Thank you to those constituents who have approached me with their thoughts about our environment and rewilding - I want to take this opportunity to express how grateful I am so many of us want to protect and restore our natural world.
As a re-elected Sussex MP, this time for the newly created East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency which still encompasses around half of my previous constituency of Mid Sussex, and a local girl, I have been blessed to grow up, live and serve in a county with some of the most quintessentially British landscapes; our beautiful rolling countryside, our coastline just a short journey away, our woods and rivers alongside our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks are a crucial part of what makes our country so special.
I can assure you I, alongside the Conservative party, am absolutely committed to leaving the environment in a better state for future generations. To that end, we introduced our landmark Environment Act including ambitious targets to halt nature’s decline by 2030 and Biodiversity Net Gain, a world leading scheme to deliver new, greener development.
The Environment Act 2021 responds to a clear and urgent scientific case, and growing public demand, for action to address environmental challenges. This landmark legislation set a new and ambitious domestic framework for environmental governance and requires a new, historic legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, as a core part of the UK’s commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.
Other targets through the Environment Act include improving the Red List Index for England for species extinction risk by 2042, as well as restoring or creating over 500,000 hectares of a range of wildlife-rich habitat outside protected sites by 2042. The Act also introduces a requirement to demonstrate biodiversity net gain on all development sites.
Further, I know that local nature recovery strategies are key to restoring nature so 48 responsible authorities have been appointed to lead on preparing a local nature recovery strategy for their area, supported by £14 million of funding, and will work closely with landowners, farmers and land managers in preparing the strategies.
We led international efforts to protect our oceans and seas, building on the success of the Blue Belt programme which protects an area of ocean the size of India and at COP15 in December 2022, nearly 200 countries supported a new deal to protect nature. The agreement includes a global commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and also to protect 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030.
Regarding rewilding and the restoration of ecosystems, I support initiatives to create wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery. In the Autumn of 2023, the previous Conservative Government launched a programme to identify our 11th National Park in England alongside investing to improve existing National Parks and protected landscapes and invest water company fines in river restoration projects across the country to make space for nature and enhance our environment.
However, I am aware that rewilding is not appropriate in all situations and it is important to balance this with other priorities, such as food production, net-zero, food security and supporting the farming sector which are vital for our rural economy and the country as a whole. I will be monitoring the new Labour Government’s progress on this closely.
You may also be interested in this: Mims Davies MP letter to Secretary of State on NPPF/Planning Consultation September 24
