Action in England

How is the government currently responding to the environmental crisis?

35,000

hectares is the area of degraded peatland the government has pledged to restore by the end of this parliament, with an investment of over £50m. Peatlands play a vital role in storing carbon and enhancing biodiversity, but only 13 per cent of this habitat in England is in a near-natural state. Restoring this area of peatland will prevent the release of about 9m tonnes of CO .

54.2

per cent of SSSIs were deemed in ‘unfavourable recovering condition’ in March 2020. There has been a decrease of SSSIs in ‘favourable condition’ since 2003, dropping from 44 per cent to 38.9 per cent.

46,000

children from 184 schools benefited from Nature

Friendly Schools between September 2019 and March 2021, but funding to allow children to experience nature as part of their education is not definite past March 2022.

3,331

hectares is the size of the new ‘super’ National Nature Reserve (NNR) at Purbeck Heaths. The protected area comprises three existing NNRs, plus some new land. The sand lizard, Dartford warbler and silver-studded blue butterfly are all set to benefit. 42 licenses have been issued to HS2 by Natural England. Licenses allow activity that would otherwise be illegal, such as the felling of trees housing bat roosts, destruction of badger setts and removal of great crested newt ponds. 36 farmers are in the Martin Down Supercluster, which receives grants from Natural England. 236km² of farming land around Martin Down Nature Reserve is managed to support species such as turtle doves, hedgehogs and adders.