Catch up on the latest environmental news from across the county with Sofia Akin.
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00:02 - Hello and welcome to Kent on Climate live on KMTV.
00:18 I'm Sophia Akin and in this show we discuss
00:20 all things related to environmental issues in the county.
00:24 How is climate change impacting Kent?
00:26 What's communities in the county doing to tackle it?
00:28 And how can you help at home?
00:30 Each week we'll be taking a deep dive
00:32 into a new environmental issue in the county
00:34 and I'll be joined by expert guests.
00:36 But first tonight, KMTV have a brand new series
00:39 of documentaries which started last week.
00:42 And the first episode has a real conservation focus.
00:45 Kent Discovers looks at the fascinating research
00:48 happening across Kent, the UK and the world,
00:50 including how genetics and conservation came together
00:53 to save the Echo parakeet in Mauritius.
00:56 Last week I spoke to Professor Jim Greenbridge
00:59 from the University of Kent and Vikash Duttia
01:01 from the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation,
01:03 live from Mauritius to tell us all about the documentary.
01:07 But first, here's a sneak peek.
01:08 - In Mauritius we have lost so many species
01:13 which were unique to the island.
01:15 The famous dedu is one example.
01:16 We came up here in 1979 going through the forest
01:21 looking for parakeets and we could only find a handful.
01:25 There are so many parrots out there that are threatened,
01:28 that are declining.
01:29 - I've been interested in the conservation genetics
01:31 behind the survival of the species.
01:32 - We have now access to data sets
01:35 that were unthinkable in the past.
01:37 - For me, sequencing the whole genomes of these species
01:40 allows us for the first time to try and quantify
01:43 the effects of these bad mutations.
01:45 - Getting them back to what we have now
01:47 is some 800 species, which seems to be a huge success.
01:51 - We're not trying to turn the clock back,
01:53 but we're looking forward and thinking,
01:55 how can we mitigate the effects of climate change?
01:59 I think the equiparakeet is a great symbol
02:02 for what we should be doing on Mauritius,
02:04 what we can do elsewhere in the world.
02:06 - Jim, first of all, tell us about this documentary
02:11 and what it was like to film it.
02:13 - Yeah, it was an amazing experience.
02:16 I mean, it's been a story in the making, I think.
02:19 With Vikash, we've had a long history of collaboration
02:24 working together with Mauritius,
02:27 and it's been a real privilege
02:28 to be involved with the documentary.
02:31 Yeah, we've been working for several decades together.
02:34 And so, yeah, it's a success story in conservation,
02:38 which is great to share with lots of people.
02:40 - And I wanted to talk to you about the Mauritian parakeet
02:43 and ask you a little bit about kind of how endangered it was
02:45 and what's been its journey towards survival.
02:50 - Well, the story, I mean, goes back to its lowest point,
02:55 if you wish, which is in the 1970s,
02:58 when the equiparakeet was down to about a dozen,
03:03 10, 12 individuals.
03:05 There's a bit of an argument
03:06 of what the lowest known figure was at that time.
03:10 But just to say that the other parakeets,
03:14 other parrots of the mascarines had all gone extinct
03:18 and this was the last parrot of the mascarines.
03:21 And it's still teetering on the edge of extinction
03:24 in the 1970s when conservation programs started for it.
03:29 And my great moment was in 1997
03:32 when we released three birds in the forest,
03:35 the first three to be really, really released in the forest.
03:39 - And Jim, science played a part in this as well, didn't it?
03:42 So can you talk us through the role
03:45 that science played in this as well?
03:47 - When I first went to Mauritius, actually, back in 1991,
03:50 the species was the world's rarest parrot
03:52 and everyone I spoke to said,
03:54 "Well, you need to go and see this parrot soon
03:56 "because it's gonna go extinct very, very quickly."
03:59 And so it's been an amazing success story.
04:03 The virus outbreak caused a lot of concern in 2005.
04:08 And so we began studying the virus,
04:10 analysing blood samples, which Vikash's team
04:14 from the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
04:16 had been collecting every year from all of the chicks,
04:18 all of the young parrots every year.
04:20 So we began screening those blood samples
04:23 to look for evidence of the virus,
04:25 to track the prevalence of the virus in the population,
04:29 but also to look at how the virus
04:31 has been evolving in that population.
04:34 And so it's been a real learning experience,
04:37 learning about the virus.
04:38 The species has lost a lot of genetic diversity
04:41 and it's a highly inbred species,
04:42 perhaps one of the most inbred species
04:45 on earth.
04:46 And as a consequence of that,
04:47 it's likely to be more susceptible to infection
04:50 by emerging infectious diseases.
