Three years ago, the Government passed the Environment Act, which committed it to radical and far-reaching promises about how nature was going to be restored in England. “It will halt the decline in species by 2030,” the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) stated at the time.
These commitments were laid down in law – and now pillars of the environmental community – such as the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, WWF-UK and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) – say they are determined to ensure that the government carries them out.
What was the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP)
Under the 2021 Environment Act, the Government had to produce something it called an Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) – a sort of step-by-step guide on how it was going to fulfil its pledges on biodiversity, with some interim targets along the way like mile-markers in a marathon. That pledge to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2030 wasn’t the only commitment it made, but it was one of the biggest.
How many EIP targets will they hit?
One of the first signs of trouble came earlier this year. The Government’s nature watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (the OEP – a child of the same act that spawned the EIP) published a report in January which said that out of 40 of these legally binding targets, the Government was on course to meet only four of them. Many of them, it said, couldn’t be assessed because of a lack of evidence.
For example, the OEP report highlighted the plight of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). As many of them are in a bad condition, one of the commitments under the EIP is to make sure that plans are put in place to have at least 50 per cent of them to be recovering by 2028 – just four years from now.
But the OEP found that SSSIs were going the other way – their condition continued to deteriorate between 2017 and 2022.
Another target we seem likely to miss – at current the current rate of progress – is increasing woodland cover from 14.5% to 16.5% of total land area. The UK has signed up to an international agreement committing us to protect 30% of our land and marine areas by 2030 (the 30 by 30 target), and the OEP suggests this too is in doubt.
Who is taking the government to court?
As a result, a coalition of 83 wildlife groups is challenging the government’s lack of progress. “Our legal advice suggests there is a continuous duty to keep the plan under review,” says Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife & Countryside Link (WCL), which acts as an umbrella organisation for the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and many organisations. “Rather than waiting for us to miss the targets, the rules should make sure the Government is constantly held to account along the way.”
Benwell points out that the government has missed nature targets before. In an agreement reached under an international treaty called the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UK agreed to halt biodiversity declines as long ago as 2010. “We didn’t meet any of the indicators for that goal, but that was a weak law – this time it’s there in black and white,” says Benwell.
DEFRA was unable to respond to any questions about the legal challenge, but in a statement it said that the legally the Government is required to review the EIP every five years, with the next one due in January 2028. “Five years is considered to be sufficient time for some progress to be made against the EIP and for early results to be obtained,” DEFRA added. Weaknesses and gaps in the EIP and required policy changes can then be identified as a result.
A crunch moment for nature
There is strong statistical evidence that the UK’s wildlife is in crisis. According to the last State of Nature report published in 2023, nearly one in six species is at risk of extinction in this country. The abundance of breeding birds has declined by 14 per cent since 1970, with farmland bird numbers more than halving in that time.
Despite this ecological crisis, there has been a marked absence of environmental and nature issues from the biggest debates and interviews during this General Election campaign. In the circumstances, that’s understandable, says Dale Vince, the renewable energy entrepreneur who is a Labour Party donor and campaigner. “The cost of living crisis is foremost in people’s minds, and a lot of the election has been focused on that,” he says. “Nature has had to take a back seat to that.”
Putting nature on the agenda
Partly to compensate for this, wildlife groups, backed by activists and celebrities including Chris Packham, Queen guitarist Brian May, and water pollution campaigner and Labour supporter Feargal Sharkey, gathered in London to protest on Saturday June 22 for the Restore Nature Now march.
“We are trying to demonstrate that the British public cares about the nature and climate crisis and that they don’t think politicians are doing enough to address it,” says Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts. “Whoever forms the next government, and whoever is the official opposition, need to understand these issues matter to the people of this country.”
So what do the parties say?
While there has been a notable absence of environmental issues – even climate change – from the main election debates, there were a plethora of pledges about them made in party manifestos. The Conservatives, for example, made positive noises about implementing nature-based solutions for issues such as flooding, though at the same time, some conservationists expressed alarm over promises to “simplify the planning system to make it easier to build”.
Labour commitments included “taking action to meet our Environment Act targets” and restoring and expanding important wildlife habitats such as wetlands, peatbogs and woodlands. It has promised to create nine new national river walks and three new national forests as part of its drive to increase access to nature for people in every area of the country.
The Liberal Democrats added something arguably more concrete to their commitments – the promise of £1 billion a year to wildlife-friendly farming, seen by conservationists as one of the key methods by which nature can be restored. About 70 per cent of the UK is farmland, and if nature is to be brought back, that’s where it will happen.
The Green Party, perhaps not surprisingly, promised to go even further, saying they it would “triple support to farmers over the next five-year parliament to support the transition to nature-friendly farming.” It would also pass a Rights of Nature Act, which would mean nature could not be exploited for financial gain.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) only pledged its “commitment to tackling the twin crises of climate change and nature loss is unwavering”, while the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru called on the next UK Government to consider adopting an alternative to Gross Domestic Product to measure the UK economy because of the scale of the climate and nature emergency.
Reform UK – the party now led by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage – made no references to nature or wildlife in its “Contract”, but did pledge to scrap the UK’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 “to slash energy bills and save each household £500 a year.”
Keeping up pressure
But whoever wins the General Election, it is clear that environmental and wildlife groups will not give the new government an easy ride. That legal challenge looks unlikely to go away, and opinion polls consistently reveal that the public really want politicians to take action to restore nature – for example, 71% of people do not believe enough is being done to protect the environment for future generations, according to a YouGov poll conducted in May for Wildlife and Countryside Link.
And as Benwell says: “In the manifestos, there are clear statements of intent that whichever party is elected is telling us they will meet the critical and legally binding targets. We are pleased to see those statements of intent and will hold the Government to account for it.”
Images: Matt Bristow photography
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