#DefendNature: We Need You
No nature. No future.
Nature is under attack from a raft of announcements by UK Government. Politics may be in for a turbulent ride, but so is the UK's wildlife and wild places, which continue to be threatened by changes to nature and climate laws.
Our State of Nature Cornwall 2020 has brought to light that nature is largely in decline in Cornwall, with nearly half of terrestrial mammals and three-fifths of butterflies found in fewer places over the last 30 years.
A new Bill, officially called the Retained EU Law Bill (the REUL Bill), threatens to wipe away thousands of crucial laws which protect wildlife by the end of the year. This will lead to even more pollution poisoning rivers, more wild places at risk of being damaged – and potentially destroyed – and more wildlife threatened with extinction.
Campaign update: 27th June 2023
Despite the best efforts of the Lords and some robust debate, the Westminster Government rejected the two amendments on the interlinked issues of strengthening parliamentary scrutiny and preventing the regression of environmental protection.
This was the fourth round of ping-pong – the transit of the Bill between the House of Commons and the House of Lords – and the debate had become somewhat political, with concerns that the Government was not following the usual process of making concessions. But neither Lord Anderson nor Lord Krebs pushed their amendment to a vote. The Bill will therefore now receive royal assent without those additional environmental safeguards.
However, the Lords were given some extra verbal assurances. These include:
- the Environment Act setting the context for the REUL powers
- recognition that the process should have due regard to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement
- a commitment to public consultation on all REUL.
We have worked with the Greener UK coalition to galvanise public pressure to influence the outcomes for the REUL Bill, and can count the deletion of the sunset clause as a significant win.
Despite this, our concerns remain that the refusal to offer proper parliamentary scrutiny will make it easier for future governments to weaken environmental protection, water quality standards and other EU-derived protections. But we hold onto the fact that Ministers are now on the record at every turn with promises not to weaken environmental protections, and will challenge them to keep to these promises.
Campaign update: 25th May 2023
A crucial vote took place on Wednesday 24th May that could have serious ramifications for nature. Thousands of Wildlife Trust supporters acted fast to convince MPs to vote for amendments to the Bill in order to ensure Parliament isn't left out of key decisions in future and that the laws that protect nature are not weakened.
Disappointingly, despite almost 10,000 of you contacting MPs, the UK Government and Conservative MPs voted down this amendment. The Bill will now be voted on in the House of Lords on 6th June, where we hope an amendment will be reinserted to ensure our environmental protections are not watered down.
Campaign update: 15th May 2023
The UK Government had been forging forward with a ‘sunset clause’ on the Retained EU Law Bill that would bulldoze hundreds of important laws that protect nature and people at the end of the year (2023).
On the 15th May 2023, UK Government announced that it had scrapped the ‘sunset clause’, which means many vital environmental laws will remain in place in 2024. Your passionate postcards, emails and tweets to MPs have raised the alarm. Thank you for your support. However, the fight is not yet over.
How you can help: step-by-step
STEP ONE
Send your MP a postcard
Ask your MP to #DefendNature by sending a postcard that will land on the doormat of their office.
STEP TWO
Tweet your MP
If you're on Twitter, use The Wildlife Trust's simple form to send a tweet to your MP.
(Please note, you will be redirected to The Wildlife Trust's website.)
STEP THREE
Write to your MP
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Download our template letter here.
- Edit or add to the text to reflect your own concerns.
- Find your MP here.
- Send your letter by post or email to your MP.
STEP FOUR
Write to your local Councillor*
(*This impacts where you live and they need to speak up too!)
- Download our template letter here.
- Edit or add to the text to reflect your own concerns.
- Find your Councillor here.
- Send your letter by post or email to your Councillor.
Step Five: Take the pledge
Will you pledge to write to your MP and councillor? Fill in our pledge below!
Why are The Wildlife Trusts and other environmental charities so concerned?
We believe the UK Government has launched a full-scale attack on nature – leaving wildlife unprotected by tearing up some of the most fundamental laws we’ve got.
New planning laws and ‘investment zones’ announced on Friday 23rd September represent a ‘free-for-all’ on nature by weakening the laws previously in place to protect it from bulldozers and concrete. The new Retained EU Law Bill could also see the end of basic protections, leading to the loss of designated wildlife sites and a relaxation on pollution laws, resulting in more sewage in our rivers and streams.
What’s more, the UK Government is also reviewing the new system that has been developed to reward farmers that help to restore the environment. Reports suggest that instead they might revert back to the old system of paying farmers depending on how much land they own (with larger landowners receiving more subsidy). This is a complete about turn on the farming reform the Conservative Party promised to deliver in their election manifesto in 2019.
You can read more about these issues in our blogs shared below.
