Nature Conservation

(asked on 25th June 2020) - 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 plans he has to publish a strategy that will set out how a national nature recovery network is to be established.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 30th June 2020

Our 25 Year Environment Plan marked a step-change in ambitions for wildlife and the natural environment. It committed the Government to establishing a nature recovery network in England and developing a new strategy for nature, setting out how we will implement our international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The coronavirus outbreak has impacted on our plans. Key international meetings to develop global biodiversity targets, including the CBD Conference in China (originally planned for the end of 2020), have been postponed. At the same time, many of our stakeholders no longer have the capacity to engage on the strategy at the moment.

This means that we have slowed the process of drafting the strategy so that we have extra time to engage with stakeholders, and properly reflect on the emerging international framework. We expect the main CBD Conference of the Parties to be rescheduled for some time in 2021 and will update our domestic plans once this is finalised.

Although work on the strategy has been delayed, we are bringing forward policies and funding now that will deliver real change for nature and to establish a Nature Recovery Network (NRN).

Our Environment Bill lays the foundation for the NRN. It sets the framework for at least one legally binding biodiversity target. It establishes spatial mapping and planning tools to inform nature recovery. It also creates duties and incentives, such as biodiversity net gain, to drive change on the ground.

These measures will complement our plans for new funding for nature announced in March this year.

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