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Environment & biodiversity
2. Help to enhance the environment and biodiversity to improve quality of life
Enhance and protect the natural environment, including biodiversity and the marine environment, by reducing pollution and preventing habitat loss and degradation.
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| Actions | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 Support the building of the Big Society to enhance the countryside, habitats and urban environment | ||
| i. Review the governance arrangements of National Parks | Jul 2010 | Dec 2010 |
| ii. Publish proposals to increase the accountability of National Parks | Jan 2011 | |
| iii. Create a new designation with CLG to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities, modelled on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) | Jul 2010 | Dec 2012 |
| iv. Launch national campaign to increase tree-planting by the private sector and civil society | Dec 2010 | |
| 2.2 Help communities and wildlife adapt to climate change | ||
| i. Implement the findings of the Pitt Review to improve our flood defences and prevent unnecessary buildings in areas of high flood risk | Jun 2010 | May 2015 |
| ii. Assess the scope for actions to offset the impact of development on biodiversity | Jul 2010 | Apr 2011 |
| iii. Publish a Natural Environment White Paper, setting out measures to protect wildlife and promote green spaces and wildlife corridors | Apr 2011 | |
| 2.3 Spearhead international progress on conservation and endangered species | ||
| i. Agree Marine Policy Statement and publish first draft cut of Marine Conservation Zones | Jul 2010 | Apr 2011 |
| ii. Make the case at Nagoya Summit for ambitious new international targets to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, setting the tone for subsequent summits | Oct 2010 | |
| iii. Legislate to make it a criminal offence to allow illegal timber to enter the UK market | Nov 2010 | Nov 2012 |
| iv. Work to secure changes to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) | Jan 2011 | Oct 2011 |
Milestones
- Campaign to increase tree-planting launched – December 2010
- Proposals to increase accountability of National Parks published – January 2011
- Natural Environment White Paper published – April 2011
- Reformed Common Fisheries Policy agreed (in line with expected EU timetable) – October 2011
- Import of illegal timber made an offence – November 2012
Thanks to all of you who have contributed so far – we have read your comments with interest. This site will be closed for new comments from 5pm on Friday 27th August, so if you have any further points to make, please do so before then. We will then consider all the comments as part of our Spending Review preparations, and a final plan will be published on 20th October.
Please go to http://www.treecouncil.org.uk/?q=node/936 to download the document with the comments/concerns/opportunities identified by the member organisations of The Tree Council on the proposed National Tree Planting Campaign. It has already been circulated to the Defra and Forestry Commission team members responsible for shaping the campaign.
The Defra SRP currently promotes activity to review governance (2.1.i)and accountability (2.1.ii) arrangements for England’s National Parks. This prompts us to ask a much more fundamental question that gets beyond a now quite routine enquiry with our National Parks around democratic deficits to a more exciting search for whether we have a governance approach for our National Parks and AONBs (together covering c25% of England’s countryside) that fits contemporary environmental goals? A good example is the interesting question being floated by some – should a new ecosystem services ‘purpose’ be added? Surely the SRP activity should answer these underlying questions around the purpose of National Parks and AONBs first before looking for the best and most fit for purpose governance and accountability arrangements? On these – how about an ‘Ecosystem Board’ at the heart of arrangements for each ‘Protected Landscape?
BTCV strongly supports objective 2.1 “Support the building of the Big Society to enhance the countryside, habitats and urban environment”. However, we would like to see a more ambitious approach to the measures under this objective.
We see potential for a much more strategic partnership between government and civil society to create a “Big Green Society”. This would include:
Regeneration: Engaging unemployed people in opportunities to maintain and improve parks, school grounds and green spaces. Participants would gain skills, local communities would get places for recreation and leisure, and local authorities would be able to meet biodiversity conservation goals. Linking the programme to the Green Flag national quality standard for parks and green spaces would ensure good quality outcomes.
Public Health: Physical inactivity presents an escalating cost to the NHS. Good quality, accessible green space creates opportunities for outdoor exercise, and can help to reduce the costs of treating illnesses relating to physical inactivity. BTCV has proposed scaling up the clinically proven BTCV Green Gym programme, and linking it with the national Health Walks programme. A joined-up approach in all local authority areas would support hundreds of thousands of people to be more physically active, and would also help local authorities to conserve and improve local footpaths and rights of way networks.
