The Pumlumon Project, established in 2007, takes its name from the mountain at the centre of its project area, across 40,000 hectares of Cambrian uplands. It's led by the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust, and described as as a 'pioneering, science-based project to revive the ecology and economy of the Welsh uplands'. It works with connections: those that exist upstream and downstream, between people and each other, with and through the natural environment. Sustainable agricultural incomes, healthy habitats and biodiversity are all considered as compatible parts of the same end-goal. Underlying all of this is the focus on improving water management for the benefit of all, human and non-humans alike.
The Pumlumon Project's ethos of working with the communities who are already connected to the land makes it a particularly relevant project for the Hydrocitizenship team to consider.
The Pumlumon Project's ethos of working with the communities who are already connected to the land makes it a particularly relevant project for the Hydrocitizenship team to consider.
This map below shows the Pumlumon project area, which is just beyond Borth and Tal-y-bont, the two main villages in Cymerau, the Welsh case study for Hydrocitizenship. What happens upstream is highly relevant for the villages in the surrounding area. Especially, as Dr Liz Lewis-Reddy from the Trust points out, there is a three-metre annual rainfall in thePumlumon mountain range. She helps people to visualise this by comparing this to the height of a storey and half an average building. Clearly, the way that water falls on these uplands, and then moves through it, will have a huge impact on the surrounding area. Much of these villages have suffered terrible flooding. The source of three rivers are to be found here too: the Wye, Rheidol, and the longest river in Britain, the Severn.
I spent a day in July 2015 talking with Liz about this project, in the company of community artist and farm manager Jane Lloyd Francis. As an artist who has also been commissioned by Cymerau, Jane has been quick to see that the Pumlumon project enacts some guiding principles for what 'Hydrocitizenship' might mean on the ground. A farm manager herself, she has worked directly with Liz, and feels passionate about the benefits of the Wildlife Trust working with farmers to manage the uplands. It is farming, which began here in the Neolithic period, which has shaped the character of these hills, and continues to do so.
The sheep farmers of Wales have certainly not been presented in a very favourable ecological light of late. Notoriously, in George Monbiot's book, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life. I discuss his representation of Pumlumon in this book here. Interestingly, Monbiot claims that an insurance company was interested in buying and reforesting some of the Welsh uplands because it realised that 'this would be cheaper than paying out for carpets in Gloucester'. Apparently, they did not act on this because of anticipated political difficulties. Such difficulties might include the impression that the Welsh hills were being 'cleansed' of hill farmers for the benefit of English towns. The memory of the drowning of Welsh villages, such as Capel Celyn, in 1960s, still very much alive in the Welsh psyche. This drowning brought water- as it turns out- for industrial purposes in towns like Liverpool, who have since offered an official apology. There are contemporary controversies over the ownership of that water, which has significant financial value, diverted from Wales
The Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust is very overt about it's mission to work with the communities (including farmers) who are connected with the Welsh Uplands. As Lewis- Reddy explained:
'Effectively the Pumlumon project came about because it was recognised that there was a number of threats in the Welsh uplands; threats to biodiversity, which was our first interest as a wildlife trust, but also threats to the way that people engage with the landscape. Agricultural income was falling, the environment was declining, and these were all thought to be very separate things, until we started looking into the situation a bit more closely and we discovered that they were all very tightly interlinked. So the way that the land was being managed, or not managed, was having a significant impact on the quality of the environment that was up there and therefore the quality of habitat and the different types of wildlife that you would encounter.'
'Effectively the Pumlumon project came about because it was recognised that there was a number of threats in the Welsh uplands; threats to biodiversity, which was our first interest as a wildlife trust, but also threats to the way that people engage with the landscape. Agricultural income was falling, the environment was declining, and these were all thought to be very separate things, until we started looking into the situation a bit more closely and we discovered that they were all very tightly interlinked. So the way that the land was being managed, or not managed, was having a significant impact on the quality of the environment that was up there and therefore the quality of habitat and the different types of wildlife that you would encounter.'
I was fortunate to be able to film an interview between Jane Lloyd Francis and Dr Liz Lewis-Reddy, and through this process I reached a better understanding of the work of the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust. Their conversation is edited and published here.
Essentially, the Trust is working to restore very drained peat-bogs in a landscape that has suffered from intensive sheep farming. They have explored and promoted a range of solutions to this problem, such as advocating for some agriculturally marginal land to be kept sheep-free. This would allow trees and shrubs to grow (in gullies for instance), drawing water from the land with their complex root systems. There are benefits to all if nutrients can be drawn and held in the landscape, rather than washing into the sea. Such measures to restore the peat, and hold water in the land will also slow the flow of water downstream and help with flooding. Locking carbon into the peat will help to control emissions, relevant to climate change. Helping to explain these connections to the communities involved is an important aspect of the work.
Essentially, the Trust is working to restore very drained peat-bogs in a landscape that has suffered from intensive sheep farming. They have explored and promoted a range of solutions to this problem, such as advocating for some agriculturally marginal land to be kept sheep-free. This would allow trees and shrubs to grow (in gullies for instance), drawing water from the land with their complex root systems. There are benefits to all if nutrients can be drawn and held in the landscape, rather than washing into the sea. Such measures to restore the peat, and hold water in the land will also slow the flow of water downstream and help with flooding. Locking carbon into the peat will help to control emissions, relevant to climate change. Helping to explain these connections to the communities involved is an important aspect of the work.
