Hedges and Ditches: Conservation

(asked on 7th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a legally binding target which would match or exceed the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation to increase hedgerow coverage by 40 per cent by 2050, with interim targets of 20 per cent by 2035.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 16th February 2022

Hedgerows are one of the most important ecological building blocks in our farmed landscape. They maintain the distinctive character of our countryside, providing crucial habitats and food for wildlife. Our future farming schemes will incentivise the planting and sustainable management of hedgerows across England.

We are required by the Environment Act 2021 to set at least one long term biodiversity target, in addition to our target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This target, and others set under the Act, will help target the causes of decline and drive actions to deliver nature recovery. We will shortly be carrying out a public consultation on proposed targets, including for biodiversity.

We will also be setting out our pathways to meet these targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan due in 2023. In order to meet our species abundance target we will need to create more, better joined up habitats, which will include hedgerows.

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