Unlocking Nature Recovery in England

Yellowhammer at Hope Farm (c) Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com) 

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has released its annual review of progress made by government to improve the state of our natural environment. The findings are clear – progress is insufficient and too slow. Without urgent action, the natural environment on which we all depend will continue to deteriorate. Hannah Collins, senior policy officer for RSPB England, reflects on the OEP’s report and the measures the current government can take to unlock progress. 

 What is the OEP? Why is this report important? 

The OEP is a new independent body set up under the Environment Act 2021 with its principal objective being to contribute to— (a) environmental protection, and (b) the improvement of the natural environment by holding government to account. It also provides expert analysis and advice. Its annual EIP report is one of its statutory functions and tells us how well the government is progressing towards its environmental improvement plan including targets to restore England’s natural environment. It also highlights key areas for action at pace and scale, from ramping up farming schemes so that they drive nature’s recovery, to properly resourcing and regulating areas protected for nature on land and stopping harmful activities in Marine Protected Areas. 

What do the findings show?  

The findings of the report paint a stark picture – England’s natural environment is in steep decline, with government off track to meet its environmental targets and commitments, including for nature. Alarmingly, the year 2023-2024 saw reduced progress compared to the previous year. Despite having vital foundations in place (via the Environment Act 2021), action currently taken for our natural environment is not being delivered at the pace or scale needed to avert the climate and nature emergencies.  

What hope is there for future progress?

The OEP is clear that the window of opportunity to address environmental harm is closing rapidly. But, it is not yet closed, and there are clear opportunities for the government to reverse the trends. In July 2024 the government took a welcome first step in announcing a review of the Environment Improvement Plan to ‘chart a new course’. This review, which is already well underway, with a revised plan due for release in the spring, offers a crucial opportunity to put England firmly on the path to nature recovery. To do that, it needs to drive urgent, ambitious action. 

The work ahead does not come without its potential pitfalls, with many of the mechanisms that could help deliver nature recovery in their early stages. In the context of the government’s ambitious commitments for growth and development, there is great potential here for either unbridled damage to our natural environment or delivery of nature restoration on an unprecedented scale. The OEP is clear that long-term economic prosperity and growth hinges on environmental restoration, requiring political leadership to translate admirable aspirations to restore nature into meaningful change and underpinned by effective regulation. 

Puffin in Flight (c) Holly Paget-Brown (rspb-images.com)

 What can the current government do to achieve real and lasting gains for nature going forward?  

 The good news is that we know what needs to happen. The urgent steps that the OEP sets out clearly in their progress report mirror much of what the RSPB has been calling for:  

