Farmers Weekly reports that a Carmarthenshire community living and farming in the Cothi Valley intervened in February to modify a proposal by the Foresight Group, a private equity firm which manages £12.6 billion for some of the world’s largest institutional investors, private and high net-worth individuals.
Cwrt-y-cadno
Foresight bought Frongoch Farm in Cwrt-y-Cadno and its original plan was to plant commercial, non-native conifers over most of the existing fields and hillside and sell off carbon credits to their financial investors,
A petition opposing the plans and expressing concerns about the proposed planting of trees on the agricultural land at Frongoch was set up by Lewis, who lives in the area, and signed by more than 7,000 people.
Rhiannon described Cwrt-y-cadno as “an ancient area of exceptional beauty” which is “under threat of being irreversibly destroyed” adding the plantation proposal “would destroy productive agricultural land, both on the valley floor and on the hilltop, which has been sustainably sheep farmed for generations.”
Independent news outlet, nation.cymru, adds that – following a meeting with residents in Pumpsaint – campaigners said that they had been told that the plans would be changed as a result of the local response: “We are asking Foresight to leave the agricultural fields for continued farming and to plant deciduous broadleaf tree species native to the British Isles in keeping with the natural landscape.”
Farming unions have spoken out about companies buying farms in Wales to planting trees in order to offset their carbon emissions. The National Farmers Union in Wales had previously warned that rural farming communities in Wales could be “decimated” if plans for blanket afforestation go ahead.
John Davies, NFU Cymru president, stressed that a monoculture approach and blanket afforestation is a fundamental change: “There is a great deal of concern because family farms are the backbone of our rural communities in Wales and if you see this happening, that removes those families from those areas, and it removes those job opportunities for 30, 40 years”, later adding that this would lead to a decimation of such communities. He explained:
“What we want to see is the forestry approach integrated into farming here. This isn’t an option of trees good, cows bad, this is about fully integrating our woodland approach into our agricultural going forward”.
The Welsh Government is to launch a consultation on its plan for a National Forest for Wales, which was designed to increase the number of trees being planted every year to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases.
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Future Generations & Climate change 