WWT calls for more accountability for environmental protection

“Better accountability and better enforcement to protect our natural resources” was the message from speakers at the launch of WWT’s report on the value of nature, Rich in Nature.

Speakers Stanley Johnson, Caroline Lucas, Rachael Maskell and Prof Georgina Mace all urged the new Environment Secretary to make the Government’s proposed “25 year plan for nature” a priority, and they welcomed WWT’s suggestion that the Government be held to account through an annual statement to Parliament on the state of natural wealth.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said:

“Unfortunately a year into this Parliament there is no sign of a 25 year plan and the promise has been weakened along the way.

"In the post-EU world it’s more important than ever that we have a strong environmental plan for 25 years and that we have signposts along the way to that, like this wonderful new report from WWT which rightly calls for targets to set our direction and Parliamentary culpability to make sure that we achieve our goals.”

Shadow Environment Secretary Rachael Maskell said:

“I really do want to thank WWT for this report. It’s really inspiring and I think sets a really positive way forward, and a forward way of thinking about our natural environment.

“We were promised the 25 year plan before the summer and it is incredibly disappointing that we won’t see it. We’ve got to use this space, this opportunity to feed in exactly what we see is as the way forward. There are lots of challenges, there are lots of targets out there, but we’re at risk of falling short of those targets unless we’ve got a proper system of ensuring year on year that we are monitoring that and holding the Government to account.”

Stanley Johnson urged new Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom to prioritise the 25 year plan for nature:

“There is huge enthusiasm for the newly appointed Secretary of State for the Environment to make a really big thing of this 25 year action plan and actually to give it a boost. At the moment it is, as far as one can see, not the highest priority of Defra and it certainly ought to be a high priority for Defra and indeed a cross-departmental priority. She should announce it with much aplomb as one of her first actions.”

Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Dame Georgina Mace said a planning timescale of 25 years could make the difference:

“Most of the things I’d like to see in the 25 year plan are in this report. This is a generational timescale. There’s every evidence that biodiversity, the natural environment, natural capital is declining. We’re watching it gradually degrade and deteriorate. We can’t expect to get it back to even current levels without serious commitment. But over 25 years - with planned and integrated land use - it should be possible to achieve these substantial gains, not just hold back degradation.”

WWT’s Rich in Nature report recommends the Government should:

• Commit to a 25 year environment plan, with open public and Parliamentary consultation
• Ensure UK environmental protection is as strong or stronger in our new relationship with the EU
• Introduce an annual Natural Wealth Statement to account for our natural capital
• Appoint catchment commissioners, with powers of mapping, coordinating and commissioning
• Establish guidance and accreditation for recognised green prescription providers

The evening was attended by 80 guests including environmental charities, land managers, businesses, academics and environment communicators including ‘urban birder’ David Lindo and ‘bird girl’ Mya-Rose Craig.

Inevitably at this time (and with Stanley Johnson speaking!), discussion turned to Brexit. Topics included how to secure resources for environmental protections at a time of cuts; how to merge the environment with social and health agendas; making the 25 year plan more consultative; and how to embed the environment in mainstream politics (some thought that merging DECC into the Business Department may help).

A key topic that kept emerging was how to enforce environmental protection in future without the European courts to hold the UK to account.

Caroline Lucas said:

“Outside of the EU we are going to need to develop a whole new set of protections and enforcement mechanisms. If we don’t, the protections we’ve relied upon for so long do risk quick fading.”

Rachael Maskell said:

“For 40 years we haven’t always been the ones that have been driving enforcement mechanisms and we’ve depended on the European courts. How are we now going to enforce the legislation that we have? I think it’s really important we give consideration to this because we want to make sure that the UK is still held to account and in check for its decisions and also for making progress.”

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