Scrapping strict protections for nature would be 'terrible mistake', ex-minister warns

2 years ago 59

The erstwhile situation caput has warned it would beryllium a "terrible mistake" for the caller authorities to scrap protections for quality successful a dash for economical growth.

George Eustice MP said "the assemblage language" of the caller medication has unsettled wildlife groups, and helium urged the authorities to perpetrate to greenish maturation that creates jobs and improves the environment.

In an exclusive interrogation with Sky News, helium said: "We volition lone person sustainable maturation if we're looking aft our planet.

Tory MPs crook connected Truss arsenic PM scrambles to prevention occupation - Politics quality live

"You are ever going to request to person strict protections for taxon that are susceptible oregon endangered. And you're ever going to request to person immoderate strict protections for definite habitats.

"You can't conscionable crook a unsighted oculus and say: These don't matter."

The RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust and different biology charities are alarmed by the government's deficiency of committedness to quality successful its maturation plans.

They fearfulness regulations that support plants and animals, and acceptable standards for aerial and h2o quality, could vanish oregon beryllium watered down.

Mr Eustice said portion helium was successful bureau helium had developed an cultivation argumentation that incentivised farmers to heighten nature, including the usage of herbal leys, a substance of writer and flowering plants that are bully for soil, livestock, and wildlife.

"It would beryllium a unspeakable mistake to wantonness that," helium said.

"The mode you get maturation is by having steadfast soils, a steadfast environment, and really embracing immoderate of those regenerative cultivation techniques that our argumentation was each astir encouraging.

"If you wantonness that and spell backmost to the benignant of 1970s imaginativeness of dense usage of pesticides and unsustainable cropping of land, past I deliberation you're successful a atrocious presumption some for the resilience of farming financially but besides for nature."

The UK is 1 of the astir nature-depleted countries successful the world. According to the RSPB, 41% of works and carnal taxon are successful diminution and 15% are astatine hazard of extinction.

Mr Eustice added that immoderate biology regulations based connected EU directives were "clunky" and didn't bash a due occupation successful protecting nature.

But they should beryllium simplified, not scrapped.

He said: "I anticipation we're not going to spot a reversion to radical talking astir newts and bats being the problem, due to the fact that they're not.

"It is not astir quality being the obstruction to growth. It's immoderate of the processes that were acceptable up that were much cumbersome than they needed to be."

The authorities said it was committed to reversing the diminution successful quality by 2030.

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