Speech by the Rt Hon David Miliband MP at the launch of Natural England, London - 11 October 2006
We are today celebrating the launch of Natural England, a new Public Body with a budget of over £400 million bringing together English Nature and parts of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service. Its purpose could not be more important: to ensure that the natural environment is conserved, enhanced, and managed for the benefit of present and future generations, thereby contributing to sustainable development.Its responsibilities include:
- promoting nature conservation and protecting biodiversity,
- conserving and enhancing the landscape,
- providing for the study, understanding and enjoyment of the natural environment,
- promoting access to the countryside and open spaces and encouraging open-air recreation, and
- contributing in other ways to social and economic well-being through management of the natural environment.
Parliament legislated so that Natural England will be a catalyst for a step change in the protection and improvement of the natural environment and that is what we must deliver.
In the next few minutes I want to:
- tell you how care for the natural environment fits into my vision for One Planet Living and the Environmental Contract
- outline the role of Natural England in making it happen.
Climate change is the greatest long term threat facing society today. The idea that has captured the scale of the challenge and the interdependence of our actions is what the WWF called One Planet living. The idea is simple: if everyone in the world were to consume natural resources and generate carbon dioxide at the rate we do in the UK, we'd need three planets to support us. We are depleting our natural resources at a far faster rate than we are replenishing them. We need instead to move towards a one-planet economy and one planet living – where there is balance between what we give and what we take.
A healthy, productive, inspiring natural environment is at the core of One Planet Living. There are two reasons:
First, it’s one of the most valuable assets we must hand on to future generations.
There are moral arguments as well as scientific evidence to back up that statement, but I want to mention today how much people care about what happens to the natural environment. And that care extends from window box to wilderness. There is a strong thread joining the care we lavish on the plants in our window box, through our enjoyment of gardens, parks and nature reserves to the physical pleasure and spiritual refreshment we get from access to wilderness.
Second, it’s a gateway to the entire agenda for One Planet Living.
It is invidious to select any one group of people out when we know that everyone’s life is enhanced through contact with nature and their awareness raised of wider environmental issues. But if you think about the way children react to the natural environment, the impulse to care for living things must be hard wired into every child. It is a fantastic foundation on which to build care for the planet as a whole.
When you tell your child to turn lights off to save the planet, what image do you think she has in mind? The people in this room may have in mind a complex diagram illustrating ecosystem services – or perhaps their last electricity bill - but I bet the child has an image of a green and blue world – probably one of those arresting images from outer space.
To move us towards One Planet Living we need to agree an environmental contract which has the same transforming effect on society and the behaviour of individuals which the social contract had in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The environmental contract will touch all aspects of our life. In the area of the natural environment, I would express it as follows:
We must ensure that everyone has a chance to be inspired by the natural environment and enjoy the benefits which access to nature can bring.
In return, people must change their behaviour to protect our natural environment better and nurture its diversity. We need a commitment from individuals, companies and organisations to reduce the weight of their footprint on the natural environment;
I think it is important to see the lineage behind the creation of Natural England. The journey to the launch here tonight started in that amazing post war period of reconstruction which laid the foundations of our welfare state and education service. The environmental movement had a CP Snow “Two Cultures” moment.
The scientists and naturalists who had been lobbying for better wildlife protection and the creation of nature reserves could not see eye to eye with the inheritors of Wordsworth, the picturesque movement and the campaign for access to mountains. Their lack of agreement was enshrined in legislation. The institutional arrangements for National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, rights of way and access went down one track; those for Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and wildlife protection down another. And so it has remained until today.
The national parks and access agenda drew on spiritual and populist roots. It was perfectly summed up in Wordsworth’s description of the Lake District:
"a sort of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy".
Most national parks and all areas of outstanding natural beauty were managed by local government, sitting at a sometimes uncomfortable intersection between national and local politics.
The wildlife conservation agenda was driven by science and the amateur naturalist. National nature reserves and SSSIs were designated on strict criteria after painstaking research into their biological and geological importance. They were managed or regulated by a new national body appointed by Government for the purpose.
There has been a lot of healthy convergence in the intervening sixty years. Those championing wildlife conservation have increasingly seen the benefits of engaging people hands on. Most nature reserves now have active programmes to attract visitors. Those campaigning for greater access have become increasingly sensitive to the potential threat to wildlife, as has been demonstrated in the programme of access to open country.
A key rallying point for this convergence has been the movement of agricultural support away from production towards the purchase of public benefits. Both the “arts” and “science” factions of the environmental movement have been brought together to shape Environmentally Sensitive Areas, Countryside Stewardship and now Environmental Stewardship, which Natural England will run.
And so to today. For the first time, we have brought together in one powerful new organisation responsibility for wildlife, landscape and access.
By combining the skills and resources of the Countryside Agency, English Nature and the Rural Development Service, Natural England will build on the work of its predecessors in three ways:
First, more rounded solutions. Everyone who has studied the natural environment wonders at the amazing complexity of relationships between soil, water, plants and animals. But when we humans intervene with a regulation or a financial investment, we tend to follow the reductionist route and focus on just one or two aspects. By bringing together all aspects of the conservation, enhancement and management of the natural environment, the focus of Natural England will be on multiple benefits.
