Cambridge Conservation Initiative stands ready to assist the new Government with advice and evidence to inform the nature restoration and climate response agendas both nationally and internationally.

Fostering a diverse world in which nature and society thrive, conserving and restoring life in the face of the interlinked biodiversity and climate crises, is the crucial challenge of our era. There are many sources of hope in the knowledge and actions of people, movements and businesses around the world, but these urgently need to be connected, supported and scaled up into transformations that reverse decline and secure sustainable and just futures.

The partners of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), bringing together the world’s largest grouping of conservation organisations, university researchers and their global networks, share the view that achieving these goals means placing nature at the core of decision making. Decisions that can have an impact on nature and the health of our planet happen in all sorts of arenas from personal shopping and struggles for livelihoods to community and civil society actions and the investments of businesses and financial institutions. Governments however play key roles, both through direct decisions about priorities for policy, investment and regulation, and through shaping broader contexts and values – both at home and internationally.

Last week the UK elected a new government, instigating the potential for a new era of commitment to the restoration of the natural world. This comes at a pivotal point both domestically, as the UK faces the consequences of being one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and globally, as the world faces the interlinked biodiversity and climate crises and gears up to deliver on international agreements, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets agreed at the CBD COP15 in Montreal. What is the new government saying so far, and what messages from CCI and its partners could help?

Steve Reed, the newly appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has already announced that nature recovery is one of his five main priorities. He followed this up with a strategy to reform the water sector, saying ‘We will never look the other way while water companies pump sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas’ – an overdue step that will transform our water environment for wildlife and people.

CCI partner RSPB suggests that if the Government takes swift action now it could be a complete ‘game-changer for our wildlife’. They point out that MPs in Government as well as those in Opposition all have a role to play in making this change happen. The Government is responsible for making sure that we meet legal commitments to halt the loss of wildlife and protect 30% of our lands and seas by 2030. This is a goal that we are currently very far from reaching, but one that Labour committed to meeting during the election campaign – and one that will need to be aligned with its core manifesto commitments to addressing concerns with equality and the cost of living.

RSPB shared five key actions the new Government must urgently take to protect and restore our natural world.

1. More and better funding for nature-friendly farming
2. Improve and expand the protected space for nature
3. Planning with nature at its heart for our economy to thrive
4. Take urgent action to save our struggling seabirds
5. Restore the UK as a nature leader on the global stage

Read more about them on the RSPB website here

David Lammy, in his first video after being appointed to the post of Foreign Secretary, recognised the climate emergency as one of the main challenges facing the world today. He promised ‘a reset with Europe on climate’ and has emphasised a focus on reconnecting Britain with the world. Nature does not adhere to political boundaries. Migration routes and global flyways and swimways frequently cross many countries, and often continents, requiring international agreements and cooperation to restore the natural world. The Government will need strong international relationships to deliver on its promise to meet the GBF goals.

CCI partner Fauna & Flora, working collaboratively with other UK-based partners including RSPB, also called on the new UK Government to act on their international nature commitments. Their asks focus on the UK’s role in providing global leadership and using finance strategically to enable nature’s recovery. They state that the UK’s leadership role in the climate and nature emergency has faded in recent years and that it needs to ‘step up’ its ambition.

Together they have issued a policy paper which outlines very clear and detailed actions that are easily achievable and would quickly create positive impact, such as making a commitment to expanding the existing nature-positive aid commitment to all forms of UK overseas financing.

They also ask the Prime Minister to join global leaders at CBD COP16 in Colombia in October this year – a step that would acknowledge the enormous importance of this conference and its power at this key moment to create positive futures for people and nature everywhere.

Read the policy paper ‘People & Nature – International Asks for the Next Government’ on the Fauna & Flora website here

As Fauna & Flora and their collaborators point out in the paper, reversing the destruction of nature is a key step to tackling the climate crisis – and this is the greatest challenge of our time. The next five years will be critical. We will be watching the actions of the Government closely on this matter as we continue in our mission to put nature at the heart of decision making.