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Tony Juniper, Natural England chair, welcomes new legal
targets to tackle the biodiversity crisis and commitments to
tackle climate change
Natural England is set to establish a species
reintroductions task force, after it was announced by the
Environment Secretary today. Species reintroductions, alongside
habitat restoration and greening of urban spaces, will form part
of work to hit new legally binding biodiversity targets to
reverse the decline of wildlife.
Natural England will be heading up the task force as
secretariat, considering the reintroduction of species which have
been lost to England – such as wildcat – and the introduction of
declining species into new areas such as pine marten, dormice,
corncrake, short-haired bumblebee and large blue butterfly. This
action is being taken to help populations recover and will make
up part of the Nature Recovery Network (NRN). It will bring
together experts, landowners and NGOs to share knowledge, assess
and prioritise species for reintroduction and to develop
partnerships for delivering high quality projects.
Natural England Chair Tony Juniper, speaking at the launch
with the Environment Secretary, welcomed the stronger measures to
protect biodiversity through legally binding targets and the
proactive approach to the restoration of native species to
England, contributing to nature’s recovery at scale.
Speaking today at Delamere Forest, Natural England
chair, Tony Juniper, said:
“A new target for Nature recovery enshrined in law will be
a powerful new driver for coordinated action, as was found on
cutting greenhouse gas emissions following the passage of the
Climate Change Act. Meeting a stretching Nature target can be
done, so long as we can join up different policy areas, such as
farming, housing development and infrastructure, while also
improving overall environmental quality in terms of air and water
pollution.
“Natural England stands ready to work across Government to
help make it happen, including through the delivery of an
ambitious Nature Recovery Network that will see not only the
improvement of our vital protected areas, more green spaces and
trees in towns and cities and the restoration of lost habitats,
including woodland, wetland and heaths, but also the return of
lost species.”
Also launched today by the Environment Secretary, , are the England Peat Action
Planand ‘Nature for Climate
Peatland Grant Scheme’, benefiting people and
wildlife by increasing, improving and joining-up wildlife-rich
places across England. This will be supported by an expected over
£50 million between 2021 and 2025.
The ‘Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme’ programme,
to be administered by Natural England, will offer multi-annual
grants which will encourage and enable partnerships to develop
much more ambitious and extensive proposals to restore the
integrity and quality of peat systems across large landscape
areas.
The England Peat Action Plan aims to help restore 35,000
hectares of degraded peatlands in England over the next 4 years.
This will secure 9 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents
cumulatively by 2050, as well as deliver a range of wider
environmental and social benefits, such as cleaner water and
richer wildlife.
