Has the environment fallen off the political agenda?
Has either of our governments forgotten the environment? At Holyrood, Salmond, Davidson and Lamont scarcely give it a mention. At Westminster it sometimes seems to have disappeared completely from the agenda of Cameron, Miliband and Clegg.
Whilst most of the decisions that impact on the well-being of nature are taken at the Scottish Parliament, Westminster still matters, too.
Worldwide, nations and territories failed to deliver on their pledge, made in Rio in 1992, to halt the loss of Biodiversity by 2010. Indeed all the indicators suggest that loss of wildlife, habitats and ‘natural capital’ is continuing unabated. This is caused by the direct loss and degradation of wildlife rich landscapes, the fragmentation of special areas, over exploitation, the impact of invasive non native species and the pressures caused by climate change and other pollution. Politicians have now offered 2020 as the new date to achieve this goal – but it’s hard to see it happening even then.
Recently, scientists at WWF and the ZSL estimated that we have lost half of the globe’s wildlife in the past 40 years. Within Europe farmland birds show similar declines over the same period and the birds are an indicator of all the other species found in our forests, farmed landscapes, wetlands and waterways.
The seminal ‘State of Nature’ report compiled by 25 leading UK NGO’s and agencies and launched by Sir David Attenborough, shows that over 60% of all the species (where good data exists) found in the UK are in decline. The Scottish part of that report demonstrates that losses and/or threats are as significant here as elsewhere in the UK.
Politicians are failing to grasp the scale of the crisis and offer the leadership required. Indeed, in the EU newly ‘elected’ President Juncker has set out an agenda to water down some of the critical environmental protections that currently hold the line all across Europe. He is doing this in the face of the clear popularity such measure enjoy amongst Europe’s citizens. Moreover, while the de-regulation is often proposed as being pro-business, many businesses welcome the certainty and clarity provided by good environmental regulations, as well as the knowledge that it means they are working in harmony with the environment.
We will continue to campaign vigorously to ensure politicians know that the public wants to see action to protect wildlife, and, in particular, with our Birdlife partners, will be responding to Juncker’s agenda. Leadership is increasingly being offered by civic society – NGOs like the RSPB, Business leaders, academic institutes and other novel partnerships of interest, but the political ‘class’ seem absent or bewildered as to how they should respond.
The debate is no longer about technical solutions and policies. Instead, it is moving to establishing societal values and partnerships across society that work alongside Governments, supporters and partners who will engage with, and grow support to challenge the indifference of our politicians to this crisis facing the world’s wildlife and wild places. These are the new trend setters and champions that will inspire action for the public good of sustainability, saving the planets resources and life ‘support’ systems for future generations, and concern for other species we share this planet of ours with – great and small, well known or secretive and unseen. They all matter.
So RSPB Scotland will be working hard to turn this around. We have a strong evidence and science base, we can, with our partners, help set the agenda and we must together raise expectations of our political leaders and hold them to account. It’s time to stand up and be counted – and get passionate about it! We can and must be the ‘team’ that does halt the loss of Biodiversity.