{"id":621620,"date":"2025-12-09T06:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621620\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:35:13","slug":"uk-wildlife-is-in-deep-trouble-heres-what-needs-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621620\/","title":{"rendered":"UK wildlife is in deep trouble \u2013 here’s what needs to change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beyond the neighbourhood scale, the UK needs to step up its commitment to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 \u2013 and ensure these areas are properly funded, monitored and protected from damaging development. The\u00a0latest calculations<\/a>\u00a0show under 6% of the UK\u2019s land is currently well managed for nature. As the Office for Environmental Protection\u00a0noted last week<\/a>, these places can play a \u201cpivotal role\u201d in nature recovery, while also providing major economic and social benefits.<\/p>\n

Connecting wild areas is also crucial because nature cannot recover in isolated pockets. Local Nature Recovery Strategies offer a promising way to link wetlands, woodlands and meadows \u2013 but planning authorities need clear rules so that growth works with nature, not against it.<\/p>\n

Sustainable transport routes offer more opportunities for creating habitat. Well-designed cycling and walking routes can double as green corridors, boosting pollinators and urban biodiversity.<\/p>\n

The alternative to this green shift is bleak: worsening floods, more polluted rivers<\/a>, disappearing wildlife and another decade of missed environmental targets. People want cleaner, greener, healthier places to live. Nature-positive planning is one of the fastest, most effective ways to deliver that, with additional boosts to wellbeing and climate resilience.<\/p>\n

The new environmental plan sketches the outline of a more ambitious approach. But unless the government strengthens protections, properly funds regulators and stops projecting nature laws as obstacles to development, UK biodiversity will remain on a downward curve.<\/p>\n

The choice is simple: put nature at the heart of decision-making or continue to preside over its decline.<\/p>\n

Sienna Somers is a nature campaigner for Friends of the Earth<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Change a vendor\u2019s life this Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 or support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0subscription<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and help people work their way out of poverty with dignity.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beyond the neighbourhood scale, the UK needs to step up its commitment to protect 30% of land and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[4675,748,7029,393,728,13581,4884,729,1144,391,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-621620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-biodiversity","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-climate","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-environment-and-community","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-nature","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-opinion","20":"tag-scotland","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115688225164467261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}