• Turbo-charge nature-friendly farming schemes. With 67% of England farmed, nature-friendly farming is the single most powerful means of achieving nature recovery at scale. The RSPB’s own work at Hope Farm has demonstrated the benefits nature-friendly farming can bring in practice. Yet, as an RSPB research report  published today demonstrates, the current set of agri-environment schemes lack sufficient financial support and ambition to recover farmland birds. An RSPB campaign is calling for increased investment from Government, this is essential if we are to support farmers in delivering for nature, climate and food production, and crucially as highlighted in today’s OEP report there is a need to significantly increase uptake of ‘the more environmentally ambitious aspects of Countryside Stewardship and Landscape recovery schemes’.  
• Expand, resource and better regulate areas protected for nature. As acknowledged by the OEP in the progress report, protected sites are a fundamental asset for nature’s recovery and for meeting targets, including the international target to protect 30% of our land and sea for nature by 2030 (‘30x30’). The OEP highlight the clear need to enhance and enforce the levels of legal protection on protected sites. Beyond this, we know that many sites in the existing network are in poor condition, and too small and scattered to reach their full potential in contributing towards nature’s recovery – the OEP also call for expansion of the area protected, and implementation of the 2016 Review of Special Protection Areas would be an obvious place to start. To move forward we believe the government must urgently produce and publish its delivery plan to meet its international ‘30x30’ target, while accelerating and adequately investing in site designation and management. We look forward to seeing the recommendations from the OEP’s separate in-depth review of protected sites in due course.  
• Faster action on peat restoration. The OEP has stated in today’s report that they believe progress in peat restoration to be too slow, and has also recommended the ‘the government accelerate actions to enable assessment of whether soils are being managed sustainably’. When it comes to peat restoration, the current EIP contains several references but no overarching policy framework that draws together delivery and disparate funding sources to meet targets. Going forward an overarching, strategic delivery plan is needed for peat restoration to ensure targets are met. This must prioritise a just transition from cultivation on lowland peat soils, which are degrading at an alarming rate.  
• Stop harm in Marine Protected Areas, urgently. Next, our seas. The marine environment is host to a variety of habitats and species, it provides food for us to eat and for many of our seabirds, and with the seabed acting as significant carbon sink, the health of our seas is vital in tackling climate change. However, as underlined in the OEP report, the government is failing to meet its commitments and action is not happening at sufficient pace. The report states that ‘collective trends point to declining marine biodiversity, continued habitat degradation and overall poor health of marine ecosystem’. Insufficient monitoring and a lack of management measures in our marine protected areas have created a false impression of progress, with the OEP recommending that the ‘delivery of management measures must increase substantially in pace and scale’. Overdue Marine Protected Area byelaws urgently need to be put in place to ensure effective management of protected sites and the SPA sufficiency review needs to be delivered to determine where significant gaps remain in the network for seabirds. The government must also act quickly to translate the England Seabird Conservation and Recovery Pathway (ESCaRP) into a strategically delivered, and appropriately funded action plan to recover our threatened seabirds. And as stressed by the OEP today, there is a need to update the UK Marine Strategy, which is now three years overdue.  
• Long-term security for our multi-year species recovery projects. The species abundance target is the single apex target for nature and a valuable proxy for the state of biodiversity in England. As shown in the OEP report, relative abundance of species has shown ‘little or no change’ during 2023-2024. The RSPB believes that, to protect our most at risk species there is a need to uplift action for species recovery through a co-ordinated portfolio of secure, long-term delivery mechanisms, including an enhanced Species Recovery Programme. It is furthermore vital that our species recovery work has secure predictable long-term funding, including revenue funding for provision of advice and data collection to enable species recovery work to continue. As one example, provision of conservation management advice to nature friendly farmers is critical for delivering recovery of our beloved turtle doves . 
• Implement mechanisms to reconcile competing priorities at land and sea. To reconcile competing land use priorities, key mechanisms like Local Nature Recovery Strategies, a Land Use Framework, and detailed catchment and marine spatial plans must be implemented, as acknowledged by the OEP today. 

We would have liked to have seen the OEP go further on woodland, with greater emphasis placed on native woodlands, including Ancient Woodlands and temperate rainforests, rather than trees outside woodland, agroforestry and sustainable timber production. Ancient Woodland are our most precious woodlands, and their habitats support our declining woodland birds – the fastest declining terrestrial bird group with a 10% loss in the last 5 years. The RSPB will continue pushing for action to protect, restore and improve of Ancient Woodlands, including in the UK Government’s forthcoming revised Environmental Improvement Plan for England, expected late spring. The revised Environmental Improvement Plan must seize these opportunities to restore nature in England and drive urgent, ambitious action and investment. There are other critical actions we’ll be looking for in the revised EIP, including extending the Nature for Climate fund to deliver long-term funding for peatland restoration and woodland creation and management, and setting out a renewed mission to restore and enhance nature in Protected Landscapes.

But, time is running out. Nature is vital for our health, wealth, and prosperity, providing clean air, fertile soil, and fresh water. Without it, we have no home or economy. We know what needs to be done. With urgent, coordinated action at scale, the UK Government can choose to turn things around.