AER Rural Development Conference October 2005 Activating the rural environmental opportunity

Rural environmental development - the Chough returns to Cornwall

Rural development outcomes from Cornwall chough project Cornwall - only site in England for choughs – a species recovery environmental GOLD STAR In 2004, 18,000 people came to the chough viewpoint (half were holiday makers) These visitors spent £407,563 ( 617,702 euros) on the day of their visit Of this, £180,943 was additional expenditure: in the area, attracted by choughs, supporting 4.9 full time jobs Lots of emotion! Ref: The Lizard Cornwall – Economic impact of choughs on the local economy: contact

Defining the ‘Environmental Economy’ Activities concerned with the protection, management and enhancement of the environment –Building and Maintaining Environmental Capital Activities that benefit from the quality of the environment –Using Environmental Capital to Produce other Goods and Services

Nature conservation Agriculture Forestry Fisheries Built/historic environment Tourism Rural environmental industries Energy Other sectors Habitat re-creation Habitat management Agri-environment schemes Food processing and marketing SectorsActivities Figure 1: Sectoral Definition of the Rural Environmental Economy Woodland creation and management Timber processing and marketing Fisheries management Fish processing and marketing Restoration and maintenance Planning and development Renewable energy Rural energy efficiency Transport Green rural transport initiatives Development of cycle ways and footpaths Rural production of environmental goods and services Goods and services to envt motivated visitors Visitor infrastructure, tourism marketing Inward investment and in-migration Marketing and PR aimed at firms, workers Creative Industries Film, media, the arts Events, festivals, exhibitions

Figure 2: Environmental Capital Based Definition of Rural Environmental Economy Rural Economic Activities that Impact on Environmental Capital: Nature conservation, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, transport etc Stock of Rural Environmental Capital Biodiversity, landscape, built environment, air, water, natural resources etc Economic Activities that Benefit from Rural Environmental Capital : Tourism, food marketing, inward investment, creative industries etc Actions to maintain/enhance environmental capital: Nature conservation: habitat re-creation and management Agri-environment schemes Woodland management schemes Fisheries management initiatives Renewable energy projects etc. Actions to encourage/facilitate economic activity based on rural environment capital: Tourism infrastructure and marketing Marketing to inward investors Food and timber processing/marketing etc Cultural events

Habitat recreation and management Environmental schemes in agriculture, forestry, fisheries Tourism marketing and infrastructure Food labelling and marketing Renewable energy “Environment” focus “Economy” focus Environmental partners lead Economic development partners lead Figure 4: Environment/Economy Focus and role of Partners

Approaches to defining rural environmental economy Sectoral Environmental linkages/ environmental capital/ environmental “supply chain” Territorial

Briefing paper…………… The Environmental Economy in the Rural Areas of South West England A briefing paper. A Report to SW RDA, English Nature and the RSPB or

Environmental economy

Activating the Rural Environmental Economy 1.Developing the rural environmental economy offers substantial opportunities for the rural areas/regions 2.The linkages are varied, complex and dynamic 3.Further research is needed to explore potential action in more detail, to identify where opportunities are strongest 4.Packages of activity likely to offer greatest benefit 5.Success depends on building capacity and ensuring appropriate skills, knowledge, partnerships & leadership 6.Next step – develop a regional action plans or ‘RDR roadmaps for the environmental economy’.