Monday 29 June 2015

Playing Our Part – the Lizard & Penrose’s place in the Trust’s strategy to 2025

Lizard Coastline
Earlier this year, the National Trust launched an ambitious plan to nurse the natural environment back to health and reverse the alarming decline in wildlife – warning that time was running out to save the countryside from further harm.

Climate change now poses the single biggest threat to the places the Trust looks after, bringing new, damaging threats to a natural environment already under-pressure decades of unsustainable land management, which has undermined the long-term health of the land.

The Trust said it would challenge itself to develop new, innovative ways of managing land on a large scale, which were good for farmers, good for the economy and good for the environment. It also pledged to work with partners to help look after some of the country’s most important landscapes, reconnecting habitats and bringing back their natural beauty.

This is a really exciting time to work for the Trust and having worked here for over 20 years, with the strength of the conservation charity really behind what we want to do for the land, for wildlife and for people. This is a long term strategy with four key areas in which we want to work:


Looking after our places
Mullion Harbour Day

  • It’s really important we look after what we already own to the best of our abilities. We want to make sure that all our land and buildings are in the best possible condition and that the type of farming or land use that is taking place on it is the most appropriate kind. 
  • We need to play our part in mitigating climate change and cutting our energy usage is really important but we’ll also look to increase the amount of energy we generate through renewable sources, such as solar panels on the roofs of modern farm buildings or wood fuel systems to heat houses


Loe Pool
Healthy, beautiful natural environment
  • Our tenant farmers are critical to delivering our conservation objectives and through them we want to improve all our land to a good condition and allow people to enjoy and experience the nature and beauty that their work creates. 
  • We will continue to work with other organisations, such as Natural England and the Wildlife Trust to make our places and the habitats that they form, part of something that is bigger, better and more joined up. We’ve started on this already in our partnership working with Linking the Lizard www.the-lizard.org and the Loe Pool forum www.loepool.org and this will grow in the coming years.

Experiences of our places that move, teach and inspire people


Mullion Harbour Da
  • We've vibrant communities in Helston, Porthleven and on the Lizard and many visitors who love coming to Cornwall on holiday and by offering everyone a great experience wherever they go, from Penrose’s walled garden to the Wildlife Watchpoint at the Lizard, or simply by providing great access to amazing places we can help them really connect with nature and beauty and inspire them to support our cause.

Helping to look after the places people live


Local Foraging Walk
For many of our communities the cliffs, beaches and Coast Path is their local green space and the place they visit to relax and unwind, or take exercise. Penrose offers this in abundance for the people of Porthleven and Helston with many miles of new footpaths and improved routes.

The strategy calls on the National Trust to respond to the threats posed by climate change and unsustainable land management and play its part in new ways: achieving a step change in how we look after our own countryside, and reaching out to partners and communities beyond our boundaries to meet the challenges we face at this moment in our history.
Here at the Lizard and Penrose we have a strong base to build on, a knowledgeable and committed team who have been working in partnership with others for many years, a growing body of volunteers who support us in what we do, tenant farmers who understand soils, water and wildlife and some of the most beautiful and nature rich places in the country which can’t help but inspire people!

- Al Cameron (General Manager)


1 comment:

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