Unwanted fish are being dumped back into the sea despite new EU laws designed to stop waste, an investigation has found.

Under the recently established laws, fishermen are no longer supposed to “discard” fish when they catch more than their quota allows.

The campaign was brought to the fore by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who argued that the EU’s quota system meant fishermen were compelled to discard fish that were too young, overfished or species for which they did not have a quota.

Fit

The UN Agriculture Organisation estimated that 13 percent of all catches were being thrown back every year, amounting to 1.3 million tons of fish.

The new laws mean fishermen have to bring species covered by EU quotas back to shore.

But BBC Inside Out South West has unearthed video evidence that fishermen are still discarding fish.

Crews say the laws are complicated and that they could still be prosecuted, fined or banned from fishing if their hauls take them over their agreed quotas on certain species.

A spokesman for government department Defra said they would look to create a policy that is “fit for purpose” after leaving the EU.

Implemented

Steve Walker, a fisherman from Plymouth, told the BBC: “I can’t risk going to sea and catching that particular species if I’m going to get prosecuted.

“If it’s going to affect my business then I’m not going to bring it in because I cannot afford not to go to sea.

“And if it means I have to throw away six of seven fish then I’m going to do that because I’ve got to survive.”

Under the new laws, more fish should have been brought into ports. But since the new rules were fully implemented this January, only 28 tonnes of discards have been landed in the UK.

The Government expected a much larger figure.

Sustainable

However, some fishing industry leaders say new-style nets are reducing the number of unwanted fish being caught.

A Defra spokesman said: “We are fully committed to sustainable fishing, including ending the wasteful discarding of fish.

“However, we are also aware of the challenges posed to industry by the landing obligation, and are continuing to work with industry to address this issue.

“After we leave the EU, we will be able to develop a discard policy that is fit for purpose.

“Our landmark Fisheries Bill will give us new powers to create charging schemes to encourage more sustainable fishing practices, making sure we have a sustainable and profitable fishing industry for the benefit of both our fishermen and the health of life in our seas.”

This Author

Rod Minchin is a reporter with PA. The investigation will feature on Inside Out South West on Monday September 2 at 7.30pm.

South Africa celebrates Arbor month in September each year. It’s a month to focus on tree planting across the nation.

This September, local NGO Greenpop is launching a bold new tree planting goal in response to the recently released studies showing that tree planting is the best way to mitigate climate change.

Greenpop aims to plant 500,000 trees by 2025. 

Tree restoration

This Arbor month, help Greenpop launch this new goal. In the month of September 2019, they want to set their bold new goal in motion and raise 10 000 trees in 30 days.

Since 2010, Greenpop has planted trees and worked on environmental projects across sub-Saharan Africa. They have planted just over 115 000 trees in the last nine years in urban greening, reforestation and conservation agriculture projects.

Greenpop’s focus has been on connecting people with the planet, engaging communities and inspiring environmental stewards.

On 28 March 2019, speakers at the General Assembly High-Level Meeting of the United Nations warned that we only have eleven years left to prevent irreversible damage from climate change.

In addition, a recent study, published in the journal Science, entitled, The global tree restoration potential, stated: “[This research] highlights global tree restoration as our most effective climate change solution to date… Our results highlight the opportunity of climate change mitigation through global tree restoration but also the urgent need for action.”

Developing skills

In response to the study, Damian Carrington wrote in The Guardian: “Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas.”

Prof Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zürich, who led the research intro tree restoration said: “This new quantitative evaluation shows [forest] restoration isn’t just one of our climate change solutions, it is overwhelmingly the top one.”

In response to the above news, Greenpop aims to dramatically increase its tree planting over the next five years, with a bold new goal of 500 000 trees by 2025.

While this number is not large when compared to other organisations globally, Greenpop is committed to a holistic, contextually relevant approach which includes a strong focus on skills development and training for the communities that are the custodians for the trees, and robust monitoring and evaluation.

Restore ecosystems

Zoe Gauld-Angelucci, Greenpop Head of Programmes, said: “The drivers of forest degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa are multiple and compounding. From unregulated logging (often by foreign companies) to clearing for cash crops, to overuse of trees for fuel, human activity is putting increasing and devastating pressure on forest ecosystems.

For this reason, Greenpop’s Collaborative Reforestation programme seeks not only to restore forest ecosystems through planting trees but also to provide additional interventions which address these contextual drivers.

By providing training in practices such as alternative livelihoods, woodlot management, and farmer-managed natural regeneration, alongside reforestation, our programme aims to decrease pressure on stressed ecosystems while assisting in accelerating their recovery.”

In addition to the obvious benefit of carbon sequestration through mass tree planting, forest restoration has the potential to restore our ecosystems, to improve the integrity of our soil, and to improve our water quality and quantity by supporting the hydrological cycle”

Collective action

Misha Teasdale, CEO of Greenpop, said: “We don’t have time to wait. Individuals, organisations, companies, and governments must take action. We have an opportunity now.

“There is a window to actively do something that can change the course of our existence. We can make history or let our inaction decide for us. We need to have a profound conversation outside of the old economic thinking.

“We need to talk and act on achieving a civilization that is in harmony with ecological systems. This year, the United Nations General Assembly announced that the next decade will be dedicated to the restoration of planetary ecosystem function. The time has come.”

