CONSERVATION BUZZ WORDS

Ecosystem services’ is one of those buzz phrases so popular these days amongst ‘stake holders’ or ‘decision
makers’. I for one cannot escape the feeling of lèise majesté to have the natural world reduced in this way. It becomes a balance sheet entry. As distasteful as it feels we may just have to accept it as the best and surest
route to the preservation of the natural world we have left. The connection we have to nature is becoming weaker just as our 4G becomes stronger. It doesn’t have to be this way though. Anyone who has stood on an Anglian evening waiting for the chance of a duck and listened to the reeds’ attempt to talk to the listening sky will know the deep sense of spiritual connection that can be found. The irony is that we are really only now acknowledging the mental and physical health benefits and cost savings to the NHS that time spent in the natural world brings. This was brought home to me in conversation with my father, a passionate gundog trainer and shooting man. As a GP, if his patients wanted to see him in winter, I joked, they would have to go beating or picking up. Not missing a beat he replied that his patients that go beating and picking up don’t need to see him because they are fit and active. They also have their own support system of others in the close knit shooting community. If one of the regulars unexpectedly fails to show up for a days’ shooting its acted upon.

As much as the phrases used to prove the worth of our environment and way of life lack any kind of subtlety,
the benefits we are trying to preserve are sometimes so subtle they could easily be missed.

First published in the Eastern Daily Press. APR 2018