Nature Positive 2030 Report

“A healthy environment and a vibrant economy can go hand in hand, and indeed must do, otherwise we will have neither.”

Many landowners will recognise the truth of this statement, if not regard it as self-evident, but the UK’s nature conservation agencies are now driving home this message more urgently than ever before.

One year on from the Leader’s Pledge for Nature made at the UN in September 2020, the UK’s five statutory nature agencies* have joined forces to publish Nature Positive 2030, urging all the UK Governments to increase investment and effort to tackle nature loss and climate change in a more holistic way, arguing that this will benefit the economy as well as the natural environment.

The report advocates a natural capital approach, distilled into 9 action points for government, landowners and businesses:

1.              Support existing protected areas to be “the beating hearts of nature networks”.

2.              Conserve remaining habitats outside of protected sites.

3.              Invest in habitat restoration and creation to strengthen nature networks, including the creation of large areas of wildlife habitat with restored ecosystem functions.

4.              Integrate outcomes for nature into developments on land and at sea.

5.              Tackle atmospheric and diffuse water pollution, especially from nitrogen and ammonia.

6.              Develop the market for green finance and ensure there is a supply of investable projects.

7.              Deploy Nature-based Solutions by default.

8.              Develop the UK’s evidence base.

9.              Adopt targets to become Nature Positive, so that nature goals are put on an equal footing with climate change ambitions.

Work by both the public and private sector is already underway on many of these points, but Nature Positive 2030 calls for a significant scaling up of both investment and effort by all involved, pointing to the greater rewards that this can bring:

“Ecosystems with their full complement of biodiversity are more productive and resilient, providing greater benefits to more people and underpinning sustainable economic prosperity.”

 Tellus Natural Capital is working with landowners in the private and public sector to develop nature-based solutions in areas including peatland restoration, water quality and natural flood management in which public and private funds can be invested. As the report makes clear, the time is now to strive for the UK to become Nature Positive.

22nd September 2021