Make sure nature’s voice is heard in the General Election
The General Election
on 12 December is a crucial moment for wildlife in the UK. More than
ever before, the natural environment has featured prominently in the
election, with all the main political parties making new pledges to help
restore and protect our natural world.
With the other Wildlife Trusts around the country, we are asking all our political parties to:
Back
an ambitious Environment Act with legally binding targets to restore
nature, a powerful, independent environmental watchdog, and a Nature
Recovery Network to protect and join-up important places for wildlife.
Introduce an Agriculture Bill that pays farmers
for helping wildlife and for restoring our natural countryside, so that
public money is used for the good of everyone and farmers help to create
a connected landscape.
Revive
our Marine Environment through a network of Highly Protected Marine
Areas and a new Marine Strategy to guide how we develop at sea, how we
fish within environmental limits and how we restore our marine
ecosystems to support plentiful fish and wildlife.
Here in Gloucestershire we’ve written to all the candidates in the election right across our county and asked them the same three questions:
1. How will you and your party act decisively to tackle the crises in the natural environment?
2. What will you do to ensure we have farming policies that support land managers in contributing to nature’s recovery?
3. What will you do to ensure we protect and revive our seas?
We are posting their responses on our website. Please check to see if the candidates in your constituency have replied to us. If they haven’t, feel free to ask them and
encourage them to get in touch.
Our
natural environment is in crisis – the UK is one of the most
nature-depleted places on earth and over half of our wildlife species
are in decline. Social attitudes in relation to the environment are
changing fast. In a recent survey of young people in Gloucestershire,
climate change is their biggest worry and the environment features as
one of the things they value most about our county. 85% say demonstrable
care for the environment would encourage them to stay in
Gloucestershire.
If you
want to find the commitments the different political parties have made
to the environment, you can read their manifestos online. You can also
read Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s manifesto for a Wilder
Gloucestershire, and find out how you can get involved here.
A link to a wilderfuture poster is attached to the bottom of this post - please print it out and display it.
Whatever
the result, we’ll be contacting all the newly elected MPs following the
election and working with them to secure nature’s recovery.
Message sent by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
