Over 80 nature conservation groups are teaming up to initiate a legal challenge designed to compel whichever political party wins the UK general election to introduce more ambitious government targets for protecting England’s wildlife. The country is currently facing a loss of one out of every six of its species to extinction. While the Conservative government introduced a legally binding target for halting wildlife loss by 2030, groups including the National Trust, RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts want to see politicians from all parties do more to boost biodiversity.
The Labour party has introduced a ‘countryside protection plan’ aimed at providing a boost to the country’s species recovery. The Conservative party has made commitments to protect a minimum of 30% of land and sea for biodiversity by 2030. The Liberal Democrats have said that they intend to double the amount of land afforded protection for nature by 2050. At present, the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 83 environmental groups, plans to use legal action to demand a judicial review of what it sees as a failure by the government to enhance existing targets for England, as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan.
The Office for Environmental Protection has stated that the government is unlikely to achieve 36 of the 40 environmental targets set for England, despite the fact that the Secretary of State is not legally obliged to conduct a review of the EIP until January 2028. The setting of environmental targets relating to the decline of species is a devolved issue, but all of the UK’s administrations have committed to protecting 30% of their land and sea areas by 2030. However, conservation groups are calling on all political parties to do more to boost nature and species protection.
Despite making efforts to reverse the decline that faces the country’s biodiversity, the Conservative-led government has faced criticism from The Wildlife Trusts and Hilary McGrady, the National Trust’s Director General, who maintain that the country remains “one of the most nature-depleted on earth” six years prior to the target deadline. Furthermore, without action now, there are no signs that the decline will halt, say conservation groups. Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, has branded efforts to set legal targets for biodiversity as “lacklustre”
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