Call for wilder areas in National Parks

NATIONAL parks need wilder areas to boost declining wildlife, campaigners have urged politicians, with huge areas now “ecological shadows” of what they could be.

The Government should adopt recommendations in an independent review of national parks and other designated landscapes that called for them to have wilder areas to help restore nature, according to Rewilding

Britain. The campaign group’s call comes as the Peak District National Park marks its 70th anniversary tomorrow as the first UK national park, designated on April 17, 1951.

Guy Shrubsole, policy and campaigns coordinator for Rewilding Britain, said national parks should “lead the way” on rewilding landscapes to help make Britain wilder and more nature-rich.

Involving large-scale restoration of ecosystems, such as allowing woodland and pastures to regrow and wetlands to return to a more natural state, rewilding has proved controversial in some quarters, amid concerns it involves abandoning land that should be used for producing food.

However, supporters say it can boost jobs in areas such as conservation and eco-tourism, while helping nature and allowing food production to continue.

Mr Shrubsole explained: “Our national parks need to be leading the way towards a wilder Britain, with a massive expansion of rewilding to tackle climate breakdown, reverse the

decline in species and boost rural economies.

“While the state of nature in Britain might be even worse were it not for our protected areas, huge areas of our national parks are now ecological shadows of what they could be, when they should be bursting with wildlife.”

Despite the Government having already committed to protect 30% of the UK’s land by 2030 to support the recovery of wildlife, following the commissioning of an independent Landscapes Review into the protections of designated landscapes, conservationists warn much of the existing protected areas are national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which do not necessarily deliver for nature.

Mr Shrubsole added: “It’s simply not credible for the Prime Minister to claim that national parks in their current degraded state count towards the Government’s pledge to protect 30% of the UK’s land and sea for nature by 2030.

“We hope this year, to mark the 70th anniversary of Britain’s first national park, that the Government adopts the idea of wilder areas in national parks, as the Glover Review recommended – allowing our national landscapes to thrive in the century ahead.”

Some national park authorities have already set out plans for nature within their boundaries, with Exmoor’s plan including thousands of acres of wilder areas, totalling 10% of the 267 squaremile park, where natural processes will be allowed to take their course, aimed at promoting nature recovery.