Joe is one of our long-term residential volunteers, helping with woodland and other habitat management on the main CAT site and in our neighbouring woodlands. He has a background in environmental campaigning, and is a keen walker, runner, cyclist and (bad) birder.

References available on request

The post Nesting Spots appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

Swifts lift our spirits. Their prehistoric look, incredible aerial acrobatics, unmistakable screeching and mysterious “life on the wing” adds up to create one of the most alluring of all birds.

They are the fastest bird in level flight, reaching speeds of almost 70mph. They are also among the more well-travelled: an average bird might fly 4 million miles in its five-year lifetime.

Swifts bring joy! A raucous “screaming party” zooming above our heads is perhaps the most thrilling urban nature experience of the British summer. Because they live alongside us, and nest in the nooks and crannies of buildings (in place of the now much harder to find nooks and crannies in ancient trees), they are a species that we are more able to give a helping hand to.

And this is a species which really does need our help. Like many migratory birds, the Common Swift (Gwennol Ddu in Welsh) is in big trouble. Swift numbers have crashed in recent years, with a 58% decrease since 1995 across the UK, and a whopping 72% drop here in Wales.

In common with many migrating birds, each year their perilous journey gets harder, with fewer individuals successfully making it. Climate change is thought to be playing a role, with unreliable conditions and extreme weather events becoming more common, leading to exhaustion and birds finding it harder to get their timing right. Neither are they helped by the plummeting numbers of insects and habitat loss.

For Swifts, another major challenge is our changing housing stock, with our older buildings being replaced by new homes and office blocks, which leave little space or opportunity for them to nest. Thankfully, help is coming! There are now more than 100 community groups across the UK dedicated to giving Swifts a helping hand. Here in Mid Wales, The Dyfi Biosphere Swift Project has recently been established. This is a new partnership between wildlife lovers, volunteers and carpenters, supported by local organisation Ecodyfi.

As well as educating people about these amazing birds, the project is also installing Swift boxes on suitable buildings, giving the birds a hand with the vital business of raising a successful
brood.

To date, almost 100 boxes have been built and installed. Here at CAT, two boxes have recently been put up by local Swift Project volunteer Elfyn, along with a “Swift caller” which plays the sounds of screaming Swifts through a speaker every evening, when the chance of attracting other passing Swifts is highest.

There’s never a bad time to install a Swift box. If you put one up now, there’s a chance that it will be inspected by juvenile Swifts before they leave for Africa, with an eye on using it next year. Swifts remember.

I’ve been volunteering in the Woodlands team at CAT for the past six months, and getting involved in this project has been really exciting, as we’re always looking at ways to boost biodiversity and give nature a helping hand.

So we’re crossing everything that Swifts take up residency here at CAT, to complement our large community of Barn Swallows, which love swooping down from under the beams of the water balanced railway’s Top Station.

Swifts are site-faithful, so we hope that if they nest here, they’ll come back year after year, and we’ll all be able to enjoy their screaming, somersaulting fly-pasts for years to come.

About the author

Joe is a one of our long-term residential volunteers, helping with woodland and other habitat management on the main CAT site and in our neighbouring woodlands, Coed Gwern. He has a background in environmental campaigning, working most recently as social media manager at Friends of the Earth, and is a keen walker, runner, cyclist and (bad) birder.

The post Somersaulting sky-divers appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

CAT has recently been part of a collaborative partnership with Aberystwyth University through a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project called ‘Discipline Hopping’. This project has seen five eminent poets from the university being immersed in life at CAT, with a view to understanding more about the climate and biodiversity emergencies and translating what they learn into a series of poems.

Activities have included: three immersive tours of the CAT site, focusing on biodiversity and water; a practical building workshop, in which the poets learned to make earth bricks; attendance at lectures delivered by staff from our Graduate School of the Environment; and a bespoke Zero Carbon Britain training session.

Following this, through facilitated deep-dive conversations, the poets explored their interests and identified specific areas that they would focus on for their poetry. Through one-to-one conversations with CAT’s experts in those areas, they explored the topics in greater depth and expanded their knowledge and understanding.

