Last week, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) published its second annual report saying progress on around half the UK Government’s nature goals is either static or moving in the wrong direction.
This is disappointing, particularly as UK Government has previously said they want to leave the environment in a better state for the next generation.
Elliot Chapman-Jones, head of public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts says:
“Nothing has changed. The Office for Environmental Protection’s last assessment warned that the UK Government was failing their targets to restore nature. Now, one year on, their latest assessment shows little has changed and UK Government is still way off-track.
“Nature’s buzz and song is rapidly disappearing from our lives. This report is a wake-up call to Government to halt business as usual and urgently get a proper plan in place to restore nature. We’re running out of time.
“We only have six years left to meet the UK Government’s own 2030 deadlines to halt the decline of nature and protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature. We desperately need a better plan to encourage more farmers to adopt nature-friendly farming, create larger wild and more natural areas – including in towns and cities and end the poisoning of lakes and rivers.”
The Wildlife Trusts have published a list of political commitments that could make a difference to nature’s recovery in 2024: Could the general election provide the much-needed boost for our beleaguered natural world?
Data from Wildlife Trust surveys shows that nature matters to voters across the political spectrum. Almost identical numbers of environmental charity supporters vote Conservative as Labour – and the majority of Wildlife Trust supporters may switch their votes at next election, with many calling for more ambitious environmental policies.
