{"id":155255,"date":"2025-11-26T21:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/155255\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T21:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T21:12:15","slug":"why-the-plan-for-a-forest-city-is-not-as-green-as-it-sounds-green-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/155255\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the plan for a \u2018forest city\u2019 is not as green as it sounds | Green building"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Protection of nature is a key component of sustainability, but all too often we forget its other essential elements (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/nov\/23\/how-ambitious-forest-city-plan-for-england-could-become-a-reality\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How ambitious \u2018forest city\u2019 plan for England could become a reality, 23 November<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><a data-link-name=\"in body link\">Promoters<\/a> of a so-called \u201cforest city\u201d in east Cambridgeshire\u2019s countryside ignore the fact that building across 18,000 hectares (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cjw97nlq8q7o\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">45,000 acres<\/a>) \u2013 as well as setting aside 4,800 hectares (12,000 acres) for a new forest \u2013 would destroy some of England\u2019s most productive and scarce grade 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.naturalengland.org.uk\/publication\/127056?category=5954148537204736\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">farmland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Our food security is already under acute threat \u2013 we produce little more than half the food we need, while even more of Europe\u2019s breadbasket in Ukraine is now threatened with Russian control.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sustainable development is complex and involves balancing land uses. Farming certainly needs to be more nature-friendly, but even modern arable land supports significant amounts of soil flora and fauna, and farmland birds. Sealing a vast area of soil and creating high levels of air, noise and light pollution next to newly planted forestry would undermine any contribution to nature. <br \/>Jon Reeds<br \/>Smart Growth UK <\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/nov\/26\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protection of nature is a key component of sustainability, but all too often we forget its other essential&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-155255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}