From a long history to a sustainable future

A combination of history, modern science and childhood memories, can provide important insight into how we can work towards a more sustainable future.  This mixture of information is also a great way of raising the awareness of non-farming residents about issues associated with land use and their own role in a sustainable future.  These conclusions come from our four year project carried out in the Leicestershire Eye Brook catchment.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Project research and demonstration farm sits in the central section of the Eye Brook catchment. The farm has become widely respected for its research into the integration of profitable farming with environmental objectives, such as wildlife conservation and water quality, carried out at the site since 1992. The research has accumulated hard facts about the relationship between land use and the environment that sustains us, and it is this science that forms one of the essential components of the Eye Brook project.

But the importance of this project is that science is not the only focus, it has involved the views and expertise of people from a great diversity of backgrounds. Alongside a variety of scientists from universities nationwide, we have had insight from farmers and other workers, local naturalists and even historians. It’s therefore been an interesting learning experience for everyone involved.

Local knowledge has been a valuable source of information. Childhood memories of life in the 1930s and ‘40s proved to be particularly poignant.  This was a time in which there was a rapid transition from a mainly localised economy to the fossil fuel based society with which we are all familiar today.  It has been enlightening to capture the accounts of those who were in at the start. We have also explored the longer term history of life in the catchment.  There has been a lot of change, a counter to those who insist that they live in a timeless landscape in which nothing must change. With the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund we’ve written a book ‘Exploring a Productive landscape: from a long history to a sustainable future in the Eye Brook catchment’. The book focuses on the history and wildlife of a farmed landscape and how the context is topical and relevant to future policy and research.

From the 1880s when a quarter of the rural community was engaged in farming, the equivalent figure in 2011 is less than 2%. With climate change and food security both pressing concerns, this is worrying statistic. There has never been a more crucial time for us to understand the land on which we depend, yet it seems there has also never been a time when we have been more isolated from it.

Dr Chris Stoate is Head of Research at the Allerton Project

If you want to find out more, visit the Allerton Project website