The Government’s 25 Year Environmental Improvement Plan has been launched by Defra with a series of plans and promises unveiled by secretary of state Therese Coffey, including:
- Create and restore at least 500,000 hectares of new wildlife habitats, starting with 70 new wildlife projects including 25 new or expanded National Nature Reserves and 19 further Nature Recovery Projects. There is no detail on this yet.
- A multi-million pound Species Survival Fund to protect rare species including hedgehogs to red squirrels.
- Through the support of Government schemes, 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers are planned to adopt nature friendly farming practices on at least 10 to 15% of their land by 2030. They will also be supported to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2037 and 45,000 miles of hedgerows a year by 2050.
- Restoring 400 miles of river through the first round of Landscape Recovery projects and establishing 3,000 hectares of new woodlands along England’s rivers.
- Reforming the current regulatory framework to rationalise the number of regulatory plans and create a more efficient system which better enables joined up working to achieve catchment-level outcomes
- Challenging councils to improve air quality more quickly by assessing their performance and use of existing powers, with promises of funding, and tools.
- A new set of interim targets for 2028 to reduce different types of waste, including plastic, glass, metal, paper, and food.
- Boost green growth and create new jobs – from foresters and farmers to roles in green finance and research and development
- A new commitment to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home, such as woodlands, wetlands, parks and rivers.
we’re on board
At Environment Controls we have already been working in alignment with several of these goals, with Integrated Weed Management (IWM) a particular focus in 2022 and will remain a strong focus in 2023. And, with more green and open spaces comes an increasing relevance on adopting an alternative approach that reduces chemical usage without reducing efficacy. We’re already looking at land rejuvenation, wildflower verges and natural barriers to stop the spread of invasive species.