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BBC Wales' environment correspondent looks back on 2010

A somewhat biased report by Iolo ap Dafydd
BBC Wales environment correspondent

BBC WALES
29 December 2010

A badger
The arguments surrounding the badger cull continued to dominate headlines in 2010

2010 has been a case of reporting on culling, cuts, costs of energy and the climate.

The year between the UN talks on climate change in Copenhagen and Cancun has also been given the added colour of harsh winters in Wales.

The long-running policy of reducing bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle in west Wales has meant almost monthly stories on whether to cull badgers in Pembrokeshire or not.

Expect to read more in 2011.

The mostly local discontent became global after a videoed confrontation at the Brithdir Mawr commune near Newport in Pembrokeshire was posted on the internet, following a stand-off between anti badger culling activists and Dyfed-Powys police.

'Outrageous'

The authorities were trying to escort a national assembly vet and a couple of masked contract workers to count the number of badger setts there.

Tony Haigh was among those arrested for obstructing police officers and government officials, and says he doesn't want to allow armed strangers onto his land:

"We wanted to stop any killing of badgers and I felt it was outrageous that they came on our land, ignoring the wishes of people who live here and saying they were coming to kill badgers every year for the next five years, whatever people here thought about it."

The real blow in delaying a cull of badgers took place in the law courts.

Despite battling to halt the increase of bTB, the assembly government managed to lose a Court of Appeal hearing to the Badger Trust on 13 July.

The result: a climb down by the Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones, and no cull in 2010.

The cost of compensating farmers for their slaughtered cattle keeps rising - more than £100m in the past decade.

At a time of cuts, how sustainable can that be? This is why probably a second consultation on culling badgers has taken place, and despite an election in May, it seems the Welsh coalition of Labour-Plaid Cymru is as keen as the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat government to start shooting badgers as one way of trying to reduce the disease.

The majority of commercial farmers see bTB as a blight on their cattle and ability to run their farms profitably.

Stephen James is the NFU's vice president in Wales and farms near Clunderwen, Pembrokeshire. He isn't convinced that vaccination is a better answer than culling:

"The level of disease in wildlife is at such a high level, we've got to reduce that level of disease before a vaccine can become effective. And, of course, the vaccine is still in its early stages - and still an injectable vaccine.

"Until a successful oral vaccine is found, it isn't practical to vaccinate badgers."

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