Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places

by Julian Hoffman

We’re repeatedly told that the natural world matters little to most people; that it’s so low down on the list of political priorities that it doesn’t even warrant a mention in most election campaigns. But over the course of these journeys to threatened places I began to understand how untrue this assertion is. Whether it was a desire to raise children in a clean environment, the regular enjoyment of local wildflowers and birds, deep concerns about the potential fallout from fracking, or committed personal responses to the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, I became aware just how important nature, in its widest possible sense, is to many citizens and communities. As elsewhere, though, people in the Gwent Levels felt their voices didn’t matter; that theirs were of little relevance to the agendas of those who rule, disdainfully dismissed as just the ‘result of interest groups’ initiatives’.