How will this work in practice? One of Natural England’s field officers may be driving into a valley to see a farmer who has called for advice on SSSI management. That officer will now have in his toolkit not just English Nature’s SSSI responsibilities but also the Countryside Agency’s programmes for landscape and access and the whole of the agri-environment programme, including a close working relationship with the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. So he or she will be looking at the valley through new eyes, seeking out opportunities to protect biodiversity and enhance the landcape and improve access and make a contribution to flood management and diffuse pollution.
This is the most challenging of the improvements we expect from creating Natural England and I’ll be especially interested to follow its progress.
Second, farmers and land managers will feel the benefit of that integration by having to deal with only one adviser and provider of incentives. One of the main findings of the review of rural delivery was the frustration felt by farmers and land managers at having to deal with so many Government funded organisations.
Third, by bringing together a critical mass of regulatory, advisory and implementation powers, Natural England will have the opportunity to become a more effective champion of the natural environment. It will be a major player, especially at the regional level, and will act as a rallying point for the better understanding of and care for the natural environment.
By bringing three organisations into one, the creation of Natural England will also achieve significant efficiency savings. I do not apologise for that. The benefits of financial synergy are a very welcome side effect of the intellectual synergy I have been speaking of.
I do not want to dodge the budgeting question. Defra has to live within its means, and a combination of accounting changes, Avian flu, and difficulties at the RPA have caused real problems, and consequences, for Defra and its NDPBs. I regret this. Suffice to say that I have explained to all our partner bodies including Natural England that I am determined to develop a strategic, open and effective relationship on policy and funding that takes us through to the end of the next CSR period in 2011. I plan to make announcements about next year in the near future to give a signal of my commitment to timely and effective business planning. I recognise the power of Natural England’s case for a funding rise on this year’s final allocation; I plan to deliver this and ensure that this year’s problems, if not forgotten, are put behind us.
So where do we want to be in ten years’ time, with Natural England’s help? I’ve picked four examples from a wide agenda.
First, getting people to join in.
The benefits of people engaging with nature don’t need academic study to point them out, although they have had their fair share of research. The power of a green view to heal people quicker in hospital; the health effect of exercise taken in green surroundings; the social benefit of a walk in the park with friends or family; the personal pleasure from tending that window box. An element of discovery is essential to these and it must not be squashed.
Later this year, the Education Outside the Classroom Manifesto will be launched. It brings together a coalition of organisations with the aim of giving all young people high quality learning experiences outside the classroom. Natural England will work with DfES and the partnership to promote opportunities for young people to learn in the natural environment, which is an vital part of the Manifesto vision. Among adults, there are many groups who do not have easy access to the natural environment. We made a commitment in the Rural White Paper to take action in this area and Natural England will take the lead.
Second, coping better with the pressures of prosperity.
There are many areas in society where we have not yet broken the link between growing prosperity and declining environment. The demands we make on the natural environment are one. Our insatiable demand for mobility, energy and housing must be reconciled with a healthy and diverse natural environment. The risks we run are great. It is a truism to say that our life depends on the natural environment, but one worth dwelling on. The power of the natural environment to clean our water, air condition our cities and restore the productivity of damaged soils are fundamental ecosystem services, not “nice to have” add ons.
Natural England will play a key role here, especially in the regions, championing the natural environment and working with partners to secure solutions which both achieve environmental benefits and also provide long-term economic and social benefits.
Third, a new deal for agriculture.
Farmers are responsible for shaping and maintaining the vast majority of England’s natural environment. We are in the middle of a fundamental change to the way in which we support them in that crucial role. Financial support will increasingly be tied to this aspect of their business, rather than securing it indirectly by supporting agricultural products. Farmers are also facing growing demands to reduce pollution on the farm and will face major challenges from climate change.
Natural England will administer the agri-environment programme of financial support to farmers and be our principal means for advising and helping farmers to improve the natural environment and make it accessible to everyone.
Finally, adapting to climate change.
I don’t need to remind this audience that climate change is not all about vineyards and café society. Wild plants and animals, as well as humans and agricultural products, are going to have to adapt to the new circumstances. And this will not just be a challenge to ensure that we continue to benefit from spectacular landscapes and biodiversity. The way in which the natural environment adapts will have a strong influence on our basic resources of soil and water.
But we are not helpless. By starting to take measured action now the natural environment can be managed to help mitigate future climate change - through more sustainable soil management, natural flood defences, biofuels and so on. This will be a key area for Natural England’s attention.
In summary, Natural England is our key adviser, champion and action taker on the natural environment. I am looking to it:
- to grab the public’s attention and help them get more out of the natural environment;
- to work with farmers to help them become better stewards of the natural environment; and
- to show all decision makers, private and public, how to achieve their own; objectives while also conserving and improving the natural environment.
It’s been a long road getting here and I’m grateful to the many stakeholders who gave us advice and support along the way, as well as my predecessor Ministers and officials in Defra for a lot of hard work.
It’s my great pleasure today to declare Natural England “open for business”. I am sure it has the ability, confidence and clout to make a major contribution towards a healthy, productive and inspiring natural environment – and hence to one of the greatest challenges facing our society today: One Planet Living.
Page last modified: 13 October 2006
Page published:
13 October 2006