My best laid new year’s resolution to be healthier will fall apart unless I decide to get on the treadmill and work up a sweat. I was reflecting on this simple fact whilst considering how I could explain the labyrinthian confusion of all the plans, promises, targets and reports that currently demonstrate the UK’s new year’s resolutions to turn round the decline of our native wildlife. 

The problem is that trying to work out whether we are doing a good job is filled with a conflicting and confusing mess of acronyms and government plans. We have SACs and SPAs, OEPs and LNRS, LRS, EIPs, REUL, SANGs and a bunch of other inscrutable details. * So, to simplify, let’s explain making nature ‘healthy’ using my new year’s resolution to get in shape. 

1) Set a target

To begin with, I must set a meaningful target for getting healthy. The targets for the government are broadly positive. 30% of land and sea protected for nature, UK wildlife recovering to be more abundant than it is now, protected sites being in good condition and several other targets. They committed to creating these targets as part of the 2021 Environment Act. Some of the targets could be more ambitious, and there are a few gaps, but it is a positive start.  

2) Avoid temptation

To ensure my resolution has the best chance of success I must get rid of anything too tempting and likely to derail it. For me that might be the fast-food takeaway app on my phone, for the government, it should be the Retained EU Law Bill (REUL). This ‘15-inch, stuffed crust’ policy could remove or replace over 1700 laws that protect nature, undermining the efforts of the government to meet their nature recovery goals. Ignoring the potential impact of these laws on protected wildlife sites and species, as they have done in recent announcements, is an obvious oversight. Likewise, the government keeps undermining their goals by allowing the use of dangerous pesticides, going against scientific advice, after banning the dangerous chemical years earlier.  

3) Set your goals.

A smart goal would be for me to work out how long it will take to reach my healthy weight. The government decided on 2030 as the date to halt the decline of nature by and see 30% of land and sea managed or protected for nature. They then set out a 25-year plan for environmental improvements, including targets for clean water, less pollution and better air quality. The new ‘Environmental Improvement Plan’ is the shorter, 5-year framework for how they hope to achieve these top-level goals. from water quality, air quality, farming and ensuring that everyone has access to nature within a 15-minute walk of their home. We were happy to see that this included specific funding for our precious chalk streams such as the River Itchen and that there seems to be an increasing focus on the nutrient pollution that currently smothers life in the Solent Estuary. 

4) Sort our your food

Fast food can be a particular problem for a waistline and the way we grow it can be an issue for nature too. The government recognise that the traditionally intensive way we have produced food with heavy pesticide use and intensive methods have often harmed nature as an unintended side effect. That is why their new subsidies aim to pay farmers for the ‘public good’ of making their land more nature friendly. However, much like convincing myself that eating a sugary cereal bar is a ‘health food’, there is a serious risk that these schemes could fail to be a big enough switch to make a proper difference. And there’s a lot riding on the schemes; the government hopes they will contribute at least 80% of the target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042. Thus, we need to keep an eye on the rollout of these ‘Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS)’ to ensure they are generous enough to support a thriving and sustainable rural economy and put nature back into recovery. 

5) Get accountable

To keep on track with my resolution I need accountability and the encouragement of people around me. This is also true for the government’s environment goals and so the Government set up the ‘Office for Environmental Protection’ (OEP) to regularly hold them to account. This public body recently reported that out of 31 important environmental trends, only 8 are currently improving at all and none are meeting the targets the government set. It seems that much like joining a gym, setting a target is much easier than doing the work needed. 

6) Time to get off the sofa

Consistency at the heart of getting healthy. I can plan all I like but at some point, I must force myself away from Netflix and build up some positive habits with regular exercise. For now, it feels like the government are still sitting on the sofa with their gym kit on, trying to decide how serious they are about putting in some graft. We need them to move beyond making plans to taking meaningful accountable actions to restore nature and I hope they succeed.

*Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Areas (SPA), Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), Landscape Recovery Scheme (LRS), Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), Retained European Union Law Bill (REUL), Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space (SANGs)