Britain may be ‘a green and pleasant land’, but for how much longer? Our countryside is in a parlous condition through the drastic loss of biodiversity, and new initiatives such as Biodiversity Net Gain may actually be making things worse.
More and more ordinary people are recognising that action must be taken quickly and robustly to conserve and restore nature. On 22 June 2024, thousands will descend on Westminster to support the Restore Nature Now campaign.
Nature’s in a state
In 2019, the State of Nature report, compiled by experts from over 60 UK research and conservation organisations, illustrated the extent of the loss, noting that of the 10,000 plant and animal species assessed, one in six are at risk of extinction. Everyone knows about the decline in red squirrel numbers or hedgehogs (although recently the latter have shown some signs of a recovery) but since the 1970s terrestrial and freshwater species across the board have declined by an average of 19%.
Birds are the worst impacted, with 43% at risk of extinction, while 31% of UK amphibians and reptiles are at risk of disappearing completely, as are 26% of terrestrial mammals.
According to the report, there are many reasons for the losses. The changing climate plays a part, but intensive farming has seen hedgerows being removed at an alarming rate, ponds and waterways have disappeared, while the use of pesticides and pollution are also major contributors.
Restore Nature Now
The Restore Nature Now campaign recognises that many factors are at play, and is keeping its aims straightforward, stressing that not enough is being done to halt species decline in the UK. 70% of the UK’s land area is farmed yet only a fifth of this area is covered under an agri-environment scheme, so they are demanding more support for farmers to support environmental recovery, along with an end to fossil fuels, ensuring that the main polluters in big business pay their fair share towards safeguarding or recovering the environment, and more space for nature in the form of expanded and improved protected areas.
Biodiversity net gain – solution or problem?
Meanwhile, the government has paid the problem lip service, seeking to commodify nature with questionable programmes such as the recently introduced biodiversity net gain (BNG), which requires developers to offset biodiversity loss on development sites by a minimum of an additional 10% of biodiversity on spaces in the vicinity of the development. This can be achieved either by them directly or by buying BNG ‘credits’ from local authorities or landowners who would undertake the biodiversity re-instatement on their behalf.
So far, so good, right? Well, yes and no. There is a fear that the law does not do enough to protect rich and long-established habitats which could be sacrificed in pursuit of the creation of new ones.
Restore for sure, but conserve first?
The initiative is coming under increasing pressure from a growing number of ecologists and environmentalists, with Friends of the Earth among the first groups to highlight the flaws in the system, noting that “given the dire state of nature the government’s focus should be on reversing and restoring nature’s decline, not finding new ruses to allow developers to destroy it”.
Others say that requiring management of BNG offset land for a period of only 30 years is barely long enough for habitats to establish and the fact that after that period expires a site could then become eligible for further BNG-related re-engineering is unacceptable as it would once again upset an ecological balance that had barely had a chance to establish.
In a recently released film, environmentalists, including Chris Packham, assert that, because property developers are among the biggest donors to the government, the system will always inevitably be skewed in their favour.
Are conservationists complicit?
Recently, the heads of the National Trust, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and the Woodland Trust wrote an article in the i newspaper asking if MPs really care about nature and demanding urgent action to restore it, but given that much of this biodiversity loss has occurred in the past 50 years, have some of these organisations tacitly presided over some of the damage, or even been complicit in the loss?
Let’s take the example of The Wildlife Trusts; a federation of 46 trusts across the country, no fewer than 23 of them now operate commercial consultancies that are available, at a price, for huge clients, such as developers Kier and Willmott Dixon, to offer advice on the impact their activities are having on biodiversity and how best to ameliorate it.
While on the face of it this might seem eminently sensible, concerns exist that such consultancies will, inevitably, lead to conflicts of conscience. Of course, the trusts will plead that their offshoots will always put nature first. In these days of ever-shrinking funding one wonders how far they might wish to ‘manipulate’ the rules to serve both their paymasters and their bank managers.
One example of the relationship between an ecological consultancy and a major developer coming under scrutiny occurred when Middlemarch Environmental (a commercial consultancy wholly owned by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust) and developer Taylor Wimpey collaborated in the chopping down of 40 protected trees on a site in Essex despite a concerted local attempt to save them. When eyebrows were raised, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust insisted that “Middlemarch operates entirely independently, and its purpose is to ensure development activities are undertaken lawfully and protect and enhance our natural environment”.
Local nature reserves – fair game?
Middlemarch have been under the microscope again more recently, having prepared a 30-year management plan for a local nature reserve on the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon. The area had been the subject of a major local campaign to save the wildlife in the riverside area after the previous Conservative administration of landlord, Stratford District Council, had launched plans to turn what was a local wildlife site into a sterile extension of the town’s recreation ground, with a 500-space car park attached.
The campaign eventually succeeded and last September the 70-acre area was designated greater protection as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR), complete with native deer, otters and myriad other species, including three red-list birds. It now seems there is a plan to re-engineer the site in pursuit of saleable BNG credits.
The council, now Lib Dem-led, sees the site as having the potential to garner over £170,000 worth of credits over the next five years, but at what price? Despite being designated LNR status a mere eight months ago based on its current, mostly wild, state, the area runs the risk of an all-encompassing set of habitat-creating, BNG-credit-harvesting restructuring which will inevitably change the entire face of it. And for what? To raise money that Natural England regulations decree cannot be used for maintenance of the site itself, but which must be used to increase biodiversity elsewhere.
People, not politicians, may be nature’s greatest hope
A spokesperson for the Friends of Lench Meadows, the group that campaigned to preserve the site, told us:
“Essentially the council are seeking to turn this protected area into a cash cow, and thanks to the plans prepared by Middlemarch to maximise BNG credits, their grubby fingerprints are going to extend into every corner of the site, most likely at the expense of valuable habitats that have taken hundreds of years to mature.
“Frankly, it’s cynical and I hope people power will again come into play and ensure that the plans are at the very least significantly scaled back, or the intrinsic wildness of the site with its ancient habitats will be severely compromised.”
While the great and good of the wildlife charities lobby MPs to act, on 22 June the message will be unavoidable – the people have had enough, action is required now to Restore Nature. Restore it, yes, but learn to conserve it, too, and learn that nature is not a commodity to be traded for cold hard cash.
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