Cutting-edge apprenticeship scheme
Young people looking to pursue an exciting and challenging career in forestry are being invited to apply for a new apprenticeship scheme delivered through SRUC’s Barony campus in Dumfries.
Open consultation: Renewable Heat Incentive: biomass combustion in urban areas
Defra’s Clean Air Strategy, published in May 2018, proposed that further support under the Renewable Heat Incentive should not be available for biomass installations in urban areas with access to the gas grid.
This consultation sets out details of the proposed restrictions and asks for views on the scope and nature of these changes to RHI eligibility.
National Statistics: Road fuel prices: 15 October 2018
Cost of unleaded petrol (ULSP) and unleaded diesel (ULSD) in the UK as at Monday 15 October 2018.
Reducing lameness in dairy cows
Scottish dairy farmers are being offered the chance to learn how scientific research can be practically applied to reduce lameness in dairy cows.
World news story: Guatemala joins the Americas to combat illegal wildlife trade
Representatives of Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and the US attended the meeting. Minor García, Deputy Director of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) represented Guatemala.
Deputy Director Garcia and other countries’ delegates were hosted by Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. According to official statistics, illegal wildlife trade is worth more than £17 billion a year, and is directly linked to transnational organized crime structures.
Participating countries recognised that Illegal Wildlife Trade is a major issue in the Americas, and that it should be treated as a serious and organised crime that affects the economy, security, indigenous communities and ecosystems in the region.
Representatives decided to work collaboratively to tackle the trafficking of flora and fauna, including poaching, on a regional and international scale. To affirm this intention, all delegations recognised the need for regional collaboration on this issue.
At the end of the meeting, delegations welcomed the announcement from Peru that it will hold a regional conference on IWT in Lima in 2019, building on the work undertaken at London 2018.
This special meeting took place in the margins of the global conference on illegal wildlife trade, which ended 12 October in London and was organized by the British Government. Politicians, entrepreneurs and civil society from around the world met to seek for medium and long term solutions to tackle this problem.