£100m appeal to find and create places to help wildlife to thrive
Amid ‘colossal’ environmental challenges, the national park is doing its bit to boost nature
A major search to find new spaces for nature in the South Downs National Park is underway.
Amid the UN Climate Change Conference – COP26 – the urgent need to save nature has never been clearer.
And now, as part of its tenyear campaign to Renature the South Downs, the national park authority has launched a call for potential sites for nature.
The appeal is inviting farmers, land managers, communities and conservation groups across the national park to put forward possible sites where new wildlife habitat could be created.
Andrew Lee, director of countryside policy and management at the national park authority, said: “We have big ambitions. This is about taking places not currently managed for wildlife and specifically managing them for the benefit of nature.
“It’s a first pilot round to see what ideas come forward, and we expect the initiative to adapt and evolve over the next decade, with more appeals for sites likely in the future.”
Proposals of any size or scale will be considered and could include, for example, creating wildflower meadows, new hedgerows, more natural rivers, planting trees, creating heathland or installing dew ponds. Village greens, road verges and allotments may also have potential.
#Renature is a campaign that aims to raise £100million over the next ten years to create an extra 13,000 hectares of habitat where plants and animals can thrive.
Mr Lee said: “As world leaders gather to discuss the colossal environmental challenges facing our planet, we’re taking decisive action at a regional scale in the South East of England. This appeal is a key element of our #Renature campaign as we need to identify possible sites where wildlife can flourish once again.”
The national park authority is not seeking to acquire land as part of this process.
Instead, the authority will work with landowners and communities, offering its specialist guidance to develop projects and connect with available funding opportunities.
One possible mechanism, could be carbon offsetting, where a landowner ‘renatures’ a parcel of land to help capture carbon.
The natural environment can play a vital role in tackling the climate crisis, since healthy ecosystems store a significant amount of carbon in soils, sediments, vegetation and trees.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Lee said: “It’s exciting to launch this appeal today and I hope it will be the first big step towards nature recovery across the national park and beyond. We’re testing the water to see how many renature sites might be out there. We’re not asking anyone to make any formal commitments at this stage, just trying to identify potential projects at varying scales, ranging from welldeveloped projects which need extra support, through to expressions of interest to explore further.”
The South Downs National Park currently has 25 per cent of the land managed for nature, such as nature reserves, woods, heaths, ponds and flower-rich road verges.
The additional 13,000 hectares would bring this to 33 per cent of land managed for nature – going beyond current Un-backed conservation targets of 30 per cent by 2030.
Landowners and land managers can find out more about the Call for Nature Sites and download a form to make an expression of interest by visiting www.southdowns. gov.uk/callfornaturesites
The deadline for expressions of interest is January 17, 2022.
Certain land uses are excluded from the Call for Nature Sites, including private gardens and national sites that are already designated for the protection of wildlife.
Statistics show nature is in crisis everywhere, the national park authority said.
The latest national State of Nature report revealed that 41 per cent of UK species studied have declined, and some 133 species assessed have already been lost from British shores since 1500. About a quarter of the UK’S mammals could also be at risk of disappearing altogether. Climate change, pollution and habitat loss are among the causing factors. The extra 13,000 hectares would mean an area over three times the size of Portsmouth City (40km2), almost double the size of Southampton City (72.8km2), over a third again bigger than Brighton & Hove (87.5km2) and over six times the size of the City of Westminster in London (21.45km2), managed for nature.
Renature builds on the National Park’s People and Nature Network, which is a South East-wide masterplan to drive a green recovery and was produced in partnership with a range of organisations, including dozens of local authorities across Hampshire and Sussex, the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, The Woodland Trust, English Heritage and the Environment Agency.
We need to identify possible sites where wildlife can flourish once again
ANDREW LEE
South Downs National Park Authority