Environmental Targets (Biodiversity) (England) Regulations 2022

Motion to Approve

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 19 December 2022 be approved.

My Lords, I declare my farming and land management interests—some of that land is SSSI, as I have set out in the register.

Biodiversity globally is in decline, and in England species abundance has fallen by 52% since 1970. According to the State of Nature partnership’s 2019 report, 13% of species assessed in England are threatened with extinction within Great Britain. We know we need to take determined action to ensure that we halt the decline of nature and leave the environment in a better state than we found it.

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, whose amendment gave rise to this debate. It raises concern about the lack of a statutory target on improving the condition of terrestrial and freshwater protected sites; we feel that this is already addressed through our species abundance targets. The species abundance targets to halt decline by 2030 and then reverse that decline by 2042 are ambitious, world-leading targets which will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery, including action on protected sites which are vital wildlife havens.

There may be other biodiversity targets that warrant consideration; however, we chose species abundance as a good proxy for the health of the wider ecosystem. Our indicator to track progress includes over 1,000 representative species for which we have robust data; between them, these species depend on the majority of habitats found in England.

The noble Baroness is right that many of our protected sites are in a poor condition and are subject to many pressures and threats, including climate change and water and air pollution. But we are committed to addressing this challenge. Our 25-year environment plan set the goal to restore 75% of our 1 million hectares of terrestrial and freshwater protected sites to favourable condition. We have a robust programme of work in place, led by Natural England, which includes providing £2.9 million per year to assess all protected sites, implementing protected-site strategies, introducing the Environment Act 2021, and rolling out the new ELM schemes which will provide the bulk of the funding needed. These regulations implement the requirements of the Environment Act to set a target that will halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, and have at least one additional long-term target relating to biodiversity.

Moved by

At end insert “but that this House regrets that the Regulations fail to set a target for terrestrial protected sites condition; notes that this contrasts with the Environmental Targets (Marine Protected Areas) Regulations 2022 target for Marine Protected Areas condition; notes that around 40 per cent of England’s terrestrial protected sites remain in unfavourable condition and this has not changed significantly since publication of the 25 Year Environment Plan target to reach 75 per cent in favourable condition; further notes that the United Kingdom committed in December 2022 to a new Global Biodiversity Framework including the target to ensure that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of the overall terrestrial and marine areas are effectively conserved and managed and to report periodically on that target; and therefore calls on His Majesty’s Government to bring forward a new target which addresses the condition of terrestrial protected areas in England”.

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of the Woodland Trust and president and vice-president of a range of conservation organisations as listed in the register. When I tabled this regret amendment, I did not realise I would be scheduled in the death slot at the end of the day, and I apologise to the Minister for keeping him up.

I thank the Minister for laying out these regulations. I feel a sense of déjà vu with some of them because the history of creating targets for biodiversity is a rather chequered one. I hope the House will forgive me if I dwell on some of the history. When I first came into the environment movement 30 years ago, I was told very firmly that to save biodiversity we had to pay attention to three things: first, the abundance of individual species and the extent of their distribution; secondly, habitat creation in the wider countryside; and thirdly, very definitely, a network of protected special sites and the condition of those sites. We have got some way in these targets towards the first two, and I will comment briefly on them, but I am afraid we have nothing on the third. The targets put forward by the Government fail to tackle all these three issues, and they need to be put together.

The targets were roundly booed by between 92% and 99% of all the respondents to the consultation, when they were asked whether they would be a good measure of biodiversity changes and on the grounds that they lacked ambition. The UK, as the Minister has already said, is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. We are at the bottom of the league table among G7 countries, as measured by the Biodiversity Intactness Index. We have a bit of a car crash on our hands and a big turnaround needs to be delivered, and we need effective targets to drive progress.

The first requirement I had dinned into me 30 years ago was about species, but the species extinction risk target to reduce the risk by 2042 compared with 2022 is a bit limp. It has been said, although the Government have denied it, that this could be met by simply improving the status of one species from critically endangered to endangered, which does not sound like 20 years’ worth of achievement to me; perhaps the Minister could say whether it does to him. Can he reassure the House that there is a commitment to a statistically significant or even a major reduction in extinction risk, not just any reduction however minor, which the current wording might encourage people to believe? Some 13% of species in England are threatened by extinction, and many of the rest are in serious decline. They are on the brink and must be brought back from it urgently. The importance of toughening up this target has been thrown into sharp focus by the recently agreed COP 15 global goals that agree that, by 2050, extinction rates and risk of all species will be reduced tenfold. That sounds more like it in my book. We signed up to this COP 15 agreement—indeed, we did a lot to lead it—only a month ago. The ink is barely dry on the agreement, yet the Government are putting forward an England target for 2042 that would not enable us to be on track to meet that global agreement for 2050. We are going to look very foolish to other countries, especially the ones we cajoled to sign up. Can the Minister say how he is going to resolve this, and make sure our international reputation is not in tatters?

