I am spending a great couple of days with colleagues from across the RSPB hearing about the progress we are making with landscape-scale conservation across the UK. We call this our Futurescapes programme. It is so refreshing to hear about successful partnerships being forged in fabulous locations (from the Cairngorms to Morecombe Bay and from the Somerset Levels to the Fens) to deliver more for nature and for people.
But, to be honest, I am a little distracted. It feels like the calm before the storm. The content of the Budget is playing on my mind a lot this week, not surprising since it is now just a fortnight away (21 March). As I blogged last Friday, this Budget matters more than most for nature because the results of the Habitats Regulations review will be announced. And the National Planning Policy Framework is due to be published any day.
It is difficult to get across just how important the two European Directives behind the regulations are for nature conservation in the UK. Hard-won decades ago, they are the foundations for most of the work done by organisations like the RSPB, and I think it is fair to say that it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how nature conservation would function in their absence.
For example, there’s no way we could achieve the international commitment (to halt the loss of biodiversity and begin its recovery by 2020) made by Caroline Spelman on behalf of this Government, without full implementation (something we have yet to achieve in the UK) of the Nature Directives. But it is more than that. Weakening the way in which they work would be tantamount to a declaration of war on nature.
What frustrates me more than anything is the apparent determination of some influential figures in government not to try and understand how the regulations work. Yes, they are complicated, but people like George Osborne and David Cameron are certainly intelligent enough. If they make statements about these regulations, then they need to take the time to understand them. Perhaps it is easier just to listen to the bluster and rhetoric of a small number of people than to put the effort into understanding what actually happens on the ground – but as I said in my blog on Monday, I don’t think that is what the people of the UK elected them into power to do!
If this is playing on your mind too, then why not tell George Osborne to wake up by taking part in our email campaign. Almost 13,500 people have already emailed George – a staggering increase of 7000 since the launch of our video on Friday – so please help us make it to 15,000. Simply follow this link...
Now that's off my chest, I'll go and find out more about the work that we are doing to restore wildlife in fabulous places across the UK.
Fantastic response to your appeal Martin,U K wildlife would be much poorer without dedicated knowledgeable people like yourself and predecessor and others like you to look into things and give your point of view to those of us less capable of understanding technical stuff.