Natural England’s Chair, Tony Juniper, today (2 February)
welcomes the publication of the Dasgupta Review, hailing it
a significant milestone in recognising the irreplaceable
and vital roles played by healthy natural systems in
supporting our economy and society.
Led up by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, the Review
presents the first comprehensive economic framework of its
kind for biodiversity. It calls for urgent and
transformative change in how we think, act and measure
economic success to protect and enhance the natural world
as an essential prerequisite for sustaining our present and
future prosperity.
The Review makes it clear that our economy is a wholly
owned subsidiary of the natural world and that degrading
nature increasingly exposes the world to a host of risks.
It points out how increased risk of pandemic is one threat
that comes in the wake of the unsustainable relationship we
have with our environment.
Welcoming the Review, Natural England Chair, Tony Juniper,
said:
For too long it has been widely assumed that the
degradation of the environment was a necessary price of
progress. This Review reveals, however, that the opposite
is in fact the case, and how a healthy natural world is
essential for sustaining the health of our economy and
society.
The clear upshot is that we now need to ensure collective
and sustained action to ensure the natural world on which
we depend is not only protected, but also restored at
transformational scale. This will require a step change
in investment, both public and private, in the recovery
of Nature.
The restoration of the natural world will bring a range
of valuable dividends, making this one of the wisest
investments we can make, with rich returns seen in, for
example, improved public health and wellbeing, catching
carbon from the air, helping us adapt to the changing
climate, ensuring supplies of clean water, boosting
tourism and protecting our future food security.
The Review affirms the fact that biodiversity is declining
faster than at any time in human history. Current
extinction rates, for example, are around 100 to 1,000
times higher than the baseline rate, and they are
increasing. Such declines are undermining Nature’s
productivity, resilience and adaptability, and are in turn
fuelling extreme risk and uncertainty for our economies and
well-being.
Dasgupta’s analysis highlights the need to engage society
in nature for the sake of wellbeing and health, but also as
a means to invest in future action. Evidence from
Natural England supports this, showing that almost half
the population say that they are spending more time outside
than before the pandemic and the overwhelming majority
consider nature is important to them, their health and
their happiness.
Tony Juniper added:
Here in England we have a golden opportunity to make the
shift we need to see, through the government’s 25 Year
Environment Plan and backed by the Environment Bill and
other legislation and policies, especially in farming,
all of which will help to deliver our landmark Nature
Recovery Network.
The Nature Recovery
Network Delivery Partnership, led by Natural England,
will bring together representatives from over 600
organisations to drive forward the restoration of our
protected sites and landscapes and help provide at least
500,000 hectares of additional new wildlife-rich habitat
across England. It is the biggest initiative to restore
nature ever to be launched in England.
Today’s publication comes ahead of COP15 for Biological
Diversity, where new long-term international targets for
addressing biodiversity loss are expected to be agreed; and
COP26 for climate change, where nature and nature-based
solutions to climate change are expected to play a
prominent role.
