permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4915022.stm>

        
Last Updated: Monday, 17 April 2006, 05:31 GMT 06:31 UK

'Woods and homes' green belt call
Countryside
Farmland should be turned into woods and housing, says report
More agricultural and green belt land should be reforested or turned into 
housing, a new report suggests.

A change in land use is proposed in the study Land Economy by the free market 
think-tank the Adam Smith Institute.

It says much of the UK's agricultural land, including land currently labelled 
as green belt, is not especially green.

A National Farmers Union (NFU) spokesman said he was unsure people would want swathes of country "covered in a mixture 
of concrete and forestry".

Mischa Balen, the author, said modern farming techniques turned land into monocultural wastelands that did not provide 
proper habitats for animals.

'950,000 houses'

Mr Balen called for a change in policy where some farms and green belt would 
be turned into housing and woodlands.

He said: "If some of these were converted to sympathetic development consisting of 90% woodland, including small lakes 
and rivers, and 5% each for housing and supporting infrastructure, each farm whose use was changed in this way would 
yield almost 200,000 square metres (2.15 million sq ft) of new woodland, together with 140 average sized new homes."

Mr Balen proposed that 3% of all farmland be converted using this system, which would create 950,000 new houses and 
130,000 hectares of woodland, which equated to about an 11% increase in the woodland cover of England and Wales.

        
The fields so barren of insect, bird and animal life, would be replaced by 
woods rich in biodiversity
Mischa Balen, report author

He said: "None of these new homes would be overlooked by existing houses. Rather, they would be nestled in among new 
woodland.

"Current homeowners would not face a view altered by new buildings. On the contrary, they would see the ugly monoculture 
fields replaced by natural woods, carefully planted to provide a mixture of different types of trees and undergrowth."

"The fields so barren of insect, bird and animal life, would be replaced by woods rich in biodiversity and providing a 
habitat for birds and small mammals."

The institute said the proposals were in keeping with Conservative Party leader David Cameron's recent remarks ahead of 
changes to planning policy.

'Pastoral landscape'

Mr Balen said current laws led to restrictive planning rules which stifled 
rural economic growth.

The report said it was crucial to protect the environment and make sure people could afford houses, and this proposal 
would achieve both.

NFU spokesman Anthony Gibson said: "The English countryside is essentially a pastoral landscape, that's what makes it 
special.

"I think we ignore the qualities that have given the English landscape the fame and the resonance that it has at our 
peril...

"I'm not sure that very many people would very much enjoy the prospect of seeing vast swaths of the countryside covered 
in a mixture of concrete and forestry."