Have Your Say on the Future of National Parks

Most Wildlife Trusts across England have National Parks (NPs) and/or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) within their area. They are highly valuable national assets that make important contributions to our economy and society. However, these protected landscapes could be significantly improved in how they enhance biodiversity and connect people with nature. What’s more, they are underfunded and many were not designated for their biodiversity value in the first place. For example, the finest examples of natural places in the UK – Sites of Special Scientific Interest – are known to be in a worse condition inside NPs than they are in the wider countryside. 

In 2018, the Government appointed an independent panel to review these protected landscapes and assess how fit they were for purpose. Launched a year later, the Protected Landscapes Review included 27 proposals on how NPs and AONBs could be supported to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change. The Wildlife Trusts broadly supported the Review’s findings and welcomed the panel’s acknowledgement that our protected landscapes could do so much more for nature.

The Government finally released its official response in January 2022 (over 2 years after the independent panel published its findings) alongside a public consultation. They also acknowledged that protected landscapes need to do more for wildlife and set out plans to revise how they are managed, with a greater emphasis on conservation, natural capital and biodiversity. The current consultation closes on 9 April 2022, and can be read in full here.

The Government wants to make nature’s recovery central to the management of protected landscapes but hasn’t said when it’ll do this or how. No time has been allocated for parliament to pass the legislative changes necessary to adopt the Government’s proposals, and there is little detail on how management changes will be implemented on the ground. The detail has been reserved for a future ‘national landscapes strategy’, which will set targets on nature recovery, climate mitigation and adaptation, along with other key goals like community engagement. However, no publication date has been given, and these delays are slowing progress in meeting the UK’s target to manage 30% of land for nature by 2030.

The public have waited almost two years to hear how protected landscapes will be changed to benefit wildlife, yet we still don’t know when their proposals will become law. The Government needs to know that they do not have a free pass to continue kicking the can down the road, so we urge supporters to respond to the consultation.