The Welsh Government has published its response to the Chapter 4 Access proposals that were outlined in the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources consultation. The Government will progress significant changes to access rights and facilitate an assumption of non-motorised multi-use on access land and the public rights of way network. This will provide users such as cyclists and horse riders with many more opportunities to access the outdoors near to where they live in line with the goals set out in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015 and complementing the provisions of the Active Travel (Wales) Act and the Environment (Wales) Act. An independent Access Reform Group will develop ideas such as allowing cycling and horse riding on footpaths.

The next round of expressions of interest in the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Management Scheme opens on 21 May. It is widely open to organisations that operate principally in a rural area and are engaged in agriculture, forestry or other land management, and aims to support collaborative landscape-scale projects delivering action that improves our natural resources in a way that delivers benefits to farm and rural businesses and rural communities. It will also support and facilitate coordination with other schemes to undertake the vital action needed to improve the resilience of farm and rural businesses and rural communities to climate impacts. Partly EU-funded, the scheme closes in 2020.

Abergavenny is to have its first Repair Café on 18 May, at the Community Centre in Park Street (11am – 2pm) and then the third Saturday of every month. The aim is to prolong the life of household items that need fixing and keep them out of landfill, as well as saving you money. The service is free but they need talented volunteers – contact repaircafeabergavenny@gmail.com.

Guardian writer George Monbiot is coordinating a new group – www.naturalclimatesolutions – that proposes the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by ecological restoration, which attracts comparatively little funding or political attention.