Haymaking Chagfarm Dartmoor © Chris Chapman 2019 (1) After the last 12 months, let’s look for positives. Has the pandemic helped us develop effective ways to conserve nature and engage people with the natural world? Perhaps a growing movement of wildflower meadow-makers in Devon, using the umbrella name ‘More Meadows’ has achieved this, with a […]
Author Archive | milesking
guest blog by Trevor Parsons: The power of Nature Photography.
Nature and photography mean so much to me, you see it was what got me through my second mental breakdown, it gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning. My last breakdown was 2013/2014. When you’re going through a breakdown, there’s no off switch in your head. What I found when […]
National Meadow Day: Poundbury Wildflower Meadows
It’s National Meadows Day today and People Need Nature is celebrating with news of a project on which we working, in partnership with the Duchy of Cornwall, at their Poundbury development in Dorset. Poundbury Great Field is a large open space on the boundary where the new development at Poundbury meets the existing edge of […]
Nature can help us through these dark times: guest blog by Matthew Shaw
This morning I woke up very early, we had a family birthday to celebrate, and there are still things worth celebrating. Not that it felt that way before the dawn. Especially not if you looked at the news, listened to the radio or opened a news app. A few hours later, I found myself sitting […]
PNN Annual Report 2018/19
One of the things about having Charitable Status is that the law requires all charities (or rather, strictly speaking, Charitable incorporated Organisations – which is the legal structure that PNN chose when it was founded) to produce an Annual Report and accounts. Some Charities just publish their accounts and a very brief summary (or even […]
National Meadows Day 2019
For National Meadows day we are releasing this short film inspired by our meadow soundscape. Please take a look.
Farmland Tax report published
Farmland Tax Breaks revealed. Today People Need Nature publishes its latest report, investigating the tax system and how it affects farmland. “Where there’s muck there’s brass: revealing the billions hidden in farmland tax shelters” lays out the many, varied, and some frankly bizarre tax breaks available to farmers and landowners. And we argue that these […]
St. Boniface, Avatar and West Ham United – in the realm of sacred trees
It’s not often that a giant magical tree stars in a Hollywood mega blockbuster film. And what could possibly connect it to a key story in the transformation of Northern Europe from pagan-worshippers to Christians? These are the kinds of thoughts which wash around my brain after an invigorating mental workout at the Oxford Real […]
Some thoughts on the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2019
Natural Capital debate cartoon by Rebecca Roberts @envirovisuals Last week’s 10th Oxford Real Farming Conference was bigger than ever, with over a thousand delegates attending – and nearly as many again, on the waiting list for returned tickets. The conference was spread over even more venues this year, to cater for the extra people, and […]
Looking after farmers as well as the land : Guest blog by Heidi Saxby
By milesking on August 8, 2018 in Agriculture, Guest blog, mental health benefits of nature, Public policy
I recently read a fascinating paper exploring how farmers gain personal benefits to their wellbeing, from taking part in projects which help wildlife on farms – in this case a project to help conserve rare cornfield wildflowers in North Yorkshire. I contacted the author Heidi Saxby, and this is a blog she has written on […]