Shropshire Wildlife Trust urges residents to defend nature from 'dangerous' Government plans
Wildlife experts have urged the public to raise their concerns over Government policies which could be a 'disaster' for nature and long-term food security.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust is asking people to contact their local MPs and councillors – both online and in person – to voice concerns over the new proposals.
Recent Government announcements have left the Trust and other charities worried about the threat posed to nature, climate and food security.
These include the Retained EU Law Bill which, according to the Trust, threatens to revoke hundreds of laws that protect wild places and ensure standards for water quality, pollution and the use of pesticides. Meanwhile, the Trust claims a new planning and infrastructure bill and proposed investment zones with relaxed planning laws will threaten to weaken vital protections for habitats and wildlife.
Commenting on the decisions, Craig Bennett, chief executive of Shropshire Wildlife Trust, said: “Nature is under attack from a raft of dangerous decisions by Government and we know people are furious at the new threats.
"Vital legal protections for wildlife are at risk, fossil fuel extraction is being favoured over renewables, and the Government is going back on plans to reward farmers for managing land in a nature-friendly way.
“The Government’s Food Security Report 2021 identified climate change and biodiversity loss as the biggest threats to food production in future – so farming in harmony with nature must be encouraged.
"Yet the Government wants de-regulation that’ll lead to yet more poo in rivers, less wildlife and land that’s unable to adapt to climate change.
“We are calling on the public to contact their elected representatives and share just how concerned they are.
"These actions will affect us all – the communities where we live, our wild places, food security, and our futures.
"The climate and nature crises pose monumental challenges, and recent proposals by this Government will only make things worse.”
The Trust claims the proposals have caused outrage among green charities, politicians of all parties, farmers and campaigners, who feel anxious that the Government is not tackling the nature and climate crisis with the urgency required.
Richard Grindle, chief executive of Shropshire Wildlife Trust, said: “This Government made a manifesto commitment to deliver ‘the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth’.
"Now they appear to be poised to scrap the forward-looking Environmental Land Management schemes and go back to the EU system of simply paying farmers for the area they farm, with no regard to nature.
"This would be a disaster for nature and for our long-term food security. They have no mandate for these changes, and Shropshire Wildlife Trust in partnership with other conservation bodies are asking that they pause and think again.”
Shropshire Wildlife Trust argues that abandoning regulations that protect nature and creating low regulation ‘investment zones’ with few planning restrictions could decimate UK wildlife, which is already suffering steep declines.
According to the State of Nature report, more than 40 per cent of species have declined in abundance since 1970, with 26 per cent of mammals at risk of disappearing altogether.
Every river and lake in England currently fails chemical pollution standards and only 16 per cent are classed in good ecological health compared to 53 per cent on average in the EU.
As things stand, Government ambition for nature’s recovery aims to have just 10 per cent more nature in 2042 than 2030 levels – by which time the state of the natural world is expected to have declined even further.
For more information visit shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/defend-nature.
