The role of National Parks in a Green Recovery

18 Nov 2020

Campaign for National Parks has welcomed the Government’s recent announcements to ‘build back greener‘ with the creation of new protected landscapes and a series of other measures; but says more is needed to ensure that National Parks can realise their potential as key players in a green recovery.

A series of announcements this week (15 Nov) saw the Prime Minister unveil his 10-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The announcement today (18 Nov) included one point on nature recovery – a token gesture of planting new trees.

CEO of Campaign for National Parks Anita Konrad said: “A truly ambitious Green Industrial Revolution must have the natural environment at its heart and enable all of us to live more sustainably. It cannot focus almost exclusively on investing in technology and planting new trees.

“National Parks not only have a key role to play in nature recovery, but in the wider economic recovery – supporting the health and wellbeing of the nation. They must have the resources and support to innovate – piecemeal funding for nature conservation projects is not the full answer.”

The Government also pledged to invest £40m more into nature recovery projects, but this falls far short of what is needed – with the current fund massively oversubscribed – and at a time when National Parks are having to halt work on existing projects or making staff redundant due to lack of funds.

Anita said: “The Prime Minister talks of creating 250,000 jobs as part of these plans and while there is opportunity for job creation here, we need to first look at how we retain and build on the existing expertise and knowledge and support the good work already being done. Protecting and enhancing landscapes requires specialist skills and we cannot afford to lose these.”