There are growing calls to remove lots of the restrictions around growing and processing Hemp in the U.K. Better known as cannabis, modern varieties of hemp are too weak for drug use, but they are extremely efficient at absorbing and locking up carbon.
Hemp is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, growing by up to 4 metres in just 100 days. Researchers believe that hemp is twice as effective as trees at absorbing and locking up carbon. In fact, 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of hemp is thought to absorb between 8-22 tonnes of CO2 a year, much more than any woodland.
The CO2 is also permanently fixed in hemp fibres which can be used for many products including textiles, medicines, insulation for buildings and concrete. For example, BMW is even using it to replace plastic in some car parts.
However, unlike a growing number of other countries, the UK still classifies industrial hemp as a controlled drug and requires a Home Office licence.
Restoring hemp would give us another tool to fight climate change, offset carbon footprint, and create a climate-positive industry. Would you want more hemp in the UK?
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At Natural World Fund, we are passionate about stopping the decline in our wildlife.
Individually, you can offset our carbon footprint and become carbon neutral which is a fantastic thing to do. No one should be contributing to global warming if they can help it. However, in a global scale it will have a minimal impact.
But when you help restore a patch of degraded land through rewilding to forests, meadows, or wetlands, you have a massive impact on the biodiversity at a local level. You give animals a home and food that they otherwise would not have had, and it has a positive snowball effect for the food chain.
We are convinced that this is much better for the UK than growing lots of fast-growing coniferous trees to remove carbon that don’t help our animals to thrive.
This is why we stand for restoring nature in the UK through responsible rewilding. For us, it is the right thing to do. Let’s do what’s right for nature!
Support our work today at https://naturalworldfund.com/ and join in the solution!
