Right to Roam
Emma Cunis, the founder of Dartmoor’s Daughter, on the overturning of the right to camp on Dartmoor.
If you’ve been following the news, the last few weeks have been an extraordinary time on Dartmoor. The overturning of the right to camp on Dartmoor was a surprising and disappointing decision. Whilst they decide whether to appeal, Dartmoor National Park Authority quickly negotiated an interim solution with landowners for paid permissive access (with a somewhat reduced map) which was really helpful for Ten Tors, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, etc to be able to go ahead this year. However longer term this is yet another erosion of access and rights which is deeply disheartening. The great majority of walkers, riders, cyclists, dog owners, campers, etc behave well and follow a ‘leave no trace’ philosophy. Indeed many of us pick up litter, close gates, report issues, help livestock in trouble, volunteer with various groups on the moor, etc so it’s incredibly frustrating that a minority of people ruin things for everyone else. It’s the same of course in many parts of society, and I sympathise with landowners and farmers who’ve experienced issues on their land, but I don’t believe greater restrictions are the answer. We need to get to the root causes of disconnection with our natural world and try to address them through education, responsible access, and greater enforcement.
“When children grow up in these countries, experiencing nature and learning the code in practical terms, these codes become second nature, part of a wider understanding of how humans should interact with nature.”
If you’re curious as to how the general public has ended up with access to just 8% of the land (and 3% of rivers) in England, then you maybe interested to read or watch Three Acres and a Cow. In countries such as Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Scotland there is a ‘right to roam’ that allows anyone to wander in open countryside whether the land is privately or publicly owned. 'There are still major landowners in Norway, Counts in Sweden, Lords in Scotland who own many hundreds of thousands of acres. Their ownership of the land, however, while it allows them to take rent, mine and make money from the land, does not include the right to exclude every other member of the public. In these countries, the Right to Roam is considered so important to the health and mental well-being of a nation, that it supersedes that peculiarly English stipulation of property: the right to exclude. Instead, every person has a right to explore these vast open spaces, to sleep there, to kayak, swim, climb, ride horses and cycle. This right, however, is contingent on adhering to a strict set of responsibilities. These are simple, basic codes of how to behave in the countryside in such a way that you neither interrupt the function of a working, agricultural landscape, or damage the ecology of where you roam. None of these codes differ in logic from the Countryside Code of England, but they cover a larger scope, because they encompass more activities, and larger areas of land. When children grow up in these countries, experiencing nature and learning the code in practical terms, these codes become second nature, part of a wider understanding of how humans should interact with nature.’
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
The current paradigm of English land ownership and access doesn’t seem to be working well for anyone so I understand the knee-jerk response to want to restrict access. And yet if we look north of our border to Scotland and these other examples mentioned, they may offer some interesting and inspiring solutions as to how we can all benefit - walkers, riders, campers, farmers and landowners alike. If you would like to get involved, you could write to your MP and/or join organisations who have successfully championed access such as the Dartmoor Preservation Association, BMC, The Ramblers and Right 2 Roam.
I am curious about how many of us feel claimed by our landscapes. The intention behind the name 'Dartmoor’s Daughter’ was the recognition that we are all sons and daughters of the earth, and not the other way around. This extraordinary planet is a miracle of time, space, and various ingredients that have combined to create life, food and shelter. As humans we need to remember that to ‘have dominion over...’ is not ownership and control, but rather stewardship and caretaking. We (particularly in the modern Capitalist West) may feel as if we have control over but in reality we are but a minute blip on this vast interconnected, living, breathing being that will outlive us probably by another few billions of years. As the years have gone by, I realise that others (consciously or unconsciously) may feel the same - nicknames and email addresses abound such as 'Dartmoor Dick', ‘dartmoorlander’, dartmoorjo', ‘dartmoorbill', 'Dartmoor Paul', 'Dartmoor Chris', and there’s probably others.
