So, children of the future, we wish you better health, education, job prospects – a life better than ours. Oh, but sorry about the planet, you’ll have to get on with a diminished environment, I’m sure you’ll work out a way to cope.
Our current rate of progress is unsustainable – and one of the costs is found in the attrition of our natural world. The weight of evidence to back up the vital role our life support systems play mounts continually – and as the clock ticks down to the Rio+20 summit in June we can expect a lot more. Compelling proof that we can not continue to dismantle our natural world.
And Governments know this too – including our own. Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment signed the UK up to a commitment to halt the loss of life on earth and begin its recovery. They are known as the Aichi targets.
Halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity (there, I’ve used the b word) is no easy matter. You could be forgiven for thinking that the game is almost lost before we’ve begun with the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement signalling open season on the regulations that are in place to protect our natural environment.
But it’s wise to look at the substance as well as to listen to the rhetoric and today the announcement of 12 Nature Improvement Areas across England is a cause for celebration.
We are beginning to hear which areas have been successful (and I’ll stick the list up on this blog as soon as I get it from today’s launches).
This announcement is the culmination of huge amount of work – stretching back to Professor John Lawton’s seminal report ‘Making Space for Nature’. It further emphasise that size is important and that nature conservation needs to operate at the landscape scale to be effective.
And the task ahead is too big for any one organisation (or even Government) – this has to be a project in which we are all stepping up together. The RSPB’s Futurescapes programme is where we will seek to show leadership and concentrate our efforts – but lets be under no illusions this thing is bigger than all of us!
So, will NIA’s solve the nature crisis? No, not on their own – but they are a huge and very welcome step forward.
More soon.
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