Managerial Nimbyism

I have a soft spot for Nimbys, in as far as they try to protect their area from exploitation, but not much respect for those who wish something was just somewhere else so they can forget it and leave other people to deal with the implications. Defend your own backyard by all means but be consistent and fair to other communities.

Sheffield Moors Partnership people got into a tangle on Thursday, a kind of institutional nimbyism. They were at the Action for Involvement event on the Uplands and Moorlands.

They listened to a compelling case made by George Monbiot for a wilder landscape without farm livestock where nature makes the decisions not managers. They had recently of course completed their own Master Plan for the Sheffield Moors and it insists on having 'extensive grazing' and plenty of management intervention. So they could hardly agree could they?

So we had the spectacle of Roy Taylor of RSPB saying he was all in favour of rewilding but not on his patch thank you. Let it happen in the Lake District or somewhere.

This was music to the ears of the National Trust and Sheffield Wildlife Trust who, along with RSPB and Sheffield City Council, had indicated in their draft Master Plan that what they were doing was 

               creating a model for the way all UK uplands should be managed.

So when do we believe them?