Land: Environment Protection

(asked on 5th December 2022) - View Source

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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Environment Agency report Working with nature, published in July, which stated that "99.7% of fens, 97% of species-rich grasslands, 80% of lowland heathlands, up to 70% of ancient woodlands, and up to 85% of saltmarshes" have been "destroyed or degraded", whether they will list by county where those degraded areas are.


Answered by
Lord Benyon Portrait
Lord Benyon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 21st December 2022

The Environment Agency only holds the headline national data, as presented in the Working with Nature report.

Data on fens, species rich grasslands, and lowland heathlands came from the Lawton report, Making Space for Nature (which itself cites other reports and papers). The author should be contacted for further information, including a county breakdown. Data on ancient woodlands data came from the Woodland Trust, who should be contacted for a county breakdown.

Although the Environment Agency holds the data on saltmarsh quality, these are not readily available with a county breakdown.

Reticulating Splines