The End of the Hedge

The Hedge is a small, occasional local magazine which has been around for five years now. I hadn't realised it had been so long, and I usually pick up a copy when I see one, usually from the Wholefood shop.
The idea behind the magazine was to share ideas and encourage co-operation and regeneration in response to the ecological and climate crisis. It's certainly pointed me towards lots of interesting websites that I'd never have found otherwise. Sales of the magazine have also supported local charities.
Issue 11, though, which I picked up last week, will be the last issue of the Hedge. The editors, Nada Meredith and Petra Cramsie, want to concentrate their efforts on what's happening in their own locality. They will still be producing a newsletter called the Golden Valley Grape Vine.

The proceeds of this issue will be going to The Size of Herefordshire, a local charity which raises money to protect an area of the Amazon rainforest which is the size of Herefordshire. There is also a group called The Size of Wales which does the same thing. The area they are supporting is in Peru, and is the home of two tribes, the Awajun and the Wampis. The Amazon rainforests were in the news last year, of course, because of the devastating fires in countries all across the Amazon basin.
The article in the Hedge, by Jeremy Bugler, the co-ordinator of the project, says that local volunteers have been to the area to make a film about the pressures the tribes are under from loggers, miners and oil-drillers. Money from The Size of Herefordshire goes to the Forest Peoples Programme, which helps the indigenous peoples to get legal title to their land and fight law suits against the miners, oil-drillers etc. At the moment they are about a quarter of the way towards their target, with the help of The Size of Wales, which is match funding all the donations.
They are finding that it is the small landowners, the people with allotments and gardens, who are most supportive, rather than the big landowners of the county.
They have a website at www.sizeofherefordshire.org

Also in this last issue are articles by Green County Councillors Diana Toynbee and Toni Fagan. There's also information about various local groups, like the Verging On Wild group that has been formed to protect roadside verges and improve their biodiversity, the Woodland Trust and the Herefordshire Green Network. The problem of the Hereford Bypass still rumbles on, and there's an article from Wye Ruin It? about the story so far - their website is www.wyeruinit.org. There's information about the Degrowth movement (www.degrowth.info/en), articles on self sufficiency, an extract from Climate: A New Story by Charles Eisenstein, and advice on how to encourage insects in the garden. There's some fascinating history on herbalism, information about pasture fed livestock, and an article about the IPCC Report on climate change. There's also poetry and artwork. All this for £3!