Conservation groups see green potential in Brexit

CAP: UK Governments urged to formulate improved alternative

Britain’s largest nature organisations have called for UK Governments to work together to replace Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy with new policies that deliver high environmental standards for land management.

WWF-UK, National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB revealed their joint post-Brexit vision which includes the creation of an independent Policy Commission to examine a future policy for the environment, farming and rural development.

The conservation organisations are calling on Government to turn leaving the European Union into an opportunity to create a countryside richer in nature.

They suggest that by supporting sustainable farming it would not only produce great food but also reward farmers for protecting and restoring the farmed environment.

Collectively the organisations own and manage 500,000 hectares of land, around half of which is actively farmed and they have more than six million members across the UK.

In a statement they emphasised a healthy countryside was vital for the farming sector and for the whole country.

They added: “We need good food, healthy and productive soils, clean water, protection from flooding and an attractive countryside rich in wildlife.

“This requires existing levels of environmental protection to be maintained or bolstered while also thinking very differently about how we support the land management we want and need in the future.”

The organisations pointed to data from the recent State of Nature report which suggested 56% of native British wildlife species are declining. They said all existing agri-environment schemes should be kept open until a replacement policy is fully operational.

They added: “With around three quarters of the UK’s landscape being farmed, the agricultural policies that influence management of our countryside could do much more to support farmers to restore nature,”

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s director for conservation said he wanted to work with farmers to restore UK biodiversity within a generation.

“We should grasp this opportunity to secure the future of the countryside and show we can deliver for both nature and farming,” he said.