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The Countryside Alliance is all about conservation. I have always believed that the best defense of all Field Sports is that they provide the ideal methods of managing wildlife, caring for the countryside and contributing to a viable rural economy. That’s conservation. Today the Countryside Alliance does much more than defend Field Sports. Those interested in thinking about the whole future of conservation in Britain should visit the Eden Project in Cornwall. They may well come away with ideas that will help them move with the times and benefit from the huge changes facing agriculture and land management.

Plants are the key to all life. Everything lives on them, either eating them or eating something else that does. So do we. Farming, after all, is only gardening on a larger scale and the Eden Project is the most exciting and interesting garden in Britain. A living theatre of plants and how they relate to people, it consists at present of three ‘biomes’ representing different climates. The first and most overwhelming is the Tropical biome, the biggest conservatory in the world. Large enough to house the Tower of London, it contains rain forest trees and plants from Amazonia, West Africa, Malaysia and Oceania around a huge indoor waterfall. In the Warm Temperate biome you are immediately transported into the Mediterranean. There are olive groves, vineyards and dry stone walls, where you can sit and close your eyes, while the smells of thyme, rosemary and other aromatic plants waft over you. Californian and South African environments have also been created here, with a welter of colour and diversity. Finally, at this stage, (a further Desert biome is planned) there is the ‘Roofless’ biome, the outside grounds where another of the great Cornish gardens is taking shape. Cornwall is favoured with an especially kind climate for growing plants from the Himalayas, Chile and Australasia out of doors, as well as our own native flora and these are on display up the striking terraces surrounding the huge abandoned china clay pit in which this garden has been created.

The story told in these ultimate habitats, which are very much not theme parks, is of man’s relationship with plants. Entertainingly, the fascinating history of how plants have been exploited by humans through the ages unfurls. Some of the ideas here will, I am sure, be picked up by enterprising people in this country looking for new ways to make a living. For example, we learn how the autumn-flowering saffron crocus, which produces the most expensive spice in the world, used to earn its British growers huge fortunes in the 16th century. Willow, of which there are 400 species and 200 hybrids, is not only used to make cricket bats but is now also recognized as one of the most promising sources of biomass and biofuel. With global warming contributing to the urgent need for those responsible for the British countryside to come up with new ideas to complement the old, a visit to the Eden Project is essential.

Louella and I can put you up when you come. We have three marvelous properties close by: a luxury seaside cottage which sleeps 7 less than two miles away; an amazing converted chapel (sleeps 12-16) less than one mile away and from which you can walk to the biomes via a beautiful wooded bridlepath past a trout fishing lake where we can arrange for you to catch your own supper; and our own house where we do bed and breakfast. Eden is open all year and it’s mostly under cover, so come when the high season is over and avoid the crowds. In any case, we can provide Fast Track tickets in advance, so you will never have to queue. We do short breaks as well as weekly lets. The cottage and the Old Chapel are only fifteen minutes from the Lost Gardens of Heligan and close to all the other wonderful attractions Cornwall has to offer.

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