Peter Smith

Click on the link below to hear (very poor skype audio) of an interview I did yesterday on the Lynx reintroduction and the complex issues that surround it with the very talented Shelley Milne. Poor Shelley got a lot more than she thought as I bombarded her some some of the deep economic issue that provide a context to the problems that surround lynx reintroduction and rewilding in general. As ever the real solution is to Tax land Values..... REWILDING INTERVIEW: PETER SMITH, WILDWOOD TRUST. APRIL 24, 2015 This morning, I was privileged to undertake a skype interview, with Mr Peter Smith, Scientist, Conservationist and CEO of the Wildwood Trust, a Kent based Charitable Organisation, which has been instrumental in many captive breeding and wildlife reintroduction projects including the Konig Horse, Beaver and Wild Boar. His passion for the subjects of rewilding and land reform is clearly evident and he raises some very interesting points which create a greater economic and pol...

The battle between landowners and wildlife has raged on many 'battlefields' across the world. I hope to comment on examples in the coming years. I made this video some time ago but just got around to publishing it exploring two issues very important to the Thames Estuary - the first part explains some of the issues of coastal sea walls and how landowners have sought to profit from the increase value of the land from such public infrastructure. Of course the uplift in value of the the land behind a sea wall is captured by the landowner and not the taxpayer who funded the sea wall. This is grossly unfair on taxpayers across the country as money is funnelled from all taxpayers into the pockets of landowners who often pay no tax on that huge uplift in the value of their land. Simply charging a Land Value Tax would capture this unearned uplift in the value of the land and repay the taxpayer for its construction. But in many situations the sea wall is not needed to protect peop...

My talk last week at the Necessary Beaver Conference on Scotland Beavers and Ecosystem Services & a plan for Scotland’s Ecological Renaissance, with the help of Robert Burns…..? The study of ecology and economics has resulted in a growing interest in the economics of nature which has been shown in sharp relief by the arrival of the Tay beavers. Peter Smith will take you on a quick journey into the emerging world of environmental economics and ecosystem services– where many of the benefits go unrecognised and much of the cash costs cause fear and opposition to the return of wildlife Beavers make a big difference to our rivers and this means there are winners and losers. There are many obvious and subtle benefits to beavers living in our water ways once again: wildlife, water quality and the buffering of floods & droughts, carbon sequestration are the most obvious, . But how can we measure these benefits, what are the leading scientists and economists thinking when it comes...