Background
The
wetland nature reserves that I manage are facing multiple pressures which are
causing wildlife decline and local extinction.
Two thirds of my time at work is spent on practical habitat
management. The other third is public
engagement. Sadly, few people understand
what meadows need. My visit to Transylvania will allow me to learn traditional
skills and gain fresh insights on how parts of the Itchen Valley can be farmed
in a similar way, with the help of the local community. This will benefit people and biodiversity.
Project Objectives:
1. Travel to Transylvania, Romania, to develop my knowledge of hay
meadows. Collect notes, video and undertake interviews to understand the
history and how people connect with the High Nature Value Area.
2. Learn traditional hay meadow skills such as scything and building of
hayricks by working with the local Romanian communities. Collect information on
management techniques and practice doing them myself.
3. Assess the values of meadows
to local people in Transylvania via conversations and interviews.
4. Teach 90 local volunteers and communities in the Itchen Valley and
South Downs how to manage their meadows to benefit wildlife via monthly work
parties and community hay making days.
4. Deliver 4 talks, 4 guided walks and 2 courses in Winchester per year.
Refer to meadow management in Romania.
5. Investigate how people value their local meadows. Does involving
people with the management increase their connection to the land and help them
look after it? Trial research methods to evaluate this.
How will
the project work?
Transylvania's High Nature Value landscapes were
created by hundreds of years of traditional farming. Over the past ten years projects have
identified threats to this landscape, such as intensification of agriculture
and abandonment. The region's
biodiversity and its value has been recognised.
This is dependent on low intensity farming. Protection orders alone cannot protect the
landscape and ecosystem services it offers.
Making the farming livelihoods economically viable has been the key to
maintaining the high biodiversity.
As a nature reserve officer with a specialism in
community engagement I want to spend time in this hotspot of biodiversity and
learn how farmers are working with the local community and how local people
manage the land. I will tour the area
meeting local farmers, rural crafts people and projects.
The trip will be recorded via notes, photos and
video to create a report and blog. On my
return to Winchester I will give talks, lead guided walks and courses. Practical skills such as scything and
building hayricks will be taught to colleagues and volunteers via work
parties. Community hay making days will
reconnect people with their local meadows.
Benefits
of the project to me and others
In England, the intensification of agriculture has
reduced the number of people working the land.
This has decreased public understanding and appreciation of essential
habitat management. By traveling to
Transylvania I can rekindle skills that have disappeared from the UK due to
mechanisation.
The knowledge I gain from Transylvania will be
shared with 90 volunteers who help manage Winnall Moors and St Faith's and St
Cross Meadows' in the Itchen Valley.
Learning these new, but traditional skills will bring history to life
and show them the wildlife that benefits from their work. Local people can join in with the haymaking,
creating an important social gathering.
I have the support of the South Downs National
Park, Floodplains Meadow Partnership, the Environment Agency and the Wildlife
Trust. The presentations and courses I
teach to fellow land managers will give them confidence to use traditional land
management and restoration techniques on their sites too.
I will maintain contact with the colleagues I meet
in Romania.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust are supporting my
trip with a travelling Fellowship. Their funding and support provides a
platform to disseminate my learning to the UK.
I will be in Romania for 4 weeks 22nd July – 19th
August 2016:
Week 1 -meeting farmers and visiting meadows in the
Fundatia Adept project area.
Week 2 - touring different cultural and geographical
haymaking areas. Zărneşti – 1 day plus meadows of Birsa Mare valley – also
Râșnov & Bran citadels/castle. Măgura – 2 days higher altitude meadows. Sibiu
and Cisnădioara (Michelsberg) – medieval city and Saxon villages
Mugeni (Bőgőz) and Odorheiu
Secuiesc (Székelyudvarhely) – Szekely culture
Week 3 - hay Camp with the Barbara Knowles Trust.
Week 4 - with Tibor Hartel and Arti, helping with the
Remarkable Trees of Romania Project.
