Press Release (BA) The Challenge of Climate Change in our National Parks and The Broads

A hotter and wetter world with more flooding and major changes in our landscape and wildlife is the prospect to be discussed at the National Parks Societies Annual Conference to be held at How Hill Study Centre, Ludham from September 20-22nd.

About 40 delegates from England and Wales will be attending the conference which is being hosted by the Broads Society and sponsored by Shell UK Exploration.

At the end of the conference on Sunday, Brian Blessed, President of the Council for National Parks, the umbrella body for the National Park societies, will be taken by members of the Broads Society and Dr John Packman, Chief Executive of the Broads Authority, to see sites in the Broads.

The conference will be addressed by the following speakers:-

Dr Mike Hulme, Executive Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UEA, will say that we face a future of more rapid change ahead. But not everything is determined and choices made during the next few years could greatly alter the rate at which future changes occur. Using the latest UK climate change scenarios prepared for the government, Dr Hulme will illustrate the range of changes which the UK is likely to have to contend with during the next 100 years.

Professor Martin Parry, of the School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, will say that climate change is likely to lead to important alterations, not only in the way we manage our farm land, but in the semi natural vegetation which clothes our national parks. This will affect the landscape of the parks, and also their accessibility, for example, in places where the pattern of cropping becomes more or less intensive.

Dr Michael Green, The Broads Authority’s Director of Research and Strategy, will say that the Broads, with its internationally important natural and cultural heritage is arguably among those landscapes in the UK most threatened by climate change. Impacts on the freshwater system, biodiversity, land use within the catchment, and tourism will be considered and their policy implications identified.

Dr Tim O’Riordan, from the School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, will claim that mankind has the power to create the climate of the globe in fifty years time.

“If we choose to act as trustees of the planet we can switch to becoming a low carbon society,” he will say.

This would mean giving up mobility with the car and plane and costing carbon as a commodity which we have to buy and sell before we use it.

“It will require a spiritual rebirth with the destiny of the planet. And it will require huge faith in the science and the accuracy of visions we create to allow us all to see what we could avoid in the same of planetary stewardship.”

The guest speaker, Chairman of the Broads Authority, Lady Knollys, will urge those involved in the management of our National Parks to embrace the concepts discussed at the Johannesburg Summit and have the courage to strike out in new directions to move towards sustainability by trying things out.

“We, the national park movement, have a responsibility to carry the Johannesbury legacy into our national park values and practices,” she says “We must not lose sight that the national park also stands for contemplative tranquillity… And when people experience it they will recognise the joy of their own responsibility for carrying the Johannesburg message beyond this generation and into all generations to come.”

On Sunday, a session chaired by Bryan Read, President of the Broads Society, will be addressed by Professor Peter Smith, Vice President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He will say that the government has acknowledged the future of energy will involve much greater use of natural assets including various forms of renewable energy. This will have particular implications for buildings in sensitive areas such as the National Parks.

Afterwards, Ruth Chambers, Deputy Director of the Council of National Parks, will lead a general discussion among the delegates. The conference will be opened on Friday by Dr Martin George, Chairman of the Broads Society, with an illustrated talk about the Broads.