We’ve spent a lot of time in recent years pointing out that a healthy natural environment is good for business. We’re not the only ones to think so, as shelf-loads of research reports have come to the same conclusion. It’s not just jobs on nature reserves or in rural tourism (which in some areas may be significant themselves), but a whole range of economic sectors depend on a healthy environment.
According to a 2003 study, uses of biodiversity directly support over 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the UK and contribute over £4.8 billion to GDP. Environment-related activities (broadly defined as those depending directly or indirectly on the quality of the natural environment) are estimated to support around half a million jobs and £18.6 billion of GDP. There are more examples in our booklet Wellbeing through wildlife.
Economic activity which pays no regard to the environment not only threatens special places but may even be counter-productive for the economy.
Since coming to power in May, the Coalition Government has been looking for new ways to do planning and economic development in England. Regional Development Agencies are out, part of a bonfire of quangos. While their passing may be lamented by few, they had at least come to understand the value of the natural environment and had supported many projects which created or restored special places for people and nature, such as our reserve at Saltholme, Teesside, supported by One North East, (the RDA for the North East).
The new kids on the block are Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The Government recently published a list of 56 proposals for LEPs across the country. They are smaller than RDAs, and no-one is sure yet what powers they will have, or whether they will have any resources to speak of. What’s disappointing is that the proposals pay scant regard to the environment, either in their objectives, the people involved, or the way their boundaries were drawn. Some of the proposals just don’t make environmental sense. For example, the natural environmental area of the Humber estuary has separate proposals for the north bank and south bank. There’s a third proposal for the whole area, but it doesn’t seem to attract much support from the local authorities. The Financial Times had an interesting comment on this.
Government ministers are currently considering the proposals. We urge them to consider the green economy, and to give nature a voice.