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GOVERNMENT FAILING NATURE
01/02/2024
I confess I am depressed at having to report yet more failure by government when it comes to nature (and pretty much everything else, I hear you say!). Headed by Brexit, the UK government certainly has a long list of cruel disasters to answer for in recent years. This time it is revealed in a report by Dame Glenys Stacey who chairs the government’s own watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection.
The report (https://bit.ly/govofftrack) says the government “remains largely off track to meet its environmental ambitions” and “targets where government is largely off track … include residual waste, sustainable fisheries, chemicals and improving nature “(my emphasis). Those of you who read my weekly scribblings will know how much trouble nature is in, so it is particularly worrying that this is an area in which the government is falling badly short, especially given the “apex goal” of achieving thriving plants & wildlife. This non-delivery of key policies should be a major concern of us all because it is the natural and semi-natural ecosystems that support us which are being ignored and, worse, trashed.
Even though we understand the science and know what needs to be done, the failure to provide sufficient resources to tackle the problems, and a lack of a sense of urgency, are all to evident. Polluted rivers, dirty beaches, the culture of littering and not caring about chucking cider cans, fish & chip wrappers, used tissues and goodness knows what else out of the car window along our roads and lanes
Nature has been and remains far too low down the list of government priorities for the environmental health and ecological welfare of our country and, with the chaos that reigns in Westminster just now, it seems unlikely to improve until after the General Election which, frankly, cannot come too soon. Perhaps a new government will get serious about implementing the twenty-five-year Nature Improvement Plan of 2018, now reborn as the 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan. Let us sincerely hope there will be a ray of sunshine behind the dark clouds under which we currently live!
Betts Ecology, for our part, continue our constant work to protect nature and enhance biodiversity on all the sites we manage so that at least residents and visitors know that we are doing what we can, even if the government is not.
