Thanks Jerry
It gives me the impression that someone has this idealistic idea of the law -
as some sort of magic that if fungi are including in the list that suddenly
they will be "protected". We know how difficult it is for the law to protect
large beings including elephants, rhinos, birds of prey and trees to be
protected by the law. Inclusion of fungi possibly conjures up the
disturbance of mushrooms, but how do you protect a fungus on a building site
that is present throughout the soil?
If it's a matter for education, it looks interesting but why stop there - why
not all living kingdoms and then people will be properly educated?
If people think decay organisms need to be protected then surely we need to
include earthworms and all other soil fauna? No? What about bacteria?
And if you think viruses are a form of life, how about including them? Or
will they look after themselves? Possibly not many people in the public will
want that will they? Almost as popular as preserving Boris!
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: uktc-request@xxxxxx.tree-care.info <uktc-request@xxxxxx.tree-care.info>
On Behalf Of Jerry Ross
Sent: 17 January 2022 14:13
To: UK Tree Care <uktc@xxxxxx.tree-care.info>
Subject: Re: Fungi and tree growth - more important than weather.
The move to bring in the 3rd F started in Chile and was very much an
international effort, not about UK law at all, albeit from what you say, that
needs to be reformed/updated. But the introduction of 'Funga' was to
generally raise the awareness of the critical importance of fungi by equating
them with the widely used general terms Flora and Fauna.
See this, from
https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/BF03449441:
"/Species conservation on a global scale commonly refers to living
macroscopic organisms as Fauna and Flora, with the total omission of fungi or
any microscopic organisms. Nevertheless, countries like Chile have taken
pioneering steps towards an ecosystem view of nature through the
incorporation of kingdom //Fungi//in public policy (República de Chile 2010:
Par. 4, Arts. 37–38). This has given the country effective protection of
plants, animals, and fungi, but other countries’
legislation mentions only Fauna and Flora and sometimes microorganisms, or
refers to “wildlife” — which to many equates to vertebrates. By the omission
of fungi, these organisms so critical to the maintenance of healthy ecosystem
processes, are unrecognized and unrepresented.The international acceptance of
the recognition of the macroscopic organisms of Earth as Fauna, Flora, and
Funga paves the way for substantial changes in educational and agricultural
policies, amongst others. This will facilitate the incorporation of mycology
in matters of national interest, such as conservation, habitat protection,
species protection, and education./"
(By rights I daresay they should add Protista - but I suspect that would only
confuse your average Juan and Juanita.) (Besides, it doesn't start with an
'f')
On 17/01/2022 12:52, grumpy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.co.uk
wrote:
Jon- The term 'funga' is not claimed as a 'kingdom' any more than
flora and fauna are. The woman on the program gave a presentation in
the arb. Association fungus symposium a few months ago. It's all about
getting fungi included in legislation which has previously been
limited to protecting 'flora and fauna';
Jerry
I haven't had a chance to listen/watch any programmes but you may be
interested to know that whilst Science may have moved on, the law has not:
it is not restricted to flora and fauna but does appear to use all
embracing terms animals and plants.
My copy of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Schedule 8 lists "Plants
which are protected". These include a section on Non Vascular Plants, 5 of
which are fungi (including the oak polypore) and around 29 are lichens.
Whilst s.13 defines what is prohibited (pick, uproot, destroy and
selling/advertising the sale) and this looks more plant than fungus
focused, the reality of how law as a tool works has to be taken into
account. If the fungus is well and truly inbedded in substrate it seems
unlikely that someone picking a toadstool could be prosecuted for
destroying a fungus. Picking yes and selling/advertising yes.
So why aren't more fungal species on the list? The JNCC is responsible for
updating the list (s.24(1), every 5 years apparently). It's up to them as
to what is on the list. The law does not prevent the list getting longer.
Perhaps politicians might but we don't know that.
Jon
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