Back to the future – how we can progress to living within our environmental means.

In North Yorkshire, we have an extensive rural landscape of over 8,000 square kilometres that can support climate change mitigation and adaptation through peatland restoration, large-scale tree planting, and sustainable farming partnerships.

These nature-based solutions aim to store carbon, reduce downstream flooding, and protect fragile habitats.

This year for the first time there is an opportunity to see and celebrate the work being done by our county’s farmers and landowners at Bilsdale Agricultural Show on Saturday August 29 where the North York Moors Association is sponsoring their new ‘Agri-Environmental’ class, with exhibitors showing work carried out on farms to improve biodiversity.

A breakdown of land use from the government’s Land Use Framework document (Image: Supplied)

In our last column, we considered the significance of Earth Overshoot Day on July 30 – the date by which humankind had already used all of the planet’s natural resources that can be regenerated in that entire year.

Back in 1970, we were living within our environmental means but since then our increasing overconsumption has caused us to consume nature’s resources 1.7 times faster than the planet’s ecosystems can regenerate them.

These rates of over-harvesting forests, use of transport and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere have pushed ecosystems far past the regeneration point.

Climate Action Stokesley and Villages (Image: Supplied)

But we have the power to change this, particularly in regions like ours.

The circular economy, last column’s focus, can drive down overconsumption.

This month the focus is on how more sustainable land use can restore the Earth’s biocapacity.

Key methods include regenerative agriculture, agroforestry and reforestation which together optimise resource efficiency, sequester carbon and halt natural habitat loss.

One of the most effective ways of restoring global ecological balance is by shifting global consumption towards a plant-based diet.

Cutting worldwide meat consumption in half could move the overshoot date back through reduced carbon emissions and freeing up some land currently used for livestock feed crops to allow ecosystems to naturally regenerate, absorbing more carbon and expanding biodiversity.

Once one of the most carbon-emitting nations, China has achieved major successes in sustainable land use through massive ecological restoration and anti-desertification campaigns.

This has reversed desertification on millions of hectares, increased forest coverage past 23%, and optimised resource efficiency across agricultural and urban zones.

Although China has a different political system to ours it is a powerful example of what can be achieved.

The Land Use Framework for England, recently updated, proposes multifunctional land use through combining activities on the same land, such as placing solar panels alongside crops or planting trees to reduce local flood risks.

Also highlighted is targeted nature recovery through habitat creation, peatland restoration, and woodland expansion in areas with maximum ecological impact.

It advocates that nature-based solutions should inform spatial planning to protect communities and infrastructure from rising flood risks and extreme weather to achieve climate change resilience.

In order to safeguard food security, it sets out guidelines to protect high-quality agricultural land to maintain domestic food production while simultaneously implementing sustainable farming practices.

On August 29 Climate Action Stokesley & Villages will be at Bilsdale Show so please come to talk to us.

This year we are looking towards a more hopeful future with information and activities highlighting different ways that we can all live more sustainably within our environmental means and so protect the planet not just for ourselves today but for generations to come.