Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring & Modelling Programme ERAMMP - Report-32: National Forest in Wales - Evidence Review

This review was commissioned by Welsh Government (WG) from the Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP) to provide key evidence of potential benefits and disbenefits of woodland creation, woodland expansion and managing undermanaged woodland, to provide an evidence base to inform the development of a National Forest for Wales. During the commissioning process, WG emphasised that the evidence provided must reflect the collective views of the community by reviewing the literature in an objective way highlighting where evidence is contradictory or weak. Within the time available, evidence of causality of impacts, the likely timescales and magnitude of these impacts should be also be presented, for both positive and negative impacts of woodland expansion and management of undermanaged woodlands. This Evidence Pack should also build on the evidence put forward in the ERAMMP Sustainable Farm Scheme (SFS) (https://erammp.wales/en/resources) which included a range of assessments of the value of intervention measures which promoted trees within a landscape setting for a range of environmental, economic and social outcomes. The required rapid production of the review in four months meant an expert approach of key evidence was expected rather than a systematic review. Key topics to cover were selected, in partnership with WG, focussing on issues that could fundamentally change decision-making going forward. The final agreed list was arranged under a series of high-level subject headings, and the individual reviews published as ERAMMP Reports 33 to 38 and include; Biodiversity; Managing Undermanaged Woodland; Future-proofing our Woodland; Climate Change Mitigation; Ecosystem Services, and Economics and Natural Capital Accounting. An Integrated Assessment was also commissioned to provide a synthesis of cross-cutting themes and dependencies between topics. These ERAMMP reports are all provided as Annexes to this report

Understanding success in the context of brownfield greening projects: The requirement for outcome evaluation in urban greenspace success assessment

Many European governments place strong emphasis on integrated land use policies, particularly the re-establishment of public open access greenspaces through brownfield land regeneration. The UK Government considers the regeneration of brownfield land a prime tool for the delivery of regional economic regeneration, neighbourhood renewal and international biodiversity commitments. A number of failed brownfield greening projects question both the sustainability of such undertakings and whether greenspaces are fulfilling the functions they were designed for. Reliance on developer-, funding body- and site owner-centric notions of success in project delivery evaluation, to the exclusion of social and environmental impacts, has failed to highlight revenue requirements for management and maintenance to maintain function and quality. Brownfield greening project aims and objectives can be characterised as inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes using the general organisational ‘logic’ framework model. Applying this framework to six UK case studies, this research demonstrated that most greenspace aims and objectives are in fact ‘outcomes’ delivered in the medium and long terms following regeneration. The model is supportive of integrated, stakeholder inclusive monitoring over short, medium and long time periods. Physicochemical and social data from the case study sites were employed to present a comprehensive evaluation of site success. In each case, a lack of monitoring and evaluation – combined with insufficient supporting revenue funds – failed to highlight site issues, changes in local emphasis and ultimately a lack of success with respect to project aims and site sustainability. This research supports claims that capital funds to regenerate land must be supported by a revenue package for management and maintenance, that monitoring must be a funded activity; and, that monitoring and evaluation in support of the management cycle will promote the long-term sustainability, value and use of a greenspace

Microbe-aliphatic hydrocarbon interactions in soil: implications for biodegradation and bioremediation.

Aliphatic hydrocarbons make up a substantial portion of organic contamination in the terrestrial environment. However, most studies have focussed on the fate and behaviour of aromatic contaminants in soil. Despite structural differences between aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, both classes of contaminants are subject to physicochemical processes, which can affect the degree of loss, sequestration and interaction with soil microflora. Given the nature of hydrocarbon contamination of soils and the importance of bioremediation strategies, understanding the fate and behaviour of aliphatic hydrocarbons is imperative, particularly microbe-contaminant interactions. Biodegradation by microbes is the key removal process of hydrocarbons in soils, which is controlled by hydrocarbon physicochemistry, environmental conditions, bioavailability and the presence of catabolically active microbes. Therefore, the aims of this review are (i) to consider the physicochemical properties of aliphatic hydrocarbons and highlight mechanisms controlling their fate and behaviour in soil; (ii) to discuss the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of aliphatic hydrocarbons in soil, with particular attention being paid to biodegradation, and (iii) to briefly consider bioremediation techniques that may be applied to remove aliphatic hydrocarbons from soil