CLA responds to the launch of the Nature Recovery Green Paper
With species abundance in rapid decline, farmers and land managers need a more robust and workable regulatory regime in order to help contribute to nature recovery.
The UK Government has published a Nature Recovery Green Paper, designed to help meet its target of protecting 30% of the England’s land by 2030 to support the recovery of wildlife.
The paper’s wide-wide ranging proposals include:
- A consolidated, stream-lined approach to wildlife site designation with a more science-based approach
- Reform of Habitats Regulation Assessment
- Encouraging woodland creation by identifying land that is low risk for woodland creation and making it easier to plant trees in these places
- Reform species protection regulations, looking at: protection, licensing, enforcement and wildlife crime
- Developing proposals to support private sector markets to help finance nature recovery
The Government also announced a series of new targets, including halting decline in species abundance by 2030, and then increasing species abundance by at least 10% by 2042.
Responding to the launch, CLA President Mark Tufnell said:
The fact that we have continued to experience such rapid decline in species abundance shows that the existing rules do not work
"Farmers and land managers are ready and willing to play an even greater role in nature’s recovery, but too often are hampered by restrictive regulations and slow-moving processes.
"Now we are out of the EU we are able to make sensible changes to outdated and bureaucratic regulation, and this Green Paper is an important step towards creating a more robust and workable regulatory regime that will allow land managers to further their contribution to nature recovery."