HEATH PROJECT CELEBRATES SUCCESSES WITH EU PARTNERS

HEATH PROJECT CELEBRATES SUCCESSES WITH EU PARTNERS

The HEATH Project celebrated it’s successes at it’s final conference last week. HEATH project partners attended from Holland, France, Wales and Cornwall to exchange information and best practice gained over the four year HEATH project.

During the first day, hosted at the Tregenna Castle Hotel in St Ives, over seventy delegates heard presentations from Herbert Diemont and Wim Geraedts from Holland, French partner Louis-Marie Guillon, Jean Snell from Sense of Place in Cornwall and Graeme Kirkham, from the Historic Environment Service at Cornwall County Council.

Herbert Diemont explained, “Heathland must be conserved or it will disappear like it has in Spain and Portugal. To do this it must be managed. The HEATH project has helped this management take place in Holland.”

Wim Geraedts highlighted some of the products that are being trialed in Holland such as heathland cheeses, beef sausages, tinned goulash and fuel pellets made from cut vegetation.

Rose Nankervis, a farmer from Zennor commented, “Sometimes when I’m out on the cliff with my cattle I’m encouraged and heartened that there are many farmers thinking about how best to manage heathland. It’s really good to come to this conference and hear that all over European people are doing the same.”

Steven Bone, who farms Lanyon Farm added, “It’s interesting to see that projects such as Sense of Place are reaching out to future generations and trying to educate children how and why heathland should be managed.”

“It’s also good to hear how much heathlands were managed in the past and how ancient monuments may be destroyed if they are not managed well into the future. We need to reach out further to the public so the projects skeptics can appreciate the HEATH projects work.”

On the second day delegates visited Cornish HEATH project sites in West Penwith and on the Lizard.