04:52 And that's why people were so worried
04:53 about the outbreak in 2005 of Cystic Beak and Feather Virus.
04:58 - And I just wanted to ask you both together,
05:00 what was it like filming this documentary with KMTV?
05:03 What was that whole experience like
05:05 of putting this information out there
05:08 that you've been studying for so long?
05:09 What was it like to actually, I guess,
05:11 put it out there in the form of a documentary?
05:14 - First of all, to say that there's been
05:16 a lot of preparation,
05:17 because there was a lot of documentation
05:21 that took place before actually the crew coming to Mauritius,
05:25 working with Jim,
05:26 working with another colleague called Claire Reza as well,
05:29 Carl Jones and many others,
05:30 just putting together the script for the film.
05:35 That in itself took weeks and weeks of work,
05:39 just trying to get it fine before the crew would come down.
05:42 - And just in a line from you both,
05:44 starting with you, Jim,
05:46 what are you hoping comes from this?
05:48 Why is it important to share this message
05:50 with the world, essentially?
05:51 - I think two reasons.
05:54 One is that it's a success story
05:55 and conservation can be a tough discipline to work in.
06:00 So having a success story, I think,
06:01 is an amazing thing to be able to share with people,
06:03 how the Emergent Parakeet has recovered
06:05 against all the odds.
06:06 But I think also it's a really wonderful example
06:10 of how we can bring science into the field
06:13 and the impact that science can have
06:15 in supporting field teams,
06:17 working at the cutting edge of conservation
06:19 and helping them make the right decisions
06:21 about how they manage endangered species.
06:23 - And Vikash, just a line from you as well.
06:26 Why is it important to you two?
06:28 - Well, I echo everything that Jim has said
06:32 and I would just add onto that,
06:34 you know, looking to the future.
06:36 We are constantly being asked by many people
06:39 around the world, you know, how did you save this species?
06:42 And, you know, we'll be able to send them this film
06:44 and say, well, start with this film
06:47 and, you know, see how it was started.
06:49 And then you can read the different papers
06:51 and come and see the work on the ground here.
06:53 - Now a councillor from the Who Peninsula
06:56 has started a petition to save more than a dozen oak trees
07:00 from being felled.
07:01 The beautiful oaks in question are situated
07:03 near Aveling Close and Knight Road
07:06 and they belong to Medway Council.
07:08 But insurance companies of two properties near the oaks
07:11 have applied for permission to chop them down.
07:13 Independent councillor Michael Pearce joins us now
07:15 to tell us a little bit more about this.
07:17 Michael, thank you for joining us.
07:18 So first of all, can you tell me a little bit more
07:21 about this petition to save these trees
07:24 and why it's so important to you?
07:25 - Absolutely.
07:26 So as you can see on the screen,
07:28 this is a line of very majestic
07:31 and very beautiful oak trees in Who.
07:34 They have got a tree preservation order.
07:36 So the preservation order protects about 30 trees in total.
07:40 12 of them are quite majestic in terms of their size.
07:44 And there is two applications,
07:46 because they've got tree preservation orders,
07:48 there's two applications, as you say,
07:49 from two insurance companies representing two properties.
07:53 So fell eight oak trees in total.
07:55 So this is quite, if this goes ahead,
07:57 this is quite a significant loss.
07:59 So I found out about this from local residents
08:02 who keep an eye, myself and local residents
08:04 are keeping an eye on applications
08:06 which are coming forward.
08:07 This was highlighted to me by a number of residents.
08:09 And then I investigated it and thought I had to act
08:13 and had to launch this petition,
08:14 which has now received over 3000 signatures,
08:18 which is amazing.
08:18 Most of those are local residents.
08:20 And if anyone's interested in signing the petition,
08:23 it's called Save Who's Oak Trees.
08:25 It's on the change.org platform.
08:27 And you can also Google it.
08:28 If you Google it, it usually comes up
08:30 within the first or second entries.
08:32 - Why are they trying to chop these trees down
08:34 in the first place?
08:36 - It's alleged subsidence.
08:38 So it's the insurance companies
08:40 that have put the applications forward to fell them.
08:42 So these, it's not the residents themselves,
08:44 it's their insurance companies.
08:46 They're alleged subsidence with both applications.
08:49 From, in my opinion, I don't think there's enough evidence
08:53 to justify the removal of the trees.
08:55 There's very little evidence presented of subsidence.
08:58 - What subsidence actually is for some people
09:00 who might be wondering?
09:02 - So what they're saying is that because of the trees
09:05 and because of the quantity of the trees,
09:07 because oaks are notorious big trees
09:09 that suck up a lot of water,
09:11 they're saying that the soil is drying out effectively.
