Environment Protection

(asked on 24th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help ensure the UK becomes nature positive by 2030.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 3rd March 2022

This is a devolved matter and therefore the information provided relates to England only.

This Government has set a world leading target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, which represents our commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. Measures set out in the Environment Act, such as Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Conservation Covenants and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities, will drive action towards our targets and objectives, alongside wider action and investment.

Our forthcoming Nature Recovery Green Paper will set out proposals to better enable us to recover nature and achieve our goal to protect 30% of our land and sea for nature by 2030. We are establishing a Nature Recovery Network which will support the Government's goals of halting biodiversity loss by improving and connecting habitats and species. In establishing the Network we will also provide wider benefits, such as landscapes more resilient to climate change through improved ecosystem function, natural solutions that reduce and store carbon, and improving people's connection with nature.

The Government's Nature for Climate Fund is providing more than £750 million over the course of this Parliament to create new, and protect existing, habitats in England by helping restore 35,000ha of peatland, and supporting a trebling of woodland creation rates, by 2025. The England Peat Action Plan provides a strategic framework to improve management and protection of both our upland and lowland peatlands, to ensure our peatlands are functioning healthily. As set out in the England Trees Action Plan, we are committed to increasing tree planting in this parliament to 30,000 hectares per year across the UK, to put us on track to ensure at least 12% woodland cover in England by the middle of the century.

We are also repurposing our system of agricultural payments to reward farmers and land managers for the environmental services they provide – including creating and maintaining habitat, and sustainable farming practices. This will be delivered through three new Environmental Land Management schemes – the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.

At sea, we have built an extensive network of 372 Marine Protected Areas covering 38% of UK waters, and are focusing on making sure they are protected properly. Using new powers introduced by the Fisheries Act 2020, the Marine Management Organisation is developing an ambitious three-year programme for assessing sites and implementing byelaws, where necessary, to manage fishing activity in all English offshore MPAs. Furthermore, the Government is introducing a number of pilot Highly Protected Marine Areas for biodiversity recovery, which will have the highest levels of protection in our seas.

These actions to protect, increase and improve habitats, and reduce pressures on ecosystems will deliver the Government's ambitious commitments on the environment.

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