A new House of Lords report, published
today (Wednesday 26 July), has revealed that the
Government faces a mountain to climb if it is to deliver its
international commitment to protect 30 per cent of England’s land
and sea for nature by 2030 (the ’30 by 30’ target agreed at the
Montreal COP15 biodiversity conference in 2022).
The Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s
report warns that with seven years remaining, the extent
of land protected for nature in England that can
count towards ‘30 by 30’ sits at just 6.5 per
cent, requiring an area almost one and a half times
the size of Wales[1] to hit the target.
The Committee’s report; “An extraordinary challenge:
restoring 30 per cent of our land and sea by 2030”, also
found that protected sites[2] in England, which
can include land that has multiple uses, are often in a poor
condition and in many cases inadequately monitored.
Whilst welcoming the Government’s ambitions to meet the
stretching target by 2030, the Committee’s
report concludes that it is not clear how the
Government plans to achieve ’30 by 30’, and that a major
step change in its approach to protected areas is required to
deliver the commitment it made.
The Committee is calling on the Government to:
- Create more protected areas, retaining all existing
designations, whilst ensuring existing protected areas are better
managed, to achieve favourable condition.
- Confirm that areas should be protected for nature for more
than 30 years to meet the ‘30 by 30’ criteria.
- Put in place a management plan, with effective monitoring for
protected areas on land based on an up-to date condition
assessment which must be updated every six years.
- Expand the current marine monitoring programme, both inshore
and offshore, to develop a robust baseline of data that should be
made publicly available.
- Raise public awareness of local protected sites and
communicate how they can play their role in protecting them,
including unleashing and harnessing citizen science for data
collection.
- Use the next legislative opportunity to place a statutory
duty on Natural England to monitor Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSIs) and ensure the resulting data is published.
, Chair of the
Environment and Climate Change Committee said:
“Our report makes it clear that the Government
faces a huge challenge to meet the ‘30 by 30’ target it signed up
to last year.
The Government must designate more areas to be protected, meeting
international criteria, and manage and monitor all protected
areas better to achieve favourable condition.
Time is running out to halt species decline and recover nature
for the public good. We are therefore calling on the Government
to act urgently as it has just seven crucial years to fulfil
its nature crisis pledge.”