09:15 And because it's a clay soil, which is,
09:17 geographically, we've got a lot of clay soil in our area.
09:20 It shrinks.
09:21 And then that's what they're saying causes the subsidence.
09:25 But from what I've seen,
09:27 I can't, I've seen very little evidence
09:29 of subsidence presented.
09:31 And that's why as part of the petition,
09:32 as well as saying that we want to save these beautiful trees,
09:36 we actually want an independent investigation carried out
09:38 into that subsidence to see,
09:41 for an investigator to conclude if their felon
09:45 is proportionate and justified, which I don't think it is.
09:48 - Okay, well, these trees are 100 years old or so.
09:53 Why is it important?
09:54 Why do you want to preserve this area of woodland for who?
09:57 - So we haven't actually, in who,
09:59 we haven't actually got many trees
10:00 with tree preservation orders on them.
10:03 And this is quite unique.
10:04 This line of oak trees is quite unique
10:06 for the whole peninsula as well.
10:09 There's not many trees which have got TPOs.
10:10 And I think, as far as I understand,
10:13 this is the only line of oak trees we've got with a TPO.
10:16 They've got enormous, the oak, as a lot of people know,
10:20 it has got enormous environmental value.
10:23 The species supports thousands of other species.
10:26 And also, as well as the environmental value,
10:29 there's an amenity value as well.
10:31 These trees can be seen from a number of angles across,
10:35 who, across the landscape.
10:37 And I've taken some photographs.
10:39 This is the one I took recently.
10:40 And their loss would be quite significant
10:42 on the landscape as well.
10:43 So it's not just environmental,
10:44 it's also amenity value as well.
10:46 - And the council has, the Labour and Co-operative Group
10:49 has said that they can't comment on the ongoing work
10:52 on the protected tree application,
10:54 but they said that officers are working hard
10:56 to determine what would be their best action going forward.
10:58 And just very quickly, before we go to our ad break,
11:03 do you believe that the The Hoo Peninsula
11:04 is under threat from climate change as well?
11:07 - I would say so, yes,
11:08 because a lot of the internationally protected wetlands
11:11 we've got around the edges of the peninsula,
11:14 with sea levels rising,
11:17 those areas will basically be constrained
11:19 and reduced in the scale.
11:22 So we do have direct impacts from climate change
11:25 and from sea level rises specifically.
11:27 But also with the drier weather,
11:31 a lot of the peninsula's farmlands,
11:32 and we're not gonna be able to produce crops
11:34 like we used to as well.
11:36 - Thank you very much for joining us, Michael.
11:39 Now, protests coming up after the break,
11:42 protests in Bleen over University of Kent plans
11:45 to build homes and the conservation efforts
11:48 to rescue parakeets in Mauritius.
11:50 All that and more coming after the break.
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15:03 - Hello and welcome back to Kent on Climate live on KMTV.
15:10 Now a Kent woman has been caught up
15:12 in the recent flooding in Dubai while on holiday.
15:15 Gemma Hodgell who lives near Maidstone
15:18 was enjoying a trip with friends
15:19 in the United Arab Emirates city
15:21 when a year's worth of rain fell in just one day.
15:25 She says that the group haven't been able
15:27 to go out to get food and she's worried
15:29 they may not be able to travel back home.
15:31 The authorities out there have said
15:33 that more than 25 centimetres of rain fell on Tuesday alone.
15:37 It's being reported that soldiers have been assigned
15:40 in the worst affected areas to assist
15:42 with evacuation efforts.
15:44 And now a Medway woman says walks
15:47 in the park have become dangerous
15:49 after one of her dogs cut her poor open
15:52 on a tin can littered on the ground.
15:54 Stephanie Dahl's urging people to pick up after themselves
15:57 and she's calling on the council to do something
16:00 about what she's called the never-ending litter
16:02 throughout Hillyfields Park.
16:04 She's been reflecting on the impacts of littering
16:06 on World Earth Day where Kent organisations
16:09 were discussing the importance of looking after the planet.
16:13 This just looks like any other park
16:15 but once you take a closer look,
16:17 it's home to empty bottles,
16:20 sharp plastic and leftover wrappers.
16:23 And a Gillingham woman is urging the council
16:26 to do something about the litter in Hillyfields Park
16:29 after her dog sliced its paw open on a tin can,
16:33 leaving her housebound for up to six weeks.
16:37 Our big dog can't go for a walk for four to six weeks
16:39 because she cut her leg and almost sliced her up
16:43 through the tin and it looked like it'd been done with a knife.
