Hedge Destruction.

If we were to take all our hedges and pull them together, they would make up our largest broad leaf forest, taking up as much room in our land perhaps as the Rain Forests do in other lands. We show concern at the destruction of them, yet we allow our government finance farmers to remove our hedges or reduce them to stumps, thus removing habitat, food supply, resting places, carbon sequestration and seasonal beauty too, if anyone bothered to notice. We are faced with looming climate chaos, the need to re-afforest our earth is paramount, yet in Ireland we do the opposite; we defoliate recklessly and needlessly, removing the green places we and other things so desperately need. 

Is there an answer why?
How they should be!