Biodiversity

(asked on 27th April 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of setting specific targets for biodiversity recovery in the UK; and whether the Government has plans to introduce targets for biodiversity recovery.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 29th April 2021

Domestic biodiversity policy is devolved in the UK and each nation is bringing forward its own plans and policies, while we continue to collaborate on UK-wide approaches to biodiversity recovery.

The Environment Bill creates a power to set long-term, legally binding environmental targets for England. It requires the Government to set, and achieve, at least one target in each of four priority areas, including biodiversity.

In our policy paper published in August 2020, we set out the objectives for targets currently under consideration. These include improving the condition of our protected sites, increasing species populations, and restoring and improving the quality of habitats, which together would recover biodiversity.

Legally binding long-term targets will be supported by interim targets, covering up to five years. These will allow for an ongoing assessment of whether the Government is on track to meet its long-term targets.

We will want to ensure that, for biodiversity, these targets align with international goals and targets to be set through the Convention on Biological Diversity for 2030.

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