As your local Wildlife Trust, we have spent decades defending nature, even as pollution, development and intensive land use have stripped our counties of some of the richness they once had. In our precious reserves and legally protected sites, we can still see something of the incredible natural abundance that could reach out to recolonise our countryside and urban areas if properly supported to recover.  

But let's be clear, we work hard every day - restoring and repairing habitats, encouraging and challenging others to do more – not simply for wildlife's sake. We do this because we need nature.  We cannot continue to survive, we cannot thrive without healthy, diverse ecosystems.    

Today our local natural environment is in a critical condition. Our chalk streams that should be the 'rainforests' of England, supporting a diversity of life unimaginable for recent generations, are failing.  Our local seas are smothered with toxic algae from constant domestic, industrial and agricultural pollution overload.  Our patches of wildlife rich heath, woodland, pasture and meadow are being sliced, squeezed and trampled over.    

If we are going to turn this around in time - and we believe that we can - we know we have to prioritise nature in policy, in business and in all decisions.  We quite simply can't afford for anyone to take their eye off the ball.   

The Government elected in 2019 made it a clear manifesto promise to help farmers restore nature with a new Environmental Land Management (ELMs) scheme and subsequently committed in the Environment Act to halt nature's decline by 2030.    

These are not promises that can be abandoned if suddenly deemed inconvenient or inconsequential to those now in power.    

In the last few days, the current Government has turned its back on nature, choosing instead a bonfire of environmental laws they now describe as 'burdens'. In what can only be seen as an all-out attack on nature, they are considering: 

• Removing Habitat Regulations which currently defend 18.8 million hectares of our most precious wildlife across the UK from inappropriate and damaging development. The ‘Retained EU law Bill’ would see over 570 environmental laws needing to be replaced or removed by the end of 2023 – an impossible task in the timeframe.  

• Loosening environmental protections through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the rollout of ‘Investment Zones’ which could allow inappropriate development on important habitats or agricultural land.   

Without these essential safeguards, there will be a desperate fight for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s precious natural assets, a free-for-all, with wildlife and communities inevitably losing out to development and intensive land use.

The Government have also seemingly put the brakes on the new ‘public money for public goods’ system that was going to support farmers to restore the environment alongside producing food, with reports that they instead want to return to a system of paying farmers for how much land they own, which mainly benefits the wealthiest landowners.   

The Government’s plans for growth rest precariously on a seemingly willing ignorance of the fact that you cannot create a sustainable economy or resilient society without a healthy environment. Reneging on their commitments to address the ecological crisis and invest in nature is gambling all of our futures for uncertain short-term gains. This is reckless and irresponsible, and it has to stop. 

We know that a great and growing proportion of people care deeply about the state of our natural world, as has been clearly demonstrated by the outpouring of anger in the face of these threats.  It's not too late for the government to see sense and halt this attack on nature.