On 7 April, the poets delivered a poetry recital to students and staff at CAT. Next, the poems will be displayed at our visitor centre and we hope to create a book of the poems.

We would like to express our thanks to all the poets – Professor Matthew Jarvis, Professor Mererid Hopwood, Mr Eurig Salisbury, Dr Hywel Griffiths, and Dr Gavin Goodwin – for embracing this work with such vigour and passion and then sharing the results with us.

Mererid Hopwood is one of the poets taking part in the project. Here are some words from her on the experience.

“Stepping into the CAT courtyard that morning in February, the senses were on high alert. Sounds, in particular, were demanding attention. The wind carried invisible rain, the clouds invisible fighterjet-planes and the streams ran over their own invisible banks. It’s well-known that we use ‘clywed’, our Welsh word for ‘to hear’, when we sense touch, taste and smell as well as sound. Perhaps it’s little wonder then, that what I heard, and didn’t hear, on that visit is what has stayed with me more than anything.

The discussion with the CAT team as we ‘hopped’ between the disciplines of literature and alternative technology, was, I feel sure, a rich prelude. There is much more to share and to learn. I think we all felt that. It has led me to a half poem about the ‘clawdd’, that vibrant place between two fields. But until that’s ready, here’s an englyn from our first visit. It suggests how we might recall the summer to the earth and the plants to life by giving them back their native names.

Mererid Hopwood is one of the poets taking part in the project. Here are some words from her on the experience.

A’u hen enwau dihunaf – dawelwch

y dail nes y’u clywaf,

a’u galw hyd nes gwelaf

yn y tir hwn eto’r haf.

Diolch o galon am gael bod yn rhan o gynllun mor gyffrous.

[Thank you so much for being part of such an exciting scheme.]”

Mererid

The post Finding poetry in climate solutions appeared first on Centre for Alternative Technology.

– Originally published in CAT’s members’ magazine, Clean Slate, spring 2022 –

After all the buzz around COP26 in November, you could be forgiven for thinking we’re taking a trip back in time to a previous conference. But we’re referring to a future COP15 – this one focused on biodiversity. COP15 was scheduled to be held in Kunming, China, in October 2020, but just like its climate cousin, it was delayed due to the pandemic. The meeting, where countries hope to agree on a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, is now expected to take place later this year.

Targets for nature protection

There are three main targets for the 196 countries attending the summit to agree on. The first is protecting 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030. Some of the big points of disagreement will likely surround where these protected areas are located, who funds them, and how ecologically intact the areas must be (for example, how much of the original species richness does the ecosystem contain, or how fragmented and degraded is the habitat).

Secondly, there is a finance target. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is looking for a $200 billion increase in international funds from all sources. This would help fund conservation work and generate security for protected areas, helping ensure they can be policed. Extra funding may also come from the third big commitment – to redirect or reform financial incentives that currently enable and contribute to practices harmful to biodiversity. This includes subsidies for intensive agriculture, deforestation, and fossil fuel extraction.

There is also mention of a target for reductions in invasive non-native species, reductions in pollution from pesticides, fertilisers, and plastics, and the contribution of nature-based solutions to fighting climate change.

Historic failures

The Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) was signed by 196 countries (not including the US, which never ratified the treaty and will not be part of the negotiations) in 1992, the first global treaty for protecting wildlife and nature. As with the climate, countries have fallen far short of their targets for 2010 and 2020, as downwards trends for most species continue at pace, with a 2019 study showing one in nine species globally at risk of extinction this century.

Most of the biggest drivers for biodiversity loss cannot be tackled at a national scale. Pollution, invasive species, and the factors that lead to habitat loss (for example, overconsumption) are global issues. Between 2010 and 2020, some countries developed strategies for meeting targets to prevent the loss of biodiversity, but they didn’t have time to act on them before the 2020 deadline. Now, 192 countries have such strategies, so they should be able to work much faster to implement them and work to their targets to protect habitats and species going forwards.

