Thank you for contacting me about nature protection.
Biodiversity loss is a global problem that needs a global solution. The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
As part of the global biodiversity framework, I know that the UK will be advocating for ambitious global targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. This includes targets to ensure at least 30 per cent of the global land and of the ocean is protected, ecosystems are restored, species population sizes are recovering, and extinctions are halted by 2050.
Further, the UK’s Presidency of the United Nations Climate Summit (the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) placed nature at the heart of COP26. The Government’s priority is to continue to ensure there is global recognition that biodiversity loss and climate change is inextricably linked, and that action on nature is vital for achieving Paris goals. The UK has been instrumental in bringing parties together and building consensus through partnerships such as the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, which has now been endorsed by more than 90 political leaders. At the G7 Summit in 2021, Leaders agreed the Nature Compact, setting out commitments to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Domestically, the Environment Act 2021 sets a new, historic legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This is a core part of Ministers’ commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it and is supported by the powerful package of new policies and tools in the Act. Biodiversity net gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action, to create or restore rich habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term.
The Government is investing over £750 million in the Nature for Climate Fund and is expanding on the 364,000 football pitches of priority habitat which has been created or restored since 2010 through the establishment of the Nature Recovery Network. This is all part of the programme of work to deliver our international commitments domestically under the 25 Year Environment Plan.
More generally, I am keen to see greater landscape protection for the Island. I have set out to the Government my vision for the Island to have the UK’s first ‘Island Park’ which would see the Island gain unique protection status somewhere between that of an AONB and a National Park.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.