The Woodland Trust has launched a Nature Emergency Scorecard which reveals that despite the UK’s nations being among the most nature-depleted countries in the world, just 25% of local authorities have declared a nature emergency and only 12% have a nature action plan.
The charity is urging for action as UK wildlife species are declining by an average of 19% since 1970, and nearly one in six at risk of extinction.
“Local authorities – as landowners, policy makers and local champions – have a unique role in driving the change that nature urgently needs. Many are not doing enough, and a nature emergency declaration is a vital first step in acknowledging the challenge and turning it into nature recovery on the ground. By putting nature on an emergency footing, councils can take meaningful steps to reverse decades of decline and create healthier, greener communities for people and wildlife alike,” explains Louise Wilkinson, the Woodland Trust’s nature recovery lead.
The Trust is calling on councils to identify land for habitat restoration and plant trees to improve tree equity. For local authorities facing severe financial challenges, the Trust proposes allowing wildflowers and grass to grow on public land, which costs nothing but provides vital support for struggling wildlife. The Trust also urges councils to encourage developers to play their part by committing to 30% tree canopy cover on new housing estates or retrofitting trees in areas with less than 16% cover.
To demonstrate commitment to meaningful action for nature’s recovery, the Woodland Trust wants to see declarations from local authorities supported by:
- the development of a nature emergency action plan
- nature’s recovery being embedded into policies
- plans to manage 30% of council land for nature recovery by 2030.
Support and advice to local authorities is available from the Woodland Trust to support them to declare nature emergencies or to strengthen the declarations they have already made. The Trust is also calling on the public to ask their council leader to follow suit and take robust action to recover nature in their local area.
“The nature crisis is every bit as critical as the climate crisis. We have seen the benefits of local authorities declaring climate emergencies and taking climate action, which is why we are calling on all local authorities to join the 100 trailblazers who have already done so and to make their own nature emergency declaration. And this new website is a great resource to help them do this,” said Andy Egan, the Trust’s head of conservation policy..