Natural Law: Conservation charity calls for legislation to protect UK biodiversity

Although understanding is growing about the links between human wellbeing and nature, the fact remains we are currently on a path to biodiversity loss. If we are to reverse this trend, and ensure there is a vibrant natural environment in years to come, we need to legislate for nature, now.    

Sixty percent of species in the UK assessed in the State of Nature report 2013 have declined over the past 50 years and more than one in ten priority species are now under threat of extinction. That much of this is due to habitat loss and degradation is well known, but this is not reflected in policy making where growth remains the dominant theme. 

Our natural world should not be a diminishing resource - that which is left after the latest infrastructure scheme has been completed. It should be proactively promoted in public policy and safeguarded. Alongside measures to achieve growth we need legislation for nature. This should include a strategic plan for protecting and investing in green infrastructure.

What is green infrastructure? In this context the term ‘green infrastructure’ refers not to an energy system but to the many and varied places that support nature. Its core components are existing protected sites (e.g. Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation, etc) and areas identified primarily for landscape reasons (e.g. National Parks, National Scenic Areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty).  However, green infrastructure extends into our towns and cities and is as relevant in urban areas as it is in the countryside.  It has a critical role in restoring nature but it also provides other essential benefits such as flood resilience, carbon sequestration, pollinator health, fresh air, clean water and space for outdoor recreation.  These ecosystem services are vital for our economy and our wellbeing.

In his important review of England’s wildlife sites and ecological network, Making Space for Nature, Sir John Lawton concluded that important wildlife sites “are generally insufficiently protected and undermanaged”. In particular he noted that the UK’s current collection of wildlife sites does not represent “a coherent and resilient ecological network …capable of responding to climate change and other pressures”.

In order to address the decline in biodiversity he identified that the UK needed a more joined up ecological network on a greater scale, with more space for wildlife.

The Natural Environment White Paper (2011) advocated the delivery of ecological networks via the planning process and this was reflected in the National Policy Planning Framework.  Unfortunately local ecological networks are not being consistently developed or integrated with other objectives.  The problem is that there is no national commitment to, or inter-governmental framework for, ecological networks.  A key way to ensure that plans for ecological networks will attract the investment needed for their delivery is to place them at the core of processes that determine how land is used, public funds are allocated and economic, social and environmental policy targets are delivered. Therefore, plans for the creation of ecological networks must be fully embedded in local plans so that they are given proper weight in development control decisions. Their influence must then go beyond the sphere of local planning and become the concern of all relevant government bodies whose objectives can be delivered locally by a healthy, natural environment.

There needs to be a national ecological network built at the local level, and knitted together across administrative boundaries. This is a key provision in the proposal for Nature and Wellbeing Act, which the Trustis supporting alongside 21 other organisations.This spatial plan for green infrastructure could be a blueprint for investment in nature. It could be used to identify irreplaceable landscapes and to target public and private sector funds to restore degraded habitat. With the right vision, some of this could be done alongside or within built infrastructure schemes.  The outcome would be links in the landscape between woodlands, meadows, rivers, allotments, orchards and wild places, for the benefit of nature - to which the wellbeing of people is inextricably bound.