#DefendNature

Robin ©Neil Aldridge

We need your help to #DefendNature

No Nature. No Future.

Since 2022 we have been working to influence the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, which threatened to give Ministers sweeping powers to remove or replace thousands of environmental laws without public consultation or scrutiny by Parliament. We fear if these protections are lost, it would lead to even more pollution poisoning our rivers, more of our wild places at risk of being damaged – and potentially destroyed – and even more wildlife threatened with extinction.

Update: July 2023

In July 2023 the Government rejected two amendments to the REUL Bill as it passed through the House of Commons. The amendments, whose acceptance we strongly supported, would have provided greater parliamentary scrutiny and prevented the regression of environmental protection.

The Bill has now finished its journey through the House of Commons and the House of Lords and will shortly receive Royal Assent, without the additional environmental safeguards which we campaigned so strongly for.

In the House of Lords some verbal assurances were given regarding protection of the environment. These include:

- the Environment Act setting the context for REUL powers
- recognition that the process should have due regard to the Environmental Principles Policy Statement
- a commitment to public consultation on all Retained EU Law.

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.

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Our Chief Executive, Ed Green, shares his thoughts on the government's attack on nature, and what you can do to help.

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Pitting growth against nature is a false choice. Our economy, food security and health rely on a thriving natural environment.

Close-up image of a hazel dormouse asleep in it's nest.

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UK Government’s deregulation agenda is dangerous: for the good of future generations, we must retain existing laws and enhance nature protection instead

We face an urgent nature and climate crisis. The situation is dire, with more than one in ten species in England on the brink of…

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 in September 2022 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.