Speech by Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP at the Association of National Park Authorities Conference, Lake Windermere: "Why our national parks matter" - 17 September 2008
I am delighted to be here today, especially with my good friend and colleague Jonathan Shaw.
Jonathan is both a great friend of the National Parks – as you all know – and, I have to tell you, a great advocate on your behalf. Just look at your three year budget settlement !
Now he has to work hard for all this – visiting your Parks - and what a wonderful place to meet. One of the great things about Jonathan’s job and mine is that we get to explore some of the most beautiful landscapes that the UK – if not the world – has to offer.
I have two over-riding recollections of the Lakes. Setting eyes upon them for the very first time. And a walk my second son and I took nearly twenty years ago on a gloriously sunny August day. We started out from Cockley Beck, walked up Mosedale, down across Lingcove Bridge, up to Great Moss and after a long pull up to Mickledore, finally reached Scafell Pike. I had never seen such beauty and such wilderness side by side - we met two people along the way - and the memory of that day and the majesty of what we saw, and felt and breathed will remain with me to the day I die.
And that, for me, is why our national parks matter. They lift our spirits. They nurture our souls. They teach us – or remind us as we return – of what is really important and how fleeting is our impression on earth compared to nature.
The story of our national parks, like the history of our natural environment, is the story of human development. Both shaped by the hand of humankind over the centuries. Both affected by the industrial revolution which altered everything; the moment when our relationship with nature started to change.
But it was because as a nation we instinctively knew the value of the natural world around us, that over the years we sought to restore a sense of balance; to reconnect with what had been lost. Pioneers like Wordsworth, James Bryce, those who took part in the Kinder Scout trespasss, Sir Arthur Hobhouse helped pave the way.
And with the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act – the 60th anniversary of which we celebrate next year - that restoration was given a foundation in law.
It was a radical piece of legislation – the aim was no less than to safeguard the riches of the natural environment to lift the spirits of the nation. As Lewis Silkin, Clem Attlee’s Minister for Town and Country Planning, said while shepherding the National Parks Bill through the House of Commons:
‘Now at last we shall be able to see that the mountains… moors… dales… and tors belong to the people as a right and not as a concession. This is not just a Bill. It is a people’s charter… With it the countryside is theirs to preserve, to cherish, to enjoy and to make their own.’
That just about sums up what the National Parks are all about.
It was through this people’s charter that we conserved some of the most important and iconic landscapes in our country and enabled people to see and to enjoy them.
And now you are the guardians of this charter. And the real reason I wanted to be here today was to say thank you – to all of you - for the hugely important work that you, and all those who’ve come before you, do.
And because of what you do, today our National Parks are more important than ever.
They cover 8% of England, and important parts of Scotland and Wales too.
Over 90% of people say that the Parks are important to them.
96% think that experiencing the Parks should form part of the education of every child in the UK. I agree.
And in 2005 we created the first new National Park in England for many years in the New Forest. We are now looking at the possibility of creating of another National Park in the South Downs. The public inquiry has recently finished and I am awaiting the Inspector's report. I look forward to taking a decision.
And what places to experience!
Our Parks, your parks, are home to over 8,000 miles of rights of way – as the crow flies that’s the distance from Lake Windermere to Lake Superior, and back again.
They contain over 3,000 ancient monuments, and over 250 conservation areas.
And of course, with nearly eight in ten people in the UK living in urban areas today it really matters that we provide them with access to the countryside and to National Parks.
I want to see more people having the chance to visit our National Parks, our countryside and our farms. About 75 million visits to National Parks every year, and nearly 17 million to National Nature Reserves. And I know we can do more.
Take the example of Whitlingham Country Park, in the Broads. They are giving school children who struggle in the classroom a taste of success and achievement in the great outdoors.
City children are finding themselves building fences, planting and climbing trees, and seeing wildlife. Learning what they can do – and not what they can’t – and feeling better about themselves.
One example of how our National Parks – and the natural environment more broadly – lie at the heart of our economic and social well-being.
We have to see the Parks for all the things they give us, and not just for the outwardly visible.
Home to some 200,000 people, including 12,000 farmers – vibrant communities, thriving businesses. And we must ensure that the homes and local services are there to meet people’s needs. That’s why we are committed to delivering over 10,000 affordable homes in communities of less than 3,000 inhabitants before 2011. We spent this morning at Hawkshead discussing how that could be done in one particular village.
Far from being a barrier to development, National Park status can bring a significant boost to the local economy, attracting new visitors, businesses and investment. We must continue to work together to realise that potential.
Environmental Stewardship is an important part of this. Our national parkland incorporates many of the 35,000 Environmental Stewardship agreements which farmers have now signed up to. We’re also celebrating the 21st anniversary of Environmental Stewardship – what a success that has been!
I recently announced that Natural England would introduce an uplands strand to the Entry Level Stewardship scheme from 2010, replacing the Hill Farm Allowance so that we can continue to help and support farmers as they maintain and improve the biodiversity and historic landscape of England’s uplands – the toughest kind of farming there is to do.
Just last month I was in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales. I visited the Grinton Estate and Hazel Brow Farm, and was impressed with what I saw.
Impressed not just by the open farm as a tourist attraction, or the benefits to the local economy, but impressed by their management of the land. The gamekeepers explained to me the careful process involved in burning off the heather in controlled fires to maintain its value. Providing cover for the grouse and other birds, as well as allowing new heather shoots to come through, which provide food for birds and sheep, attracting and sustaining a rich variety of wildlife.
Here was the hand of humankind shaping the land – looking at the whole ‘ecosystem’ - rather than looking at each part in isolation of each other, with a deep understanding of how it all fits together.
And, an example of course, of how the Parks and the Broads are Britain’s green lungs.
Regulating our climate, conserving habitats and wildlife, stemming flood waters, filtering pollution, and – in the case of our heaths and moorlands providing another hidden benefit – as carbon sinks. That’s why I welcome your role in tackling climate change so much.
The peat that lies beneath us is the UK’s single most important, but also most vulnerable, carbon store. And the majority of England’s upland peat is found within our National Parks.
Through managing this land, you are making a major contribution to locking in carbon – some 10 billion tonnes stored in our soil.
So together, with the new joint-working group between Defra, Natural England and the Park Authorities, we have a vital task ahead of us.
Because of course climate change and the natural environment are inextricably linked.
Many of the impacts of climate change will be felt in the world’s natural environment, including our national parks – in my previous job I saw how water shortages can destroy communities, along with sea level rises, water shortages, flooding and desertification. We need to manage the natural environment in a way that enables it to adapt to the effects of climate change and to contribute to our efforts to halt it.
I wish you every success in your work on this – I am really pleased that the Park Authorities are now committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2012.
So there is much to be done.
I am passionate about our natural environment, and our National Parks, and so are you. They have given us all so much. And although some of this we cannot measure in numbers or money, their value is no less for that.
Speaking about the limitations of trying to measure everything, it was Robert Kennedy who expressed what really matters in a speech at the University of Kansas, 40 years ago this year – just months before his assassination. He said:
‘the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.’
Well, we know that our national parks – and the human hands that shaped them - certainly make life worthwhile.
And, yes, they matter, and in your hands we know they are safe.
And as we continue to cherish them for their beauty, their people and for the way in which they make our spirits soar, so we will ensure that succeeding generations can – just like us – come to understand this for themselves.
Good luck and thank you.
Page published: 18 September 2008