A wildlife charity has branded the Government's nature recovery plans as 'meagre' and says it must aim higher if it's to deliver on its promise nature's recovery.
The Government has published two major documents on nature protections and environmental targets, the first being the Nature Recovery Green Paper. The consultation outlines changes to protections for sites and species, and details on the Government's proposed fans for delivering 30% protection of land and seas in England by 2030.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust says that strengthening protections for the UK's most valuable sites is crucial if the Government wants to meet its legally binding target to halt the decline in nature, with many nationally important protected sites for nature still at risk from inappropriate developments. The trust believes that the Government must ensure sites have stronger protections to prevent this.
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The Green Paper also proposes giving the Secretary of State sole power over which sites should be designated for nature. The Trust says that this risks opening the door to those pushing for existing protections to be weakened and draws uncertainty over whether sites would have been designated in the first place.
On the Nature Recovery Green Paper, Mike Pratt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Chief Executive, said: "If it’s sincere in its ambition to reverse wildlife decline and restore nature, the Government must focus on improving the protections for our most important wild places for nature and set a target to restore them to good condition. It’s vital that it resists calls to lift the rules that protect our most important wild places.
"Currently, nationally important protected sites for nature are still threatened with inappropriate developments which increase flood risk, put wildlife at risk and set us back in the fight against climate change. The Nature Green Paper must ensure that such special places have stronger protections and that decisions to designate them are led by the science. Sites of Special Scientific Interest should not become Sites of Political Convenience."
The second paper published was the Proposed Environment Act targets, which is a consultation on the proposed long-term legally binding targets for nature, water, waste and air quality. These are all a requirement under the Environment Act.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust is one of 46 across the UK which welcomes the Government's target to halt the decline of nature by 2030, but say that the targets will not meet the promise of nature's recovery - leaving the Government's clear commitment to leave the environment in a better state for the next generation in jeopardy. The long-term target for nature aims to have just 10% more nature in 2042 than 2030 levels, when the state of our natural world is expected to have declined further.
There are also no targets on the condition of protected sites, barely a third of which are in good condition. Neither is there a proposed target on the overall state of the water environment, with 0% of rivers, lakes and streams currently classed as in good health in England.
On the environmental targets, Mike Pratt adds: "Over the past five decades, since Northumberland Wildlife Trust began, our wildlife has dramatically declined. The situation is dire: one in ten species in England is on the brink of extinction and we now live in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
"The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan said they would hand over the environment in a better state for the next generation - but the reality is that the new target they have set is so unambitious that it could leave us with even less wildlife in 20 years’ time than we have now. Instead of setting themselves up to fail, the Government must keep to their word and, as a minimum, set a target that will clearly deliver more wildlife than we currently have."
DEFRA were approached for a response but had not responded by the time of publication.
