Celebrities including Steve Backshall, Chris Packham, Megan McCubbin and Mya-Rose Craig, alongside a coalition of 80 charities led by Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), are urging all political parties to ramp up their ambition on environmental issues in the forthcoming general election. WCL, have launched the Nature 2030 campaign today (18th July) alongside Froglife and others including the National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, and Woodland Trust,
The campaign outlines a 5-point plan of landmark measures needed to restore nature by 2030. The coalition is calling on all political parties to get behind these proposals in their general election manifestos to deliver on public appetite for greater environmental ambition and to meet binding targets for nature by 2030 and climate by 2050.
The next Parliament will be a critical turning point for nature. In 2022, the UK signed a global deal to halt and reverse the loss of wildlife and manage 30% of the land and sea for nature by 2030. In England, that promise is backed by a legal duty to stop the decline of species by the end of the next Parliament.
Right now, the rapid loss of wildlife shows no sign of slowing. Many ecosystems, from the uplands to the coastline, are in fragile condition, 15% of species are at risk of extinction in the UK, with the country being one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Over a third of nutrient pollution in rivers is caused by agricultural run-off and 90% of lowland ponds in the UK, critical habitat for amphibians, were lost in the 20th century, many from the farmed landscape. Heathland habitat, invaluable for our reptiles, has declined by between 30% and 50% in the last 60 years.
The Nature 2030 Campaign calls on the next Government to prioritise a new “30 by 30 Rapid Delivery Project” to fulfil its commitment under the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of the land and sea for nature by 2030 and to secure an environmental legacy for the future. The project would consist of five commitments:
The 5 landmark commitments nature experts are seeking from political parties are:
- A pay rise for nature and farmers: Doubling the nature-friendly farming budget to £6bn pay for ambitious farm improvements and large-scale nature restoration.
- Making polluters pay: Putting a Nature Recovery Obligation in law, requiring polluting big businesses to deliver environmental improvement plans, and funding to counter the damage they cause to
- More space for nature by 2030: A 30×30 rapid delivery programme restoring protected sites and landscapes and creating a Public Nature Estate to fulfil the promise to protect 30% of the land and sea for nature and deliver more nature in all communities.
- Delivering the green jobs, we need: A National Nature Service, delivering wide scale habitat restoration and creating thousands of green jobs
- A Right to a Healthy Environment: establishing a human right to clean air and water and access to nature, building nature into decision making, enabling people to hold decision makers to account and driving changes that will recover nature and improve public health.
These align with the Froglife Strategy: Transforming Landscapes and Transforming Lives aims and targets and our Mission Statement: “We make practical differences to improve amphibian and reptile habitats. We engage diverse communities and encourage learning about wildlife conservation. We inform global research on amphibians and reptiles”.
The 2030 target to halt the decline of wildlife is a mere Parliament away, and the ecological threat that inaction represents cannot be averted with platitudes. The nature crisis and the climate crisis both need urgent action. Politicians who are serious about restoring nature should be brave in setting out the transformation needed in our society and economy to achieve it. They will need to spearhead the rapid and transformational delivery programme from day one to get back on track for a net zero and nature-positive future and guarantee long-term commitment to science-based plans to address the systemic causes of climate and nature loss.
For more information about the Nature 2030 campaign; download the document here or visit the Wildlife and Countryside Link website here.
What you can do to help:
Join us and sign our open letter to all UK political parties here and challenge them to make a manifesto commitment that will make a difference by 2030.
Further reading:
