Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

 

 

 

The next Joint Committee meeting will be held at our main office in Peterborough on Thursday 3 December.  If you would like to attend please .  The agenda includes papers on the recent developments in the European Union and the implications for Environment Policy; developing global and European post-2010 target and assessment frameworks; and the priorities for JNCC's work in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.  The JNCC Support Co board will also be meeting.  Papers for the Joint Committee meeting and the JNCC Support Co board are available online.

 

Prolonged periods of cold weather are stressful for over-wintering waterbirds, reducing feeding opportunities and increasing energy demands. At such times, normally benign levels of disturbance can be detrimental. For these reasons shooting organisations co-operate with statutory and voluntary conservation organisations to minimise disturbance. JNCC operates a national alerting system that identifies severe weather periods and allows temporary cessation of shooting and other disturbances.

 

Using biofuels as a partial replacement for fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel can save GHG emissions but their production can also have potentially negative environmental impacts. There is concern that the increasing use of biomass for biofuels will place yet another unwelcome pressure on global ecosystems. The use of Brazilian sugar and Asian palm oil has attracted attention to biofuels impacts in the tropical zone, particularly in tropical forests. A new JNCC report shows that the current UK biofuels consumption pattern, based on 90% imported fuels and a strong preference for biodiesel, is actually increasing pressures on temperate grasslands rather than tropical ecosystems.

 

As part of a wider review of JNCC’s work in support of UK conservation standards, there is now greater clarity as to our role in relation to the production of Red Lists. JNCC continues to recognise the merit in Red Lists, but its role will change to one of guidance and quality assurance assessment.

 

 

It is twenty years since the last International Rivers conference in the UK, which set the agenda for much progress. The 2010 conference is a chance to set a dynamic new agenda for the next decades.