It is clear that the time for waiting is over, and the time to take collective action has arrived.  We need to put pressure on world leaders to meet emission targets, we need to demand that financial institutions divest from fossil fuels, we need to hold businesses accountable for their impact, and we need to restore ecosystems.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Greenpop. This Arbor Month, help Greenpop launch its new goal. In the month of September 2019, they want to set their goal in motion and raise 10 000 trees in 30 days. One tree = a donation of ZAR120 (or £6.44 at the time of publication).

It’s been well known for quite some time that the human population has been booming like never before. Thanks to advances in technology, medicine and science, people are living longer lives and creating bigger families to follow in their footsteps.

While it’s always a benefit for people to have an improved length and quality of life, it also puts a strain on natural resources. Specifically, as more people are born, more food has to be produced. This need for food has created an opening for pesticides, which have been used to minimize pests and help crops flourish.

There are many downsides to using pesticides, which has made many people look into more natural ways to farm food. But can all natural farming happen for global food production and still keep up with the high demand for products? Read on to learn more about what global food production would look like without pesticides and if that’s a possibility for the future.

Greener Fields

The idea behind the creation of pesticides was one that hasn’t disappeared. Farmers still want to protect their crops from pests without adding to their already busy workload.

One of the ways pesticides met this need was by using chemicals to target pests, but that left farms around the world with many different, environmentally dangerous problems.

Pesticides release chemicals into the environment where they’re sprayed. Harmless bugs are killed when they’re caught in the spray, and other animals are hurt when they drink chemical runoff after fields drain into local rivers.

Soil is another key farming element that’s damaged by pesticides. After the pesticides are sprayed, they can alter the soil’s pH levels and make it more difficult for crops to grow. When the soil’s structure is weakened, it erodes more easily and gets washed away by heavy rains.

Without the presence of pesticides, fields would be greener in every sense of the word. The soil would be healthier, erode less easily and the surrounding environment would be safer for wildlife and plants trying to thrive.

Higher Profits

Each year, farmers in the US pay $14 billion for pesticides to make a profit off their farms. Without having to put so much money towards pesticides, they could fund other means of pesticides.

Some all-natural farmers are taking care of beehives so the bees work as a natural pesticide, preventing insects and mold from invading plants by spreading the common Clonostachys rosea fungicide.

Putting extra money into their farms and selling organic products will return a big profit for the farmers. People are willing to pay more for organic products because they get peace of mind knowing exactly how their food was grown.

When the money from these food purchases makes its way back to farmers, they can then reinvest into their farms, continuing the positive cycle of growth.

Farmers and the businesses that sell their food would see higher profits if more organic food grown without pesticides was available to consumers. This is especially true since studies have found that more people desire healthier foods than cheaper foods.

Better Techniques

Farmers have relied on pesticides for decades because they’re easy to use. It’s especially easy if they’ve got bigger farms with equipment to spray everything for them while they’re off the fields.

It may seem like stopping the use of pesticides would result in more work, but that’s not true. It would just take a little more planning. One of the oldest methods of preventing pests was crop rotation. Certain insects will die without a constant host plant, so when the crops are rotated, the insect issue goes away.

Other methods of pesticides could be sprayed too. Bugs will never entirely stop eating at plants even with the best pesticides, but farmers can stop bugs from eating plants by using safer materials like vegetable oil, dish soap and rubbing alcohol to kill off current insects and prevent more from coming back.

Then there are other techniques like flaming. Flaming takes care of two problems at once, by blowing carefully directed fire towards hoards of insects and weeds. The hot temperature destroys weed cells and insects, preventing any live insects from re-invading and finding a home in the same spot.

Depending on what crop each farmer grows, the size of their field and where they live, farmers can find better techniques to fight insects without using pesticides with a little research and planning.

More Education

In order to get the world’s production of food all grown without pesticides, farmers would need resources to learn the different techniques and growing processes.

Some groups have already thought of this issue and are ahead of the game. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is a group that aims to unite farmers and work towards worldwide sustainable agriculture.

Meetings and summits provide an opportunity for farmers to learn more about sustainable farming and get rid of harmful practices like using pesticides.

Farmers can also learn more by taking online classes. Courses are available for a cheaper price than traditional university educations that result in certificates for farmers. They provide essential sustainable knowledge so farmers know how to replace things like pesticides with greener alternatives, while still keeping production up.

Access to online and in-person forms of education is one of the biggest steps farmers can take if the world were to switch over to pesticide-free farming.

Identical Production

If farmers were able to learn how to go green and leave pesticides behind, the only concern left would be to wonder if organically grown food could meet the demands of the current worldwide population.

Studies have been done to show that this wouldn’t be an issue. Corn is one of the most important worldwide crops, and scientists found that organic corn yields 94 percent more food than conventionally grown corn.

The issue with organic farming isn’t the organic nature of how the crops are grown and cared for. Successful farming without pesticides would come down to farmers having resources at their disposal.

Methods such as crop rotation and flaming could keep bugs at bay, for much less of the cost of buying pesticides each year.

Armed with greener techniques and an eco-focused education, the global food production would look identical, if not even more bountiful, without pesticides.

This Author

Emily Folk is a conservation and sustainability writer and the editor of Conservation Folks.