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<v Speaker 1>Country Slide understands that DEFRA is considering whether a new

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<v Speaker 1>licensing regime should apply to influencers, wild campers, nature writers,

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<v Speaker 1>and rural lifestyle content creators who make commercial or quasi

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<v Speaker 1>commercial use of sensitive landscapes. Officials say the Department has

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<v Speaker 1>become increasingly concerned by what one draft note describes as

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<v Speaker 1>a growing class of countryside user whose activities are framed

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<v Speaker 1>as wholesome, restorative, and low impact, but whose aggregates effect

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<v Speaker 1>can include trampling of nesting habitat, widening of footpaths, disturbance

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<v Speaker 1>at sensitive times of year, livestock worrying, crop damage, littering,

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<v Speaker 1>drone intrusion, and increased risk of wildfire. The concern, one

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<v Speaker 1>source said, is not that people enjoy being in the countryside,

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<v Speaker 1>but that some users exploit it for personal gain, often

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<v Speaker 1>framing things with a veneer of wholesomeness and moral superiority

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<v Speaker 1>that actually promotes or encourages extractive and ecologically damaging activities

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<v Speaker 1>or misrepresents its impact on landscapes and biodiversity. In his

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<v Speaker 1>emotional and esthetic strip Mining a Death for spokesperson Phil

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<v Speaker 1>Form declined to comment on the existence of any formal

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<v Speaker 1>consultation but said the department was keen to ensure that

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<v Speaker 1>all interactions with the natural environment are assessed according to

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<v Speaker 1>actual ecological effect rather than the story participants tell about

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<v Speaker 1>them afterwards. He added, there is increasing recognition across government

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<v Speaker 1>that some countryside uses may appear to be low impact positive,

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<v Speaker 1>even while being considerably less benign in practice. At the

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<v Speaker 1>center of the mooted plans is a permit system for

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<v Speaker 1>what officials are calling the Outdoor Access Framework OAF. We

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<v Speaker 1>understand stand that this would include outdoor influencers, wild campers,

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<v Speaker 1>transformational walking memoirists, grief naturalists, and countryside influencers, young women

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<v Speaker 1>in colourful for dooras suede boots and tweed miniskirts, and

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<v Speaker 1>their quarter zip clad male equivalents. Under the proposals, creators

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<v Speaker 1>filming or photographing themselves in picturesque sensitive landscapes would require

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<v Speaker 1>an access and Recreation for social exploitation permit. Arse conditions

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<v Speaker 1>could reportedly include a ring light and selfie stick levy,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as seasonal restrictions on drone use. Revenue from

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<v Speaker 1>these would be ring fenced to repair damage done to

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<v Speaker 1>footpaths caused by increased footfall to previously little known sights,

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<v Speaker 1>and to fund the installation of queuing systems at particularly

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<v Speaker 1>viral selfie spots. The draft note observes drily that a

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<v Speaker 1>habitat does not cease to be under pressure merely because

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<v Speaker 1>one appends hashtag nature hashtag keep it Wild to a

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<v Speaker 1>TikTok post. Wild campers would require a temporary overnight Site

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<v Speaker 1>Stop Permit of Tenure tss POT. A briefing paper reportedly

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<v Speaker 1>lists among the impacts of wild camping the increased risk

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<v Speaker 1>of wildfires owing to the lighting of campfires and disposable barbecues,

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<v Speaker 1>littering what is somewhat euphemistically referred to as human waste mismanagement,

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<v Speaker 1>and wildlife disturbance. The Department remains fully supportive of public

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<v Speaker 1>enjoyment of landscape, one passage reads, but is less persuaded

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<v Speaker 1>of the ecological benefits of defecating beside a remote tarn

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<v Speaker 1>For content. Nature writers meanwhile, would need a Sentimental Healing

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<v Speaker 1>and Anthropomorphism Mandate SHAM, permitting them to derive meaning from

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<v Speaker 1>weather estuaries, long walks, and chance encounters with mammals. Authors

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<v Speaker 1>would require a certificate from their GP before claiming that

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<v Speaker 1>a landscape healed the author that a walk changed my life,

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<v Speaker 1>or that a badger had arrived with therapeutic intent at

