Brecon Beacons National Park to be renamed in response to climate change

Brecon Beacons National Park is changing its name.

The park, which lies in mid Wales, will now officially be known only as Bannau Brycheiniog (its Welsh name – which means the peaks of Brychan’s kingdom).

As of Monday 17 April, the park will informally be known as the Bannau.

The change is an “organisational” one which is said to “better reflect the park and the world we live in today”, the park says.

Catherine Mealing-Jones, the park’s chief executive, told Sky News that it was important to have a name that “meant something to the people of the area”.

“As we went through the process of looking at the brand and thinking about the kind of park and organisation that we wanted to be, the old logo didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, we’re an environmental organisation so a giant, carbon-burning brasier isn’t really a good look,” she said.

“If you look at our old logo, it’s always had the bilingual on it so we’re just really emphasising the Welsh side of that because we’re much more coterminous with the old kingdom of Brychan and hopefully it fits with our duty to and our wish to promote Welsh language and culture.

“We’re a landscape which is shaped by people as much as anything, so we wanted something that meant something to the people of the area.”

While Bannau Brycheiniog National Park says it is committed to promoting the Welsh language, it adds that it does not expect the public to use the official name and that they can “choose what they prefer”.

“Using the new name isn’t compulsory. It’s something that we as an organisation are going to put the emphasis on and we hope people will use it and that they’ll use it as a gateway into learning a little bit more about the area,” Ms Mealing-Jones added.

‘Absolutely fundamental’

The name change is part of the park’s new management plan in response to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

The plan in based around five key aims which include reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the park by 2035 and ensuring clean and safe water environments by 2030.

Judith Harvey is a warden manager who has worked at the park for more than 30 years.

Ms Harvey told Sky News that “the achievements we’ve [the park] made throughout the years” keep her work fresh and exciting.

“As climate and biodiversity loss becomes more urgent for us to tackle, through my working life I’ve seen things swing around from being quite low priority as a subject to something that now everybody talks about and most people are committed to stopping biodiversity loss. A lot of people are committed to stopping climate change,” she said.

“It’s fundamental to us all. Absolutely fundamental.”

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The name change will come into force “gradually” according to Ms Mealing-Jones as the park’s rebranding process takes place.

“We really hope people will get into it in the same way that they have done internationally with places like Ayers Rock becoming Uluru.”