Land Use

 

The European landscape is particularly varied, but is predominantly a result of a very long history of human interaction and modification and with very limited unmodified natural areas remaining. European society is therefore strongly linked into the landscapes that exist today, and to the ecosystem services that they supply. Hunters as both users of ecosystem services and in part managers of ecosystems are strongly linked to rural landscapes and as a result are significant stakeholders in rural land-use activities.

Whilst land-use activities are many and varied the hunting community is particularly concerned with the following:

• Infrastructure Development - in so far that continual development of infrastructure threatens habitats and habitat networks. This is particularly the case for species with large ranges (e.g. large carnivores) or those that depend on key sites (e.g. staging areas for migratory birds). To this end we strongly support the use of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA's) and Environmental Impact Assessments (E.I.A).



• Renewable Energy - there continues to be much debate regarding the role of renewable energy in meeting the needs of society without further exacerbating global warming and climate change. The position of FACE is that renewable energy certainly has a role in developing a low carbon society, but that it needs to be viewed as part of a package of measures and not the solution. The promotion and development of renewable energies should therefore be subject to means testing to ensure that the net effects are not negative in particular with regards to biodiversity.



• Agriculture - Over half the European land area is under agricultural management making agriculture a crucial component of the habitat management jigsaw that can be better utilised to conserve Europe's biodiversity.


• Forestry - the forestry sector is of great importance not only as a direct economic activity but also in providing vital ecosystem services. Hunters traditionally have close ties with the forestry sector as much hunting takes place in forest areas as part of well integrated sustainable forest management systems.