On the second point—increased habitats in the wider countryside—the target proposed by the Government is for the restoration or creation of in excess of 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042, as the Minister said. However, that is a lot less than the target of three-quarters of a million hectares that was supported by a large majority of experts and the public during the consultation period. It is also not a very good metric. A better one, which would cover quantity, quality and connectivity of habitats, is under development by Defra following the 25-year environment plan, but it is more than five years since the plan was published. Can the Minister promise that this more satisfactory indicator that is still under development will be finalised very shortly, not in 2024 as is promised? Will he commit to using the metric to set a better binding target for habitats as soon as it is available?

The biggest flaw in the biodiversity targets that we are considering tonight is the complete absence of the third thing I was told was important 30 years ago. There is no target at all for the condition of terrestrial protected sites—sites of special scientific interest. SSSIs, as has been said many times before, are the jewels in the crown of our wildlife resources. They are designated for the importance of the species they support. They are the bedrock of our biodiversity conservation and will be vital for reversing declines in the abundance or even the survival of many species. Overreliance on the abundance target underplays the value of habitat restoration, the primary place for which, at first, is in the protected sites.

Over the past 30 years, mostly as a result of the EU birds and habitats directive, we have not seen SSSIs completely trashed to a great extent any more; it has become comparatively uncommon and is mostly done by government-financed infrastructure schemes—but we will put that aside for the moment. But many SSSIs are in pretty poor condition, impacted by a lack of management, inappropriate land use and modern agriculture. The percentage of SSSIs in favourable condition has remained steadfastly below 40% for many years.

For a brief period in the 1990s and early 2000s—when, by sheer chance, I happened to be chairman of English Nature, the predecessor of Natural England—there was a glimmer of progress, which was not led by me but finagled by Defra and English Nature’s great staff. In 2000, Defra’s public service agreement for SSSIs was set at 95% of them being in favourable condition by 2010—that was ambition. That was a real target. Defra and English Nature had a six-year rolling programme that was well thought through and resourced to make this happen. By 2003, 58% of SSSIs were in favourable condition, and, the following year, 62% were—real sustained improvement was possible. But, alas, as the years went past, resources were cut, the focus moved away and SSSIs declined in quality from then until now. More recently, in the 25-year environment plan, government committed to 75% of SSSIs being in favourable condition—so we are still not as good 95%, but 75% might just pass. But the improvements necessary to deliver that have not been driven, and the long-term targets that we are debating today are totally silent on the condition of protected sites.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s recent report on these statutory instruments notes that the Government failed to comment on why a target is not possible. That raises an excellent question, so I ask the Minister: why is such a target missing? The Office for Environmental Protection’s recent report on progress with the 25-year environment plan points out that its objectives are not being achieved across the board and calls for “challenging apex targets”—that is a bit jargony—for all goals in the forthcoming environmental improvement plan, which would include protected sites. I look forward to that on 31 January. So it is pretty clear that everyone thinks that the absence of a condition target, or indeed any target, for protected sites is a bad thing. In fact, you have to ask a more basic question: what is good about protecting protected sites if they are simply allowed to decline?

But, again, the implications of this omission have become worse as a result of COP 15. Only three weeks ago, we signed up to a commitment to ensure that, by 2030, at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial ecosystems are under effective restoration and that, by 2030, at least 30% of the land is protected and effectively managed—this is the 30x30 commitment that the Government busted a gut to support in Montreal. Back home, we are miles away from either 30% commitment, and, unless we adopt a binding target for protected sites’ condition to drive their recovery, we will look globally foolish or duplicitous, as well as letting those sites go down the drain. The slogan is, “Think global, act local”; we did the global diplomacy on this one, so now let us get the England action into focus with a target—hopefully an ambitious one. If the Minister would like, we can tell him how we made progress 20 years ago.

I hope that the Minister can commit to bringing forward as soon as possible a new target for the condition of terrestrial protected sites—our precious SSSIs. Let us not forget that the crisis of biodiversity decline is as existential as the climate change crisis. Every extinction foreshadows our own. We need to do better than this. I beg to move.

My Lords, it is a pleasure to be taking part in this debate, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, for her introduction to her amendment.

The environmental target on biodiversity is extremely important. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, of which I am member, reviewed these instruments on 17 January. The committee has commented fully on each of the targets and on the overarching legislation under which they hang. The consultation that Defra conducted from 16 March to 27 June last year received 181,000 responses, and Defra seemed surprised at the number.

As the consultation response document indicates, there was an overwhelming number of responses from campaigns, organisations and petitions. There were also 660 individual responses. Given the number of campaign responses, it is surprising that Defra gave the huge number of responses as the reason for not being able to meet the deadline of 31 October 2022 to set the environmental targets, as required by the Environment Act, especially since there was only minimal, if any, alteration to the targets after considering the consultation responses.

In terms of biodiversity, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee found that between 91% and 99% of respondents disagreed with the proposed targets, feeling they indicated a lack of ambition. Concern has been expressed as to how the red list indicator will be interpreted. A very small change in one species from “critically endangered” to “endangered” could be interpreted as meeting the target. This would clearly be nonsense. The Government said in their response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s concern about the absence of a favourable condition target that they do not feel a more ambitious target is necessary. Can the Minister say why?

I am left, therefore, with the overwhelming impression that Defra is currently underresourced. Unless something is done to rectify this, it will not get anywhere near dealing with the retained EU law items that have to be dealt with by December this year, never mind delivering its environmental targets.