4 hours agoBy Malcolm Prior, BBC News, rural affairs correspondent Getty ImagesA coalition of more than 80 nature conservation groups is launching a legal bid to force whichever party is in power next month to improve government targets on tackling wildlife decline in England.One in six UK species are currently at risk of extinction and a legally-binding target was set by the Conservative government to stop nature loss by 2030.Organisations including the National Trust, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts have also joined forces to urge politicians from all parties to pledge to do more to boost biodiversity.The main political parties have committed to halt species decline by 2030. Malcolm Prior/BBCOn Friday, Labour launched a new “countryside protection plan” that it says will boost species recovery while the Conservatives said they also had clear policies to protect the countryside.The Liberal Democrats say they will double the amount of land protected for nature by 2050.Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 83 environmental groups, wants a judicial review of what it claims is a government failure to review and improve existing targets for England, as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP).In January, the independent watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), said the government was “largely off track” on meeting its environmental aims, with only four of 40 targets for England likely to be achieved.Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said it was “time for the culture of non-compliance with environmental law to end”. Getty ImagesHe told the BBC: “There’s been a long-term decline in wildlife and we’ve seen no sign that the policies in place right now are going to be able to halt and reverse that decline.“We need whoever forms the next government to step up and make the investment, the legal changes and take the action necessary to really start to turn things around.”A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was unable to comment.But the secretary of state is not legally required to complete a review of the EIP until the end of January 2028.The setting of environmental targets on halting the decline of species abundance is a devolved issue. Malcolm Prior/BBCAll four of the nations’ administrations have committed to protecting 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.But the heads of some of the UK’s largest conservation groups have come together to urge UK general election candidates from all parti …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn4 hours agoBy Malcolm Prior, BBC News, rural affairs correspondent Getty ImagesA coalition of more than 80 nature conservation groups is launching a legal bid to force whichever party is in power next month to improve government targets on tackling wildlife decline in England.One in six UK species are currently at risk of extinction and a legally-binding target was set by the Conservative government to stop nature loss by 2030.Organisations including the National Trust, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts have also joined forces to urge politicians from all parties to pledge to do more to boost biodiversity.The main political parties have committed to halt species decline by 2030. Malcolm Prior/BBCOn Friday, Labour launched a new “countryside protection plan” that it says will boost species recovery while the Conservatives said they also had clear policies to protect the countryside.The Liberal Democrats say they will double the amount of land protected for nature by 2050.Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 83 environmental groups, wants a judicial review of what it claims is a government failure to review and improve existing targets for England, as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP).In January, the independent watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), said the government was “largely off track” on meeting its environmental aims, with only four of 40 targets for England likely to be achieved.Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said it was “time for the culture of non-compliance with environmental law to end”. Getty ImagesHe told the BBC: “There’s been a long-term decline in wildlife and we’ve seen no sign that the policies in place right now are going to be able to halt and reverse that decline.“We need whoever forms the next government to step up and make the investment, the legal changes and take the action necessary to really start to turn things around.”A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was unable to comment.But the secretary of state is not legally required to complete a review of the EIP until the end of January 2028.The setting of environmental targets on halting the decline of species abundance is a devolved issue. Malcolm Prior/BBCAll four of the nations’ administrations have committed to protecting 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.But the heads of some of the UK’s largest conservation groups have come together to urge UK general election candidates from all parti …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
