According to the UK Green Party website the Green Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
CY200 The countryside is a living organism, a vital and irreplaceable natural gift, not a resource to be turned into money. No one has the right to destroy its ecologically diverse character. To do so would be to the detriment of the community at large.
CY201 We believe that it is a fundamental human right and obligation for people to live a life style that ensures they can hand on to their descendants an environment that is at least as rich in wildlife and attractive landscapes as when they inherited it.
CY202 Rural and urban communities meet the many different needs of people in a healthy society. They are not separate from each other and one should not dominate the other. In a green society, towns will not grow beyond the ability of the countryside around them to provide fresh and healthy water and food, recreation, timber and wildlife habitats. There will be a constant flow of environmental, social and cultural information between them. Towns will return compostable materials to the countryside. These urban communities will integrate into all their decisions the impact on a vital, thriving rural community.
Countryside Policy Long Term Aims
CY300 The objective of our countryside policy is to create self-reliant communities that retain the fruits of local investment and activity and preserve the conditions where people can live in ways which care for habitats and wildlife and allow them to fulfil spiritual, emotional, social and intellectual needs.
Countryside Policy Short Term Aims
CY400 In pursuing the following aims, we will address the underlying causes, and seek to integrate environmental, social and economic objectives in all areas of countryside policy. One of the major underlying problems is the current system of agriculture. To remedy this we aim to:
a) Stop further destruction of wildlife habitats, the soil, the landscape, ancient monuments and our countryside heritage. (see CY500-508 and CY550-562)
b) Begin to make the whole countryside more hospitable to wildlife. (see CY500-526 and CY570)
c) Begin the process of revitalising the economy and life of rural areas. (see CY540-543, CY600 and CY610)
d) Start to work towards a more just system of land tenure and access to land. (see CY530 and CY580)
e) Increase indigenous tree cover. (see CY570-572)
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Green Party’s Countryside policies in the comments below?