Our response to George Eustice's Green Recovery speech
In response to the Secretary of State for the Environment, George Eustice MP's speech this morning, WWT's Director of Conservation, Dr James Robinson, said,
We welcome the Secretary of State's ambition to put nature at the centre of a green recovery. We are running out of time to properly address the nature and climate crises we are in and the surge in public support demonstrates the demand for urgent action.
There is also clear scientific evidence, growing political support and sound economic reasons for investing in nature-based solutions such as wetland ecosystems, as part of our response. These provide huge public benefits such as flood defence, carbon storage and water quality improvements.
They can also provide significant benefits in improving our wellbeing, so the Secretary of State’s announcement for more support for such ‘blue prescriptions’ is welcome. Overall, however, we need to move from small-scale, ad hoc actions to significant strategic investments in what WWT is calling 'blue infrastructure', creating a wetland network that really helps people and wildlife.
On the Secretary of State's comments about changing regulation, WWT urges the UK Government to focus on smarter regulation, not deregulation. Dr Robinson said,
The UK has been a world-leader in developing environmental protections. Any proposed changes to environmental regulations need to be based on sound evidence. Society needs to know that government is acting in our best interest and putting the future of our environment, our life-support system, first.
Our mission for wetlands
We're researching ways that wetlands can help our wellbeing, so everyone will recognise the amazing things nature can do for both us and wildlife.
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