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<v Speaker 1>precisely the right moment. Applicants wishing to suggest that a

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<v Speaker 1>hare had reordered their understanding of loss, that drizzle had

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<v Speaker 1>instructed them in humility, or that a wren had quietly

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<v Speaker 1>restored the architecture of the self would first need to

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<v Speaker 1>complete an online awareness module entitled Gossawks and hares are

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<v Speaker 1>not crisis Counselors. Civil servants are said to be especially

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<v Speaker 1>concerned by the rapid growth of what one described as

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<v Speaker 1>landscape based moral autobiography, in which mildly strenuous walks and

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<v Speaker 1>selective hardship are used to construct an aura of depth, authenticity,

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<v Speaker 1>and earned wisdom. There may also be civil penalties for

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<v Speaker 1>mileage inflation. Officials are understood to have become interested in

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<v Speaker 1>the routine exaggeration of disa, remoteness, and hardship by walkers,

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<v Speaker 1>campers and memoirists seeking to present a bit of a

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<v Speaker 1>walk as a grueling yet life changing ordeal of spiritual

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<v Speaker 1>and physical reconstruction. Mister Form said, you can't claim to

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<v Speaker 1>have been on some epic journey when your campsite is

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<v Speaker 1>withinside of the car park, three pubs and a visitors

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<v Speaker 1>center selling cream teas and artisanal ginger beer. It is

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<v Speaker 1>also understood that officials are looking into a special income

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<v Speaker 1>tax band for any former ad execs or KPMG consultants

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<v Speaker 1>moving into a cabin to engage in willow weaving or

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<v Speaker 1>hedge laying in order to assuage their feelings of capitalist

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<v Speaker 1>guilt or to recover from corporate burnout. A separate license

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<v Speaker 1>would cover the performative rural living sector. Before creating an

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<v Speaker 1>Instagram account about their new rustic living arrangements, applicants would

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<v Speaker 1>have to establish that the property described as a farmhouse

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<v Speaker 1>was linked in any way to a farm, and would

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<v Speaker 1>also be record required to declare whether repeated references to

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<v Speaker 1>slow mornings, living with the seasons, and the good life

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<v Speaker 1>were supported by any meaningful familiarity with slurry, dead lambs,

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<v Speaker 1>block drains, feed bills, or other less photogenic substances from

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<v Speaker 1>which real countryside life is generally composed. The cost of

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<v Speaker 1>these licenses would be means tested, so that those who

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<v Speaker 1>can prove that their self sufficient lifestyle is not supported

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<v Speaker 1>by independent income or inherited wealth are excluded. The department

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<v Speaker 1>is also said to be considering a levee on cagoules

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<v Speaker 1>branded Patagonia T shirts, down jackets and fleecelined yoga leggings

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<v Speaker 1>in recognition of what one Treasury linked paper describes as

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<v Speaker 1>the wider environmental footprint associated with synthetic moral signaling. A

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<v Speaker 1>similar levee would be placed on teal for dooras quarter zips, leather,

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<v Speaker 1>Wellington's tweed skirts and silk scarves with game bird motifs.

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<v Speaker 1>Campaigners have reacted with fury. The Haste formed movement opposing

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<v Speaker 1>regulation of nature users accused ministers of criminalizing noticing things outdoors.

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<v Speaker 1>Its chairman, Ian walking Boot, said members were being unfairly

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<v Speaker 1>targeted simply for loving nature in a visible, emotionally articulate

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<v Speaker 1>and brand compatible way. He denied that the sector had

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<v Speaker 1>a hypocrisy problem. It's perfectly possible, he said, to feel

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<v Speaker 1>profoundly connected to a place while also widening its paths,

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<v Speaker 1>leaving a smoldering campfire on it, and allowing one's cockapoo

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<v Speaker 1>to disturb every curly nest in the vicinity. Officials insist

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<v Speaker 1>that the proposals are not anti access. This is not

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<v Speaker 1>about stopping people enjoying the countryside. One source said It's

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<v Speaker 1>about whether wilderness and simple living should go on being

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<v Speaker 1>treated as morally superior states of being when in practice

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<v Speaker 1>they are often just consumer choices. Undertaken inexpensive knitwear still

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<v Speaker 1>say about people.