Nature Emergency will be call to action for whole community

WE’VE all watched Planet Earth and marvelled at the rich biodiversity of our world.

Maybe we’ve even taken in David Attenborough’s message that the natural world is in crisis. That’s bad news for us.

Nature feeds us, cleans our air, absorbs carbon, benefits our physical and mental health, supplies us with new drugs, moderates heat and, of course, creates beauty.

But Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth - in the bottom 10% globally and worst in the G7 with barely half our natural biodiversity left.

We tell Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico to protect their natural riches but we’ve destroyed much of ours.

The good news is we can help nature recover.

In our parks and gardens, we can plant mixes of flowers and trees that help local pollinators and provide cover for birds and animals.

We can use ponds, pile dead wood and compost smaller green waste. And avoid pesticides and be untidy (my favourite!).

Long grass provides important habitat for small animals.

The council can help.

So I’m moving a motion at our next meeting to declare a Nature Emergency.

Just like Max Wilkinson’s 2019 Climate Emergency motion, it has to be a call to action.

Cheltenham already has planning policies to promote biodiversity and our Golden Valley plans won a ‘Building with Nature‘ award.

Through Gloucestershire Nature Partnership, we’ve mapped habitats and nature recovery opportunities.

And set up a Nature & Climate Fund to make sure developers who really can’t increase nature on-site can fund it nearby. We’ve protected 16 Local Green Spaces all over town.

But with new local plans on the way, the council can make nature recovery even more central.

We’ll promote nature-based solutions to climate-driven problems like flooding and extreme heat.

We’ll recruit a borough ecologist and write new planning guidance so that all developers here can beat government biodiversity targets.

And we’ll set measurable goals to increase access to nature, reduce pressure on wildlife and make space for nature.

Then next time we can watch Planet Earth with a bit more hope for nature.