Call for farming unions to join ‘Summit to Sea’ project as Rewilding Britain pulls out

“We have learned some invaluable lessons about how to do this in the most effective way, which we are committed to putting into practice elsewhere.”

Cllr Vaughan, who also chairs local anti-rewilding group Copa (Cymunedau Oll Pumlumon a’r Ardal), told Farmers Guardian the group’s withdrawal was a victory in the sense that the project leaders were finally listening to local people, but he pledged to carry on fighting for greater control over the plans.

“This is not the end of the story,” he said.

Local ownership

“We will be pursuing to get local ownership over this project, because Rewilding Britain is only one of the partners.

“There are seven left, at the moment. They should bring in both local county councils, Mentrau Iaith, which is a Welsh language community organisation, and both farming unions as partners. That is what we want.

“There is this £3.4m pot of money, and they say they want it to reflect all of society, but only a small group of large organisations manage it at the moment.”

As of October 21, the project was led by seven partners, including the Woodland Trust, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Marine Conservation Society, PLAS Marine Special Area of Conservation, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and WWF.