Get nature-friendly farming ‘right’ to meet legal green goals, watchdog warns
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The Government should “put the wind in the sails” of landscape-wide nature-friendly farming schemes to meet key environment targets, a watchdog has warned. The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) said progress on improving the natural environment had slowed under the last government, and Labour had not yet done enough to get back on track to meet legal commitments.
The OEP called for action to deliver nature-friendly farming schemes, a focus on agricultural pollution of rivers as well as sewage, and improving the condition of the seas, including by halting damaging activities in marine reserves. It also wants to see more investment in designating, monitoring and managing protected sites, the development of land use plans, mobilising of private investment, more effective regulation, and greater engagement with the public on improving the environment.
The OEP has released an assessment of progress under the last government, from April 2023 to March 2024, which found it was “largely off track” to meet goals such as halting declines in nature and water quality in England, with progress slowing compared with the previous year.
The watchdog’s chairwoman Dame Glenys Stacey said there were still opportunities for the new Government to get back on track, but warned it would require it to act “urgently and decisively” to meet looming targets such as halting declines in species by 2030.
She welcomed early moves by Labour, including ending the use of bee-harming pesticides, legislation targeting water companies, and revising the environmental improvement plan released under the Tories, which set out how the Government would deliver on its range of environmental targets and goals.
