Our priorities for the next UK Government

To reverse the declines of wildlife, more places are needed for nature. Currently, just 3% of land and 8% of English waters are properly protected for nature – this is nowhere near enough. The next UK Government should launch an Olympic-style cross-government delivery project to protect and restore at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

Despite the amazing diversity of habitats and wildlife along Somerset’s fifty miles of coastline, it often doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This vibrant piece of coastline includes sand dunes, rocky shores, cliffs, salt marsh, tidal estuaries, mud flats and coastal deciduous woodland, with 80% having environmental protection. 

The Wildlife Trusts believe that we cannot afford any further reduction in the quality or quantity of our coastal habitats. Allowing these habitats the space to adjust by relaxing artificially fixed sea defence lines will be essential. We are working towards conservation of all coastal habitats and the wildlife they support. We are also working to raise awareness that managed realignment and habitat restoration is an economically viable and environmentally acceptable solution.

Beavers are a keystone species which means that they play a crucial role in how an ecosystem functions. By building dams, digging ditches and coppicing trees, beavers can alter their surroundings in a big way – and in a way that has many benefits for people and wildlife.

Beavers can create large areas of water-retaining wetland, slowing the flow of streams and rivers and protecting the land downriver from flooding, as well as reducing silt and improving water quality. These restored wetlands also provide essential habitat for a wealth of plants and animals.

With these benefits, it’s easy to see why there is so much interest in bringing beavers back to the UK. 

• The first Somerset State of Nature report 2023 provides an important benchmark of how wildlife is faring across our county and follows the national State of Nature Report launched in September 2023: https://www.somersetwildlife.org/stateofnature2023
• Beavers create thriving ecosystems helping us to put nature firmly back on the road to recovery. Find out more. Beavers | Somerset Wildlife Trust

Cuts to enforcement agencies and environmental protection budgets over the past decade have left our rivers defenceless against polluters. Environmental watchdogs must be empowered and sufficiently resourced to ensure they can monitor and inspect polluters and enforce penalties upon those who break the law.

Sewage, wastewater and agriculture are all suffocating our rivers and the wildlife that depends on them. The public rightly want to see heathy, safe and clean rivers, lakes, wetlands and coasts. Nature can be part of the solution – for example stopping rainwater from overwhelming the sewage system and agricultural pollution from leaching into freshwater habitats.

• For Somerset Wildlife Trust, water quality is of ongoing concern across the county, but never more so than for the land we manage on the Somerset Levels & Moors. Read more in this blog post 

To reverse the decline of nature by 2030, and secure the UK’s long term food security, the budget to support wildlife-friendly farming should be increased to at least £4.4 billion a year. This will ensure the agricultural transition is fair to farmers and better for wildlife, while providing healthier and more affordable food for all members of society.

The catastrophic decline of insects is having a huge effect on the rest of the natural world. Insects are the canaries in the coal mine – their collapse is an alarm bell that must not be ignored. To save the future of insects – and all life that depends on them – the next UK Government must halve pesticide use by 2030 and maintain all bans on of bee-killing and human-health-harming neonicotinoids once and for all.

The extreme heat, wildfires, and droughts in 2022 provided a taste of the reality to come. Farmers need much more support to adapt to climate change and to help meet the UK’s climate goals, as well as reducing their emissions. Adaptation and mitigation need to be embedded in farm payment schemes; farmers need better information about how farming with nature can increase their resilience; and a land use strategy is needed that considers how food production needs to change in the UK in response to climate change.

• Catch up on the “Wild Live” events from the Wildlife Trust covering topics such as food and farming, and Labour and Conservatives plans for nature: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wild-live
• “Pitting food security against nature recovery is a dangerous distraction – our food security depends on a thriving natural world”, an article from the Wildlife Trusts: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/barnaby-coupe/food-security-nature-recovery

The Wildlife Trusts and organisations from creative arts, sport and physical activity sectors have a critical role to play. ‘Social prescribing’ must be integrated into health and social care services in the community. It makes economic sense and has the potential to deliver improved health and well-being at scale. Independent economic analysis has found that Wildlife Trust's health and wellbeing programmes save the NHS money and cut reliance on their stretched resources. One project that tackled loneliness and isolation in older people could deliver cost savings to the NHS of £100 million benefiting the health and wellbeing of 1.2 million people.

Access to a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right that should be guaranteed through law. Doing this would protect nature, improve people’s physical health, and improve mental wellbeing by reducing feelings of eco-anxiety. Local Authorities should be empowered to work alongside communities, to address inequalities in access to natural spaces in their local areas.

Every child has the right to learn in and about nature. Taking learning outdoors benefits children’s mental health and develops a deeper appreciation for the environment and their role in protecting it. Building a lasting connection with nature in childhood shapes our adult lives and attitudes towards wildlife, climate change, and how we choose to live. New statutory guidance to deliver learning outdoors for all can ensure our schools support happier, more confident children who understand their impact on our natural world.

• Planning for development and nature: https://www.somersetwildlife.org/what-we-do/restore-somersets-nature/campaign-nature/wilder-planning
• Housing principles: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/Housing%20Principles%20Report_LR.pdf

The next UK Government must measure progress on adaptation at the same time as progress on reducing carbon emissions. Adapting to climate change must be integrated across all UK Government policies. Ignoring this will put our natural carbon stores – such as peatlands and woodlands – at risk of extreme heat, fire, and drought, which will lead to massive releases of more carbon into the atmosphere. Habitats need to be connected together to make it easier for wildlife to move, and we need to transform land use and undertake widespread restoration in some areas, such as the Fens, to give them a chance of withstanding climate change impacts.

The marine environment has a huge role to play in locking up and storing carbon. Destroying these ‘Blue Carbon’ sources will worsen climate change even further and could make Net Zero unachievable. It is essential that these important stores of Blue Carbon are recognised, monitored, and protected from damaging development and activities.

The greenest energy is the energy we don’t use. To reduce emissions, costs, and energy bills, the next UK Government must help homes upgrade their energy efficiency urgently, by rapidly expanding home retrofit schemes to bring the entire UK housing stock to a good level of efficiency by 2030. Without serious action, heating and cooling is likely to stay unaffordable for millions of people while energy is wasted – leading to poor outcomes for people’s health and for our environment.

• Somerset Peat. A short film produced as part of the Adapting the Levels project. Watch the film
• The Lowland Peat of Somerset. In this six-minute film, Steve Mewes explains the formation and importance of peat. Watch now