Protect the protection

This one’s for the protectors, the defenders, the champions of change. Those people who tirelessly campaign, speak up for and drive home the laws which have given UK wildlife and wild places a fighting chance. These are the protectors of nature’s protection – and they’re needed now more than ever.

Did you know it is illegal to handle wild salmon in suspicious circumstances? Or that technically any beached whale belongs to the King? The UK rulebook is full of strange laws like these, but also some pretty good ones.

Take the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act. In 1889 Emily Williamson created the Society for the Protection of Birds with one aim – to fight a fashion for feathers and exotic plumes which were driving some birds like little egrets and crested grebe to extinction. Her all-women movement was born out of frustration that the male-only British Ornithologists Union was not acting on the issue. Emily’s efforts soon gathered pace and after joining forces with Etta Lemon and Eliza Phillps, the movement grew in popularity and influence. Their tireless efforts meant that in 1921 the plumage act was passed, marking the RSPB’s first successful campaign for nature.

Over the years passionate people have played a part in campaigning and lobbying for numerous laws to protect nature. One of the most successful has been The Habitat Regulations. You may not know much about them, but these powerful laws have quietly steered development away from our most important wildlife habitats and protected some of our most vulnerable species. For 30 years the Habitat Regulations have provided clarity and certainty for landowners and businesses and are still extremely effective.

But sometimes even our most effective nature-saving laws come under threat. Right now, there are plans to amend or even scrap The Habitat Regulations. The UK Government is also considering creating Investment Zones in England, meaning housing and commercial developments could be incentivised, potentially damaging nature with little or no restriction. There is an aspiration to extend the same approach to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland too.

Both of these proposals are part of an attack on nature which environmental organisations and individuals from across the UK have come out fighting against. Organisations such as The Wildlife Trusts, BirdLife, WWF, National Trust and BugLife have joined together with hundreds of thousands of people like you. Together, we’re standing up to defend the laws that are so vital to saving the nature we have left.

But while we need to fight to keep existing nature-saving laws, we need new ones too. Since 1970, we’ve lost on average almost 70% of the planet’s mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. To address this dramatic decline, countries from around the world need to sign up to legally binding global targets to protect nature.

This could happen this December at the biggest nature summit in over a decade. CBD COP15 will bring world leaders together to try and agree on ways to halt the loss of nature. What they agree will affect wildlife internationally, nationally and the nature right on your doorstep.

Teams from different organisations, including the RSPB, will be lobbying for several targets and new international laws to be agreed, including for 30% of land, inland waters, seas and coasts to be protected by 2030.

The need has never been stronger for people and organisations to act as nature’s protectors. Your voice has the power to make change happen and challenge world leaders to do the right thing.

Find out more at: https://urgentconversation.org/