It may be natural to focus only on what's happening upstream, but the principles of hydro-citizenship apply downstream as well. As Liz explains:
'The most important message that we’d like to get across is that all individuals have a role to play in the water as it moves through their community.'
This means being far more conscious of water, for example: using it responsibly, thinking about how to make our own gardens more permeable, making sure that septic tanks are empty, and collecting rainwater. A particular characteristic of ecological citizenship is that it shifts more weight towards responsibilities, rather than rights (as Andrew Dobson explains here): 'The source of the ecological citizen's obligation does not lie in reciprocity or mutual advantage, but in a non-reciprocal sense of justice, or of compassion.' Although acts of ecological citizenship can provide direct benefits for individuals and communities, that is not the primary motivation. Rather than having some kind of contract with the state, we have a set of obligations towards strangers, 'distant in time, as well as in space' (p6). Thinking of 'downstream' and 'upstream' responsibilities means acting in real, physical ways, but also conveys something more abstract; it is a commitment to act for those that we may never know, including the non-human.
'The most important message that we’d like to get across is that all individuals have a role to play in the water as it moves through their community.'
This means being far more conscious of water, for example: using it responsibly, thinking about how to make our own gardens more permeable, making sure that septic tanks are empty, and collecting rainwater. A particular characteristic of ecological citizenship is that it shifts more weight towards responsibilities, rather than rights (as Andrew Dobson explains here): 'The source of the ecological citizen's obligation does not lie in reciprocity or mutual advantage, but in a non-reciprocal sense of justice, or of compassion.' Although acts of ecological citizenship can provide direct benefits for individuals and communities, that is not the primary motivation. Rather than having some kind of contract with the state, we have a set of obligations towards strangers, 'distant in time, as well as in space' (p6). Thinking of 'downstream' and 'upstream' responsibilities means acting in real, physical ways, but also conveys something more abstract; it is a commitment to act for those that we may never know, including the non-human.
What is perhaps most interesting about the work of the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust is that they see every aspect of the management of the uplands as being interlinked. Everything starts with the local, but becomes significant on a far greater scale. In fact, it is the framing of these landscapes, and their communities together, that first attracted Jane Lloyd Francis.
Recognising that her own farm was ideally situated to slow the run-off into the Dyfi, Jane planted hedgerow on her land, to compliment the bog area which was also soaking up water. Jane's neighbours subsequently became interested in making similar changes to their own land. As Jane notes:
'I think that method of word-of -mouth communication is something that works particularly well here in Wales, and is probably more effective than any other form of marketing or trying to force policies on people.'
'I think that method of word-of -mouth communication is something that works particularly well here in Wales, and is probably more effective than any other form of marketing or trying to force policies on people.'
Towards Hydrocitizenship, as a research project, does aim to connect communities with and through the natural environment, with a particular focus on water. It does also try to promote the idea that citizenship should be (re)configured to include a shared sense of responsibility for our natural resources, such as water. We would all like to see positive, sustainable, ecological change. I think that Jane was right to see a connection between the ethos of Hydrocitizenship, and the Pumlumon Project:
'I think it’s necessary to go to events and explain what’s happening, and also to give power, to empower the individual and small communities, into believing that what they do matters, and it’s not always that they give the responsibility to someone else, to government agencies, to water authorities, that it’s always someone else’s fault. Because there’s an awful lot that we can do as individuals and communities, and I think that people don’t realise that really. I also don’t think that they would expect Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust to be leading such an initiative and I think it’s important to explain that to them.'
Indeed, the Wildlife Trust may not be the first organisation to come to mind when considering the issue of flooding, and its effects on human communities. Yet Liz presents a compelling argument:
'What’s really crucial is that now the scientific community is presenting strong arguments that a healthy and robust natural environment is very, very tightly related to a healthy and robust economy, and that of course then has significant effects on our social environment. So it’s all very much inter-related. We, as a wildlife trust – it’s no longer just about what’s outdoors. It’s about how people engage with that landscape, and the quality of their lives, as well.'
It does certainly seems like a false distinction to separate the ecological and social.
'I think it’s necessary to go to events and explain what’s happening, and also to give power, to empower the individual and small communities, into believing that what they do matters, and it’s not always that they give the responsibility to someone else, to government agencies, to water authorities, that it’s always someone else’s fault. Because there’s an awful lot that we can do as individuals and communities, and I think that people don’t realise that really. I also don’t think that they would expect Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust to be leading such an initiative and I think it’s important to explain that to them.'
Indeed, the Wildlife Trust may not be the first organisation to come to mind when considering the issue of flooding, and its effects on human communities. Yet Liz presents a compelling argument:
'What’s really crucial is that now the scientific community is presenting strong arguments that a healthy and robust natural environment is very, very tightly related to a healthy and robust economy, and that of course then has significant effects on our social environment. So it’s all very much inter-related. We, as a wildlife trust – it’s no longer just about what’s outdoors. It’s about how people engage with that landscape, and the quality of their lives, as well.'
It does certainly seems like a false distinction to separate the ecological and social.
Read more by Sara Penrhyn Jones