Our highlights from 2024

Published: 19 December 2024

As 2024 draws to a close there’s so much we have achieved this year! 2024 marks 75 years of National Parks and on that anniversary we’ve welcomed new laws and legislation, connected young people with National Parks, brought the challenges National Parks face to a national audience and come together to protest and to celebrate.

As a small charity we have big ambitions for our incredible landscapes and we couldn’t do what we do without you. So if you’ve written to your MP, signed a petition, donated, even just spent time in a National Park we want to thank you for your support this year.

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Top 5 highlights from 2024

1. Commitment from Labour for ‘wilder and greener’ National Parks

Casting our minds back to the summer ahead of the general election welcomed the promise from Labour to “Help National Parks and National Landscapes become wilder and greener, ending the destruction of nature, expanding and restoring habitats”. After their win it was vital for us to hold Labour to this promise and lobby the new government to make the changes set out in our Health Check report to ensure thriving National Parks for nature.

We’re thrilled that on 16 December, the 75th anniversary of the royal ascent of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, Defra promised new legislation to modernise National Parks – celebrating the original bold intent of the 1949 Act, while unleashing the full potential of these incredible places for the next 75 years and beyond. This means driving nature recovery, cleaning up waterways and fixing broken governance. As we look ahead to 2025 we will be holding government to this promise whilst making sure the changes are strong and delivered swiftly.

2. Our Health Check report

Our flagship Health Check Report set out the first assessment of and recommendations for nature recovery in National Parks in England and Wales. We gathered information and research from across the Parks on a variety of subjects and the results were clear – nature needs a lifeline.

Not only did the report provide robust data on the state of our Parks but also outlined recommendations which we are actively campaigning for. We’ve had a huge reach with this report and were featured on Channel 4 news and in the Guardian to name a few. That findings are still regularly quoted and have become the basis for change needed in our Parks.

We also used the stats from the report in a nation wide billboard campaign to reach millions of people in cities across England and Wales to drive awareness around water pollution in National Parks.

3. Youth Voice

This year we’ve had a big focus on youth engagement and connecting young people with National Parks. We kick started the next two year phase of our New Perspectives project which has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project consists of many different aspects; a variety of grants for young people to share their stories of National Parks, our Future Leaders Course which provides campaigning and leadership skills to inspire future leaders, as well as recruiting youth ambassadors and providing in person opportunities for young people to engage with and influence decision makers.

We also launched our Right to Discover campaign, a youth declaration for National Parks outlining key changes we want to see for the future of the Parks. To help launch the campaign we kick started with Race to National Parks, where we followed two teams seeing who could get to a National Park first – raising awareness of the cost and difficulties for young people accessing the countryside.

4. Progress in Wales

We’ve been supporting the progress for the designation of a new National Park in north east Wales, the first National Park in Wales since 1957. The new National Park must be exemplar for nature and provides an important and timely opportunity to build on all that is best about the existing Designated Landscapes in Wales. As the year comes to the close so did the public consultation, in 2025 we’ll be working closely with Natural Resources Wales to campaign for changes we’ve set out in our response.

Earlier in the year with your help and the campaigning support of Cymdeithas Eryri, Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales and the Alliance for Welsh Designated Landscapes, we helped raise hundreds of voices in support of a new agri-environment scheme. We were thrilled that in mid December the Welsh government announced that farmers in Welsh National Parks are set to receive an exciting new boost in support and funding in 2025 with Ffermio Bro: Farming in Designated Landscapes; a new scheme which will support nature friendly farming practices in our Welsh National Parks and Landscapes – a great success and campaign win.

5. Defending and upholding the strongest protections

After decades of calling for change, on Boxing Day 2023 we welcomed a new duty binding all public bodies to take action for Protected Landscapes. Since then we’ve been working to ensure this law is followed by calling on the government to ensure public bodies comply with the law and set out guidance and regulations that make it very clear what these bodies must do to further the purposes of Protected Landscapes. We’ve also taken action to hold public bodies accountable; we’re seeking permission to intervene in legal test-case threatening all of England’s National Parks and National Landscapes, we’ve also launched a legal complaint to the Office of Environmental Protection, as new evidence is revealed showing that the water regulator Ofwat has not complied with the law. 

We will continue to fight for legal changes and strengthening of laws to protect National Parks and hold those in power accountable.