NATURE IN CRISIS  – Letter in the Times – www.thetimes.co.uk

Sir, Wild Isles and the “David Attenborough” effect helped Britain to fall back in love with the nature on our doorstep. But nature is in crisis, and we need collective action to protect and restore it, including a “crisis response” for nature from the government — which is failing to act with the urgency and scale needed.

The government’s new water plan will allow intensive farms to continue to pollute our water and choke the life out of our beautiful English rivers. And its painfully low investment in farm payments in England will not help farmers to put in place what is needed. Meanwhile, our environmental protections are threatened by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

We know the public are worried about nature and that there is a demand for change: any party that wants to win the next general election must increase its ambition and action on nature at home and abroad, including investing in the power of nature to fight climate change and turning rhetoric to reality on Cop15 ambitions. Only then can we hope to heed Sir David’s wake-up call and save our wild isles.

Hilary McGrady, director-general, National Trust; Beccy Speight, CEO, RSPB; Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF (UK)