http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/07/environment-white-paperA dozen new large-scale conservation areas, more business and community involvement and putting a value on nature are needed to protect England's environment, the government said on Tuesday in the first natural environment white paper in nearly 20 years.
But the government's vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years provides only £7.5m extra over the next three years for the 12 large "nature improvement areas" and could lead to conflict with planning authorities with its clear aim to encourage business to take more advantage of England's "natural assets".
The document states that England's environment will be "better protected, restored and improved" after years of continual biodiversity loss and degradation. This, it proposes, will be reversed by giving local communities the right to protect areas precious to them and and allowing business to forge partnerships with farmers, local authorities and conservation groups.
The idea of a competition to develop "ecological restoration zones" was recommended last year by Prof John Lawton as part of an independent review. Lawton put the cost of rebuilding nature in England between £0.6bn and £1.1bn, hundreds of times the amount proposed today for the nature improvement areas (NIAs) which it is hoped will provide "landscape-scale" connected sites for wildlife to live in and adapt to climate change. These would be based on partnerships between local authorities, the private sector and conservation groups. The white paper also supports the idea of a network of of local "improvement areas" to connect fragmented areas of land.
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