Climate change: The Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change described climate change as “the greatest market failure ever seen”. The danger is that the short term need to tackle the UK deficit becomes a convenient excuse for not tackling the much bigger economic threat posed by climate change. The Copenhagen conference was a political failure, and UK government awareness raising campaigns have had little effect. BTCV’s Carbon Army campaign gets thousands of people taking action in their own communities, and shows how lots of small local actions can add up to a large scale, UK-wide response.
The above is what we would call the Big Green Society – a series of measures that are based firmly in local communities, but which offer social and economic, as well as environmental outcomes. All of this is affordable, and deliverable, if government acts in partnership with civil society, and allows itself to be guided by our practical experience.
Objective 2.2 (i) is to “Implement the findings of the Pitt Review to improve our flood defences and prevent unnecessary buildings in areas of high flood risk”. This suggests a focus on capital works and planning law, but does not mention the role of communities in flood-prone areas. This is surprising, as the Pitt Review made the important points that in the 2007 floods,
• Individual preparedness was minimal
• Low income households and other groups such as the elderly were the most vulnerable
• The recovery process unleashed community spirit and common purpose – but this was not always supported and sustained beyond the immediate aftermath
Flood defences and development constraints are important – but we believe that Defra is in danger of missing the opportunity to look at ways to galvanise collective action, and to engage the Big Society in civil defence.
BTCV has proposed ways in which local people can help with ongoing management of flood risk, can develop the skills and knowledge required to prepare themselves for extreme weather events, and can mobilise a community response in the aftermath of flooding. We would be keen to see Defra thinking along these lines.
The UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF) exists to promote the conservation of biodiversity and related natural heritage in the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The comments below have been prepared in consultation with UKOTCF Council members.
Silent Summer (published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press), provides an authoritative survey of Britain’s biodiversity. Its chapter on the UK’s Overseas Territories (UKOTs) documents that (p.189):
“…on a conservative listing, there are at least 23 bird species endemic to UKOTs (table 13.2). A further 41 species are almost endemic…For other taxa, despite patchy coverage, more than 500 endemic invertebrates and more than 200 endemic plant species have been described so far. The global biodiversity importance of UKOTs is not restricted to endemic species. For example, a majority of the world population of many species of seabirds (including about half the world’s breeding albatrosses) depend on UKOTs in the South Atlantic. The UKOTs hold substantial areas of sensitive ecosystems (Pienkowski 2005), including making the UK one of the world’s most important coral nations.”
The marine importance of the UKOTs is also far greater than that of the metropolitan UK, with combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) or Exclusive Fisheries Zones (EFZ) of over 8 million sq kms.
Against that background, it is essential that the importance of the biodiversity of the UKOTs is reflected in Defra’s Structural Reform Plan. The most logical way to do this would be to introduce a new subheading after 2.2 (“Help communities…”). Thus, the heading “Spearhead international progress..” would be renumbered 2.4 and the new subheading would be:
“2.3 Support the biodiversity of the UK’s Overseas Territories
i. Review with other government departments, and in consultation with conservation NGOs, how HMG is implementing its commitments under the Environment Charters with the UKOTs. Start October 2010 End June 2011
ii. Agree with government departments and civil society in the UKOTs and the UK a statement on targets for protecting marine and coastal biodiversity in the UKOTs that builds on the outcomes on this priority CBD topic at COP 10 (Agenda item 5.2). Start January 2011 End January 2012
iii. Establish with the UKOTs priorities for habitat protection and restoration and the removal or control of damaging invasive species”
Then add under “MILESTONES”:
“D – Report published on the Biodiversity of the UK Overseas Territories January 2012”
Although the wording of Action ii on p.7 need not be modified (“Make the case at Nagoya for ambitious new international targets to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, setting the tone for subsequent summits.”), as follow-up to that action it is essential for the UK’s credibility as a leader in the protection of global biodiversity that it agrees ambitious new targets to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss in the UKOTs. As Silent Summer notes (p.189):
“The high value of the UKOTs would be even more marked had humans not already devastated them. At least 14 former endemic species are now globally extinct – and this figure probably underestimates greatly the real total.”
This section should therefore also have the new MILESTONE D (above) repeated.