COP15 and the climate emergency – interview with Scott Leatham

Dr Scott Leatham is a political ecologist and senior lecturer and tutor at CAT’s Graduate School of the Environment. He focuses on issues of human-nature relations and how we represent and know about nature and environments in different contexts, and through themes like justice, representation and exclusion. We asked Scott what he thought about the upcoming COP15 conference and how it relates to the climate emergency.

How will this meeting link to COP26 and action on climate change?

We’re likely to see a lot more talk about nature-based solutions. This is one of those terms used so often by so many diverse actors that it’s hard to pin down any consistent definition or rulebook. It has spawned new academic debate (even its own academic journal launching late last year), with debates raging on effectiveness, governance, and justice. On paper, it may sound great: restore nature, protect it, and reap the carbon-storage (and other) benefits of afforestation, peatlands, kelp forests, and seabed restoration. We’ve covered the possible (and currently existing) pitfalls of overreliance on this in previous articles.

Despite the knowledge gaps and uncertainties, nature-based solutions were extensively covered throughout COP26, from country plinths offering little beside tree planting to headline-grabbing pledges on reforestation. China, the host of the biodiversity COP15, has already argued for increasing nature-based solutions in talks at Kunming.

Despite knowledge and governance gaps, there’s good reason to welcome the realisation that the climate and ecological emergencies are deeply interconnected. As well as the multiple, complex feedback loops and connections between climate change and nature loss, they share common causes and require similar transformations of entire systems to begin addressing the problem. The kinds of changes we have to make to the global economy, to livelihoods, to how we move around, and so on, in order to stay within 1.5°C warming by 2100 will also benefit our fight against ecological collapse.

What lessons should be learnt from COP26?

One key argument made by civil society alliances, such as the COP26 Coalition, which CAT is a part of, was that COP26 was among the least inclusive of all previous COPs. This meant that vital perspectives were missing from the official process. As we look to COP15, it’s crucial that a much more diverse range of voices are heard.

Indigenous groups and alliances – a large, globally-spread network representing roughly 80% of the world’s biodiversity as well as threatened ways of life – point to the ongoing displacement in such territories as a result of corporate and state-driven land grabs in the name of nature-based solutions. If the need for land sovereignty continues to be ignored, then big agendas for protecting 30% of the world’s land by 2030 (and even bigger, the so-called Earth 50 plan of turning half the world into a protected area) risk erasing these histories, knowledges, and people.

Without land sovereignty and rights enshrined and protected for marginalised groups, we further risk the world’s remaining biodiversity hotspots. We also risk losing local knowledges that deserve to survive in their own right, as well as for the lessons they offer about living in harmony with nature.

What alternatives are there?

The facts are stark: we have entered a sixth mass extinction – an event that humans have not experienced before. The last global framework, the Aichi targets, failed on every one of the 20 targets.

Already in 2022, we’ve had a key piece of the planetary sustainability puzzle filled in, as researchers updated the Planetary Boundaries Framework with what’s called the ‘novel entities’ boundary. The framework tracks nine planetary boundaries, any one of which – if exceeded – could lead to the Earth entering a ‘new state’. This year, novel entities (a big part of which is plastic pollution) was revealed to have joined biosphere integrity and biogeochemical boundaries as already far exceeding safe limits. We are beyond looking at these boundaries, which includes climate change, as separate issues that are manageable individually. What we’re left with, though, is cause for hope: the causes and consequences of this mass extinction are systemic – we must respond in kind.

COP15 has to move beyond the idea that we can protect nature as a separate entity – something outside of us. Calls for restoring “wilderness” as a place “out there” reject our own wildernesses. We are inseparably a part of nature and capable of living in and within it; not as a tourist destination but inextricably as a part of our lives – from our cities to our agriculture.

Often, it is not about creating something new but listening to what’s already being done. What some researchers have called ‘convivial conservation’ is a way of transcending stale arguments in conservation about protected areas and commoditising nature. It brings together research institutes from around the world, including at the University of Sheffield in the UK, with local knowledges and implementations. The shift is already happening.

As with COP26, large governance mechanisms have fallen far short in terms of biodiversity protection. But the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has already called for the ‘transformation’ of our economic systems – we need to ensure this is not just empty words. We are decades beyond being able to simply tinker with economic systems with their built-in injustices and insatiable growth. It is long past time to imagine something better, and that is what world leaders must do at COP15.

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Members of the departments of Welsh and Celtic Studies, English and Creative Writing, and Geography and Earth Sciences will be working with our Zero Carbon Britain team to compose poems that address climate solutions and the challenges we face in tackling climate change. The poets will use our Zero Carbon Britain research, practice and training for inspiration and to help them communicate issues around the climate emergency.

The poems will be in both Welsh and English, and will be displayed at our eco centre for visitors to read, before being exhibited at Aberystwyth University.

Dr Anna Bullen from our Zero Carbon Britain team, said:  “Our mission at CAT is to inspire, inform and enable humanity to respond to the climate and biodiversity emergency. Gaining new insight into the challenges and the potential for using creative practice as part of the zero carbon dialogue will inform our efforts to effectively communicate environmental solutions to the wider public.”

Professor Matthew Jarvis from the Department of English and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University said:  “Through training, lectures, and dialogue with staff at the Centre for Alternative Technology, we’ll study practical responses to a sustainable future through issues such as biodiversity, renewables, and sustainable building; we’ll learn about the significance of net zero goals to planning environmental solutions to the climate crisis; and we’ll consider what a zero-carbon life would be like.

“We’ll  then deploy this knowledge to produce poetry which explores the issues involved and which hopefully sparks a wider understanding of the concept of zero carbon for readers.”

The poets collaborating on the project are Professor Mererid Hopwood and Eurig Salisbury from the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies, Professor Matthew Jarvis and Dr Gavin Goodwin from the Department of English and Creative Writing, and Dr Hywel Griffiths from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.

The Natural Environment Research Council have allocated funding to Aberystwyth University through their Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions fund, and this will support the project. This funding supports academics and researchers to work across disciplinary boundaries and, in doing so, to develop an understanding of different research perspectives and methodologies that could be used to address environmental challenges.

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Ro Randall is co-founder of the Carbon Conversations project, a founding member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, and currently works with her local group, Cambridge Climate Therapists.

I first came to CAT in 1984. I was helping deliver a course on co-operative ways of working and Pete Raine, who was director at the time, walked me through the tunnel into the old quarry. It was nothing but grey, bare slate, and it was eerily silent: no birds, no rustling wind amongst leaves, no crack of twigs underfoot. Our voices echoed off the rock.

‘Come back in thirty years,’ he said, ‘and all this will be green.’ He pointed out the first, tentative signs of growth – a lichen establishing here, a tiny tree struggling to establish itself in a crack of rock – the signs of life that I had missed.

I found it hard to believe, but of course I did come back. Recently, exploring the Quarry Trail, I looked down through the abundance of leaves and trees, watched the kites soaring overhead, and thought about his confidence that desolation could be recovered from.

In moments of despair and exhaustion, when leadership has been lacking, and our voices have been ignored, it’s easy to imagine that we have no power, to feel that we can have no effect, and see nothing but isolation. In the aftermath of COP26, with all the anger and disappointment that is flowing through the environmental movement, I’m reminded of Pete Raine’s confidence, his faith in change, renewal, and growth, and how important this is. CAT is one of the places that, for me, embodies that confidence in change.

In my own work with Cambridge Climate Therapists, we are working on ways of supporting our local community in the difficult times we find ourselves in: listening to the fear and despair, finding the points of growth, nurturing the collective actions that are needed. CAT is one of the big strong trees in the eco-system of the environmental movement and I remain grateful for its shelter, its connections, its persistence, and its inspiration.

Ro Randall delivered a CAT webinar and wrote a guest blog on coping with the climate crisis. You can watch a recording of the webinar here and read the blog here. If you’ve got a CAT story you’d like to share with us, please get in touch media@cat.org.uk.

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