On behalf of our hundreds of conservation volunteers, thousands of members and 1m residents of the wider Chilterns area, the Chiltern Society is backing Nature 2030.
Launched yesterday at Parliament, Nature 2030 calls on political parties to adopt five policies in their General Election Manifestos, designed to help meet the legal duty in the Environment Act 2021 to stop the decline of species abundance by 2030. We are now calling on Chilterns MPs to add their backing to the campaign.
The five policy asks, developed by Wildlife & Countryside Link members, are to:
- Increase the nature-friendly farming budget to £6 billion, to fund an uplift in nature restoration across farmed landscapes.
- Introduce a Nature Recovery Obligation, to require large businesses to avoid damaging nature and to pay for any damage they do cause.
- Implement a 30×30 rapid delivery programme, to restore protected sites and create a Public Nature Estate to fulfil the promise to protect 30% of the land and sea for nature.
- Introduce a National Nature Service, to deliver wide scale habitat restoration and new green jobs.
- Legislate for a Right to a Healthy Environment, to establish a human right to clean air, water and access to nature and to put that right into the heart decision making.
Read the Nature 2030 proposals in full HERE (opens a PDF in a new window).
Yesterday’s launch event saw speeches from Defra Minister Trudy Harrison MP, Shadow Minister Alex Sobel MP, Caroline Lucas MP (event host), Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey MP, Director General of National Trust Hilary McGrady and Wildlife Trusts CEO Craig Bennett.
YouGov polling released to coincide with the event showed only 1 in 10 Brits think that the Government is performing well in key environmental areas.
In the words of naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall, who is supporting the campaign: “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.”
Join us in supporting Nature 2030
We are contacting all Chilterns MPs to call on their backing to the campaign.
Join us and add your name to the open letter to Party leaders. Ask them to commit to including these five actions into their manifestos HERE (opens a webpage in a new window).
