New reports says westminster government is failing to halt the decline in englands wildlife

We know England’s wildlife is in trouble, last year’s State of Nature report made that very clear. But despite one in six species now being at risk of extinction in Great Britain, the Westminster Government isn’t doing enough fast enough to keep its promises to improve England’s nature, so says a new independent report. 

The new report is by the Office of Environmental Protection. This independent team of experts has one objective - to protect and improve the environment in England by holding public bodies to account. This includes checking how Westminster Government is doing on keeping its environmental promises. These are targets within the Environment Act with interim targets in its revised Environmental Improvement Plan published last year. The targets covered many environmental issues, including one to halt the decline in our wildlife populations by 2030 - with a requirement to increase species populations by 10% by 2042. 

The shocking conclusion of the report is that the Office of Environmental Protection believes the  Westminster Government is largely off-track to meet their environmental targets. Why? Because it says government has not put a delivery plan in place. Only four out of 40 targets are on course to be met. Without a delivery plan, it’s impossible to know when, if or how this will improve. This includes the targets to halt the decline in species abundance in England.   

Two days ago, the Government responded to last year’s OEP report  but failed to show the seriousness needed to tackle the crisis facing England’s nature. It pointed to the targets it has set as a sign of progress, but these alone won’t make any difference to the fate of our wildlife.  

We need to see each target set by the Westminster Government underpinned by a crystal-clear plan setting out how it will be met, and by whom.  The Office of Environmental Protection’s report says that at the moment such plans are not in place.   

This is the critical decade for England’s wildlife and wild places. We must act now to halt and reverse the serious declines seen across many species in England. But time is running out, we’re already in 2024.  We need to see the Westminster Government urgently develop a robust delivery plan showing how and when it will meet its environmental targets. Only then can we have confidence that actions will follow from words.   

Our Chief Executive, Beccy Speight said: “Today’s report is a damning assessment of inaction and a lack of progress by the Westminster Government in response to the nature and climate emergency and achieving our legally-binding nature recovery targets. We are just six years from 2030, a milestone that the Government acknowledges as being crucial for restoring our environment by improving the UK’s air and water quality and protecting our many threatened plants, trees and wildlife species. 

“We are already the most nature-depleted nation in the G7 and last year’s seminal State of Nature report revealed many of our most loved species continue to decline. The scale and urgency of our response are now absolutely vital and delivery by government is therefore essential.   We need a radical change in the urgency and scope of government action  and support. Words alone are not enough, the wildlife and wild spaces we all love need action and they need it now.” 

The picture can seem overwhelmingly bleak, but there’s hope.  When given a chance, nature can bounce back. The State of Nature report included proof that, when we take action on the scale needed, species can recover. One example is the Red Kite. This bird of prey was nearly extinct in the UK in the early-mid 1900s, but after decades of hard work by conservationists, their numbers are now up to roughly 4,600 breeding pairs.   

 As Meera Inglis, Nature Policy Officer for RSPB England, and Carl Bunnage, Head of Nature Policy say in their blog: “There has never been a time when we have had such a strong scientific understanding of how to effectively support species recovery. But this understanding needs to be supported by a sustained political will, and action to flow from that, if nature is to thrive once again.”   

You can read their full blog here.