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#DefendNature: we need each other

No Nature. No Future.

Nature needs defending  - you can help. 

Since 2022 we have been working to influence the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill, which threatened to give Ministers sweeping powers to remove or replace thousands of environmental laws, without public consultation or scrutiny by Parliament.  We fear if these protections are lost, it would lead to even more pollution poisoning our rivers, more of our wild places at risk of being damaged – and potentially destroyed – and even more wildlife threatened with extinction.

Read The Wildlife Trusts' reaction

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“We won’t be congratulating UK Government for its decision to stop doing something it should never have even thought about in the first place. The UK Government’s Retained EU Law bill has been a shambles from the very beginning. Now it has ditched the ‘sunset clause’, which threatened to dismantle most Retained EU Law at the end of this year and posed an immediate threat to vital laws that protect nature and people. However, the huge problem posed by the bill still remains because it will allow future governments to revoke important laws at whim, whenever they want to.  

“Ministers should never be given carte blanche to pick and choose which laws should be kept or binned without public consultation or scrutiny – that is fundamentally undemocratic. The uncertainty created by UK Government over Retained EU Law has caused huge problems for business, as well as organisations working to protect nature. Ministers must stop seeing environmental law as a burden because it helps stop more sewage entering our rives and ensures food is safe to eat. Given the urgent need to address the nature and climate crisis, they should be strengthening protections, not ripping them apart.”

Environmental protections remain at risk and nature is facing threats at every turn! We all need to act together NOW to #DefendNature. Contact your MP below.

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Why were The Wildlife Trusts and other environmental charities so concerned?

In 2022 the UK Government launched a full-scale attack on nature –  threatening to tear up some of the most fundamental laws we had, and announcing new proposals that would have a hugely detrimental effect on the UK's wild landscapes.

New proposals to change planning laws and create ‘investment zones’ announced in September 2022 represented a ‘free-for-all’ on nature, weakening the laws previously in place to protect it from bulldozers and concrete. The Retained EU Law Bill would also see the end of basic protections, leading to the loss of designated wildlife sites and a relaxation on pollution laws, resulting in more sewage in our rivers and streams. What’s more, the Westminster Government launched a review of the new system developed to reward farmers that help to restore the environment. 

You can read more about these issues in our blogs shared below.

These threats and others are still live - we will never stop campaigning for the natural world.