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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

I listened with great interest to what my noble friend Lord Dixon-Smith said, and I have a great deal of sympathy with it. However, I think the idea that nature itself is simply going to come good, without man’s interference, is perhaps a little optimistic. I speak in my capacity as president of the Game Conservancy Trust, which has probably done more than any other organisation to restore habitats, not just for game birds, but for a whole range of other species. Indeed, the beetle banks and conservation headlands derive from the work of the Game Conservancy Trust. I acknowledge that nature plays a big part, but it is the interface between man and nature, and prescribed management systems, that have led to the success we are having at the moment with the restoration of wild flowers, weeds and insects generating the sort of biodiversity response we want. I am simply saying that it is not down to nature alone: it is the interface between man and nature.