Today’s long-awaited publication of the Environment Bill is
welcome but The Wildlife Trusts are concerned that the Bill must
not be delayed further if we are to tackle the serious
environmental challenges we face. Cross-party support is needed
to trigger nature’s recovery.
The recent State of Nature Report revealed that one in seven
species in the UK are at risk of extinction and 58% of
species are in decline. The Wildlife Trusts have long-called for
ambitious new laws to allow nature to recover and so are
delighted to see that the new Environment Bill will include
legally-binding targets for biodiversity.
Dr Sue Young, head of
land use planning and ecological networks for The Wildlife
Trusts, says:
“We’re really pleased to see a commitment to creating local
nature recovery strategies for the whole of England to support a
Nature Recovery Network. It’s very positive to hear that these
will identify opportunity areas which show where action needs to
be taken so that nature can recover.
“However, we are disappointed that major national infrastructure
projects will not be subject to net gain – this means that the
new legal requirement to make developers actively improve nature
will not apply to the most damaging schemes. While we
welcome the clauses strengthening the Natural Environment and
Rural Communities Act – saying all public bodies must
have regard to conservation and enhancement of
biodiversity – we believe that this should also apply
to national government when they decide on the planning of
national infrastructure projects such as HS2.
“Additionally, there have been few guarantees on the
independence, resourcing or the strong enforcement powers of the
new watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection. This must
change if the Government’s proposals are to effectively ensure
the protection of the natural environment and meet the ambition
needed to turn nature’s recovery from an aspiration to a
reality.”
In a short film for The Wildlife Trusts, calling
for powerful new environmental laws and for a Nature
Recovery Network, Sir David Attenborough,
president emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts, said:
“A wildlife-rich natural world is vital for our wellbeing and
survival. We need wild places to thrive. Yet many of our systems
and laws have failed the natural world. We now live in one of the
most nature depleted places on the planet. Nature urgently needs
our help to recover – and it can be done. By joining up wild
places and creating more across the UK we would improve our lives
and help nature to flourish - because everything works better
when it’s connected.”
Why a Nature Recovery Network?
For many years we’ve known that nature reserves alone are not
enough for wildlife’s recovery. Too often we’ve seen
wildlife forced into fewer and smaller pockets of wild space,
surrounded by urban development or intensive agriculture.
This reduces nature’s resilience to climate change. Sir
John Lawton, who led a Government review of England’s wildlife
sites in 2010, said: “There is compelling evidence that
they are generally too small and too isolated. We need more space
for nature.”
To allow nature to recover, we need to reconnect the fragmented
sites that remain – stitching back together Britain’s tattered
natural fabric of wild land and creating more space for wildlife.
A Nature Recovery Network would act as a strategic spatial
planning framework to map, plan and deliver what nature needs to
recover, allowing targeted delivery and investment in nature’s
recovery and for translating national objectives into real change
on the ground. Aligning funds such as Environmental Land
Management payments and “net gain” contributions will provide
value for money and allow businesses to have confidence in where
and how to invest for long term environmental gain.
