edie reports the UK Government must “urgently” help large businesses to value the natural resources in their value chains and to promote conservation and restoration at scale, the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) has concluded. The Committee, which was founded in 2012 and works as an independent advisor to Defra, has published its ‘end of term report’.
Tag Archives: policy
‘An alarmingly familiar picture’: UK on course to miss most biodiversity targets
The Guardian reports the UK is failing on its long-term biodiversity targets and seeing “relentless” declines in wildlife, according to government data that shows public sector investment in conservation falling in real terms by 33% in five years. Out of 24 indicators of ecological health, 14 show long-term decline.
Boris Johnson’s pledge to return third of Britain to nature could see Lakes and Dales rewilded
The Telegraph reports conservation groups have argued that although 26 per cent of England is technically ‘protected for nature’, these areas are not sufficiently biodiverse and actually contain less trees and nature than some of our cities. The five-year plan for Natural England promises to make our national parks “richer in wildlife”, and sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have suggested this includes radically changing the landscape of our most iconic national parks.
Seabirds face extinction if Government pursues wind farm plan, RSPB warns
The Telegraph reports the Prime Minister last week promised that Britain had “limitless” offshore wind capacity, and said a green industrial revolution with this renewable resource at its heart would create millions of jobs and avert climate change. However, conservationists have warned that an enthusiastic rolling out of offshore wind could cause our globally important seabird populations to dwindle to extinction.
Boris Johnson promises to protect 30% of UK’s land by 2030
The BBC reports an extra 400,000 hectares of English countryside will be protected to support the recovery of nature under plans to be announced by Boris Johnson.
The prime minister will make the commitment at a virtual United Nations event later. He is joining a global pledge from 65 leaders to reverse losses in the natural world by the same date.
National parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and other protected areas make up 26% of land in England. Mr Johnson will promise that the government will increase the amount of protected land in the UK from 26% at present to 30% by 2030.
The South Downs from Ditchling Beacon photo by hehaden under creative commons. The South Downs National Park is England’s newest national park, designated in 2010, and, of course, within only thirty minutes drive of Normandy village.
Activists sue ministers over release of game birds for shooting
The Guardian reports the campaign group Wild Justice has accused ministers of breaching their legal duties to protect sites of high conservation value in England by failing to control the use of large areas of countryside to shoot pheasant and red-legged partridge for sport. Their judicial review will be heard in the high court in November, as complaints mount about the exemptions given by ministers to the shooting industry to continue field sports during the coronavirus pandemic.
Stop clearing out messy brambles to bring Britain’s rarest bird ‘back from the brink’, councils told
The Daily Telegraph reports the willow tit is the fastest-declining resident bird in the country, and one of the lowest in number, and the numbers have been in sharp freefall because their preferred habitat, shrubland, has been destroyed because of an obsession with neatness…. Government quango Natural England is also planning to compel local authorities to create more ‘untidy’ habitats for creatures including the Willow tit.
Willow tit photo by yrjö jyske under creative commons.
Countryside improvements fund ‘could be raided’
BBC News reports a budget designed to fund improvements to Britain’s countryside is set to be raided, the BBC has learned. Cash will be diverted away from ambitious conservation projects and towards protecting farm businesses. The government previously promised that the £3bn currently paid to farms under EU agriculture policy would be wholly used to support the environment. Ministers had said that, after Brexit, farmers would have to earn their subsidies. Farmers would secure the case by undertaking actions such as large-scale forestry or catching flood waters. But many farmers complained that they’d go bust unless the environmental actions were made easier to achieve.
Ripping up planning rules will put the UK’s wildlife at risk, charities warn Government
The Daily Telegraph reports the Wildlife Trusts have called for a new ‘wildbelt’ designation that would allow land to be protected for nature. The Government has promised a radical shake-up of planning laws that it says will speed up development across the country by giving “automatic” permission to new homes and hospitals. But conservationists and rural groups fear a spread of low quality housing across the countryside which fails to protect wildlife or provide green spaces for everyone.
Beavers should be designated native species, charity says, ahead of killing season
The Daily Telegraph, and The Times report beavers should be given legal status as a native species, the Government has been urged ahead of the start of the Scottish killing season. The Beaver Trust, a charity, has, in partnership with a range of other groups, drawn up a series of proposals on the future of the “sometimes troublesome” dam-building creatures which were almost hunted to extinction.
Photo by Pat Gaines under Creative Commons.