{"id":474127,"date":"2026-03-13T21:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474127\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T21:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:34:07","slug":"we-must-protect-our-natural-habitats-before-they-disappear-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474127\/","title":{"rendered":"We must protect our natural habitats before they disappear | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his article on nature protections (How can we really protect Britain\u2019s environment?, 8 March<\/a>), Sam Dumitriu of Britain\u00a0Remade celebrates habitat recovery and calls for more focus on such efforts\u00a0and less on legal protections for nature. But legal protections are the only thing protecting the habitats we have left.<\/p>\n

Over the past 100 years, the amount of healthy natural habitat in England has shrunk<\/a>: 99.7% of fens, 97% of\u00a0species\u2011rich grasslands, 80% of\u00a0lowland heathlands, up to 70% of\u00a0ancient woodlands and up to\u00a085% of saltmarshes have been lost.<\/p>\n

Attempting to restore natural habitats while trashing those we have left is akin to building a house\u00a0while simultaneously robbing the foundations.<\/p>\n

Mr Dumitriu also claims that legal protections for nature \u201cblock the green building we desperately need\u201d. This will come as a surprise to those working on thousands of projects where vital climate infrastructure is being delivered alongside nature mitigations. Healthy, carbon-storing natural habitats are a prerequisite for achieving net zero; climate infrastructure and nature recovery\u00a0measures go hand\u2011in-hand. Mr Dumitriu\u2019s approach would undermine the very objectives he seeks.
Joan Edwards Director of policy and public affairs at The Wildlife<\/a> Trusts
Kevin Austin Director of policy and\u00a0advocacy at RSPB
Ali Plummer Director of policy and advocacy at Wildlife and Countryside Link
Abi Bunker Director of nature recovery at the Woodland Trust<\/p>\n

Asking a pro-growth lobby group what they think of environmental regulations is like asking Tony Blair about an illegal war in the Middle East \u2013 you\u2019re going to get the wrong answer. Sam Dumitriu\u2019s article suggests that we can somehow protect Britain\u2019s environment by watering down environmental legislation. Many ecologists, conservationists and indeed displaced wildlife would be surprised by his statement that the UK doesn\u2019t, and almost certainly never will, build enough to drive nature loss.<\/p>\n

Development poses a severe threat to biodiversity, degrading nature way beyond the boundaries of new projects. Current regulations are insufficient and poorly enforced, with significant cuts to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the statutory conservation bodies and the Environment Agency since 2010. These regulations, for example, do not deal adequately with chemical, light and noise pollution from new builds or force the creation of green, biodiversity-supporting spaces, especially wildlife corridors. Instead, developers are asked for inadequate \u201cbiodiversity net gain\u201d offsetting.<\/p>\n

Claiming that money spent adhering to these inadequate regulations would be better used on other projects assumes we can\u2019t do both. We need to spend money to both save Bechstein\u2019s bats and create new habitat. Indeed, why doesn\u2019t the building sector contribute more to protecting and restoring the nature they are exploiting? As one of the most nature-depleted nations globally, we certainly need a huge amount more spent on conservation, and the profits reported by many developers suggest they could spare some change to help with this.
Prof James Bullock
Wimborne, Dorset<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his article on nature protections (How can we really protect Britain\u2019s environment?, 8 March), Sam Dumitriu of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-474127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}