A coalition of 80 charities has launched the Nature 2030 campaign.
The Nature 2030 wildlife campaign has been launched, calling on political parties to commit to five actions to help nature recover by 2030.
The campaign, led by Wildlife and Countryside Link, has the support of 80 charities as well as celebrities including Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin.
The coalition has sent an open letter, asking that political parties add five commitments to their manifestos before the next general election:
- A £6 billion annual fund to support natural farming and land management
- A legal requirement for big businesses to pay for the harm they do for nature, with legal goals for natural creation and restoration based on the company’s environmental footprint
- Expanded and improved protected areas, with public land and National Parks contributing more to recovery
- A ‘National Nature Service’, creating thousands of green jobs and a healthier society
- An ‘Environmental Rights’ Bill, in which a clean and healthy environment becomes a right and nature becomes part of the decision making process.
The group has set 2030 as a deadline to meet these goals, based on a global agreement the UK committed to in 2020 to restore 30 per cent of land and sea and halt the loss of nature by 2030.
However the coalition believes there is a risk these targets may be missed, with only 3.2 per cent of England’s land and eight per cent of England’s seas currently protected and managed.
Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link said: “Next year, the environment will be a major election battleground. Like rivals in an Attenborough film, politicians will be vying to be seen to be greener. But vague promises to be nice to nature simply won’t suffice. Our research shows that people are deeply unhappy with the lack of progress for nature, and that the majority of us want to see the investment and regulation needed to restore our natural world.”
Naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall, said: “Everywhere I’ve travelled nature is on a knife edge. From the river at the bottom of my garden, to the bottom of the ocean, to the furthest reaches of the Amazon, I don’t know how much longer we have to save threatened wildlife and restore nature.
“Two years ago, I was pleased to welcome the Government’s legal target to stop wildlife losses here in England, but since then I’ve seen nothing like the scale of action needed to make it happen, just more political point-scoring. That’s why I’m backing the Nature 2030 campaign, and its five demands to turn things around. Nature isn’t a ‘nice thing to have’, it’s a necessity, and it’s time that all political parties stepped forward to deliver better for nature.”
Supporters can sign the Nature 2030 open letter here.
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