16:46 I go around every morning with the dogs
16:48 and pick up the tins and bottles
16:51 and it's just a nightmare.
16:53 I've been doing it every day.
16:55 That's why it's so tidy because it's not usually this clean.
16:58 But Stephanie still brings her other two here
17:00 because she says there's nowhere else to go
17:03 and says the problem isn't unique to Hillyfields Park.
17:06 But in her short visit to the park today,
17:09 she had to stop Pixie from swallowing a piece of chewing gum
17:13 and had to chase after them both
17:14 as they tried to eat or chew the rubbish.
17:17 So far I've been at the park for about five minutes or so
17:20 but already have found quite a lot of rubbish.
17:22 I found empty bottles lying around.
17:24 I found shards of plastic which even for me
17:26 it was quite scary to pick this up
17:29 because it felt quite sharp.
17:30 You can see empty wrappers here,
17:32 a plastic lid which looks like it could have bite marks taken out of it.
17:37 So this is just what I found within the first five minutes
17:40 but already behind the camera,
17:42 there's a lot more litter that I can see.
17:44 A Medway Council spokesperson said litter picks are regularly undertaken
17:48 at Hillyfields Park
17:50 and our grass cutting crews are also instructed
17:52 to carry out litter picking before cutting the grass.
17:56 However, it's unfortunately possible
17:58 that some small items of litter may be missed.
18:01 The council urged residents to report littering on its website.
18:05 On World Earth Day,
18:06 a local organisation is urging others to be mindful
18:10 of how waste can impact the environment.
18:13 Rubbish attracts rubbish.
18:14 So when somebody sees that someone's not being bothered,
18:17 they think, well, why should I be bothered?
18:19 And it's like a sickness in our society,
18:21 across the whole of society at the moment.
18:24 We really need people to have the pride in where they live
18:27 and take responsibility for their own rubbish
18:29 because, you know, one piece of rubbish soon attracts 10, 20, 30 pieces
18:34 and it makes everyone feel bad in the community.
18:38 As those in Medway reflect on the impacts littering can have on the environment,
18:42 they hope discussing the problem will encourage others to clean up their act.
18:46 And Stephanie longs for peaceful walks with her dogs
18:49 without having to fear for their safety.
18:52 Sophia Aitken for KMTV in Chillingham.
18:56 Next tonight, a Kent Wildlife charity has been set back thousands of pounds
19:01 after it reported two of its storage tankers had been broken into earlier this week.
19:06 Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, part of Kent Wildlife Trust,
19:09 says it's not the first time it's been victim to theft
19:12 and this time they claim it's going to cost them £20,000.
19:16 Police are investigating and appealing for anyone with information to get in touch.
19:21 A Kent Wildlife charity has been left shaken up
19:25 after they say thousands of pounds worth of gardening equipment
19:29 has been stolen from their Sevenoaks premises this week.
19:33 Police are now investigating after reports of two of Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve's
19:37 equipment containers being damaged between 4pm on Sunday and 9 Monday morning.
19:43 This was the moment they noticed the damage and realised their equipment had gone missing.
19:49 Yeah, tables been cut out the way, so there's the cones and those bits there.
19:54 They've cut their way through there, haven't been inside yet,
19:56 but by the look of it, it's the brush cutters and the chainsaws they've gone for.
19:59 And to replace the lost equipment and repair the shipping containers,
20:03 it's estimated to set the charity back £20,000.
20:07 What we do as a conservation charity is ultimately for the benefit of not just the wildlife,
20:14 but then the ongoing impacts that that has in terms of affecting things like climate change.
20:20 And having to continuously have to fork out for the replacement, for the repairs,
20:28 the impact on us as an organisation in terms of insurance.
20:31 It just impacts on what we can do, so ultimately it impacts them as well.
20:35 So it's frustratingly short-sighted.
20:38 And it's thought this is how it was all possible.
20:40 This hole that was made on the side of the container is what was used to gain access to the shed,
20:45 where those involved then went on to steal thousands of pounds worth of equipment.
20:49 But you'll notice there were also several cameras dotted around site too.
20:53 Well, some of those were also taken in the process,
20:56 and the cameras that weren't taken, well, those involved somehow managed to evade them.
21:01 The wildlife charity says the loss of its power tools and nature trail cameras
21:06 isn't only impacting the nature reserve, but the charity as a whole.
21:10 And it says it's not the first time something like this has happened.
21:14 For volunteers, it's making them concerned about their safety.
21:18 It's so disheartening. At the end of the day, we're a charity.
21:22 People are stealing from a charity for their own gain.
21:26 And we really rely on the tools that we have on site here
21:29 to carry out the essential management work on the reserves.
21:32 It's not just this site either.
21:34 It's going to impact a number of our other sites in the Darrant Valley as well.
21:37 So, yeah, it's really going to have a knock-on effect.
21:39 Kent Police is urging witnesses to come forward regarding any suspicious behaviour in the area.
21:45 The force is also appealing for CCTV and dashcam footage which may assist.
21:50 The Sevenoaks Nature Reserve says its doors will remain open to the public during police investigations.
21:56 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Sevenoaks.
22:00 Now it's time to take a look at the weather for the next few days.
22:04 [Music]
22:09 It's going to be a chilly evening tonight, staying dry though.
22:12 Lows of three up in Canterbury.
22:14 Four degrees in Chatham.
22:16 Three to tomorrow morning staying cloudy and grey.
22:19 Nine degrees across the board.
22:21 Winds picking up slightly through to the afternoon.
22:23 Sunshine peeking through the clouds along with some showers across the board.
22:27 Twelve degrees in Medway.
22:29 And here's the outlook for the rest of the week.
22:31 That rain is sticking around unfortunately with some sun on Friday.
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22:44 Next tonight, one in five people here in the South East have admitted to throwing food away
22:49 based on the fact it's past its best before date, regardless of its condition.
22:54 It comes as today is Stop Food Waste Day, hoping to reduce these attitudes.
22:59 The makers of the app Too Good To Go are urging people to try the look, smell and taste method
23:04 before throwing away food.
23:06 Our reporter Kristen Hawthorne has been down to a sandwich shop in Medway.
23:10 This sandwich shop in Medway used to throw away parts worth of fresh food every day.
23:15 But now, thanks to an app which allows customers to buy repackaged leftovers,
23:20 they waste little to no food.
23:22 Right, we don't throw any fresh food away now.
23:24 So once now we're on the app, it's all good.
23:28 So it could contain sausage rolls, scotch eggs.
23:32 It always comes with crusted sticks or tiger sticks.
23:36 Pork pies.
23:39 So literally everything we sell.
23:41 Today is Stop Food Waste Day, aimed to inspire people to slow down the rate of food waste
23:46 coming out of our homes and supermarkets.
23:49 A recent study showed that 19.4 million food items are wasted daily.
23:54 One cause for the large amount of wasted food is due to too many people throwing away their food
23:59 once it has reached the best before date, without checking that it's still edible first.
24:04 Here in the South East, 23% of people admit to doing this.
24:09 So how can we tackle this?
24:11 Well, those behind the Too Good To Go app recommend something called the Look, Smell, Taste method
24:17 for judging our food's freshness before making an assumption that it's already gone bad.
24:22 Use by dates themselves is a safety metric.
24:27 So once food has gone beyond its use by date, it isn't safe to eat.
24:33 So that's for foods like meats, fish, those types of products.
24:39 Whereas best before date is just a quality guidance metric.
24:44 So this food, in fact, is still safe to eat.
24:47 It's still safe to consume once it's gone beyond that best before date.
24:52 Here I've got some milk and I'm going to use the Look, Smell, Taste method to see if it's still fresh.
24:58 Looks good.
25:00 Smells good.
25:02 I'll just make some tea.
25:04 I'll pour.
25:10 Tastes good.
25:17 So whether checking if you can save some food that would have otherwise gone to waste online,
25:22 or simply checking before you throw away, maybe it's time to put an expiry date on our old ways of thinking.
25:28 Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV.
25:31 And finally, Bartholomew Hall's been taking a look at a furry friend from Scotland keeping Kent's unruly greenery at bay.
25:39 Stubborn, long-living and hardy, the Highland cow has been a UK breed for hundreds of years.
25:46 Their iconic shaggy appearance is the result of a double coat of hair to help insulate against the elements
25:52 and keep them waterproof, with the outer layer being the longest of any cattle breed.
25:57 While these cows aren't native to Kent, they've been deployed across the county to restore woodland pasture
26:03 and to keep unwanted vegetation under control.
26:06 You can spot them all around Kent's nature reserves, such as in Cobham Wood and Ashford Warren,
26:11 with the Kent Wildlife Trust employing dozens in their conservation efforts.
26:16 Now these cows aren't particularly picky eaters. They chow down on a wide range of vegetation.
26:22 But it does make them susceptible to litter in Kent's nature reserves, which is why it's ever more important
26:28 to take your rubbish with you when you're out and about.
26:32 That's all we've got time for on this week's episode of Kent on Climate.
26:35 We'll be back next week with another episode discussing more matters relevant to environmental issues in the county.
26:41 See you very soon. Have a lovely evening.
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