THE South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) has welcomed new targets set by the government to support conversation and tackling climate change.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently published its new targets. The framework, published at the end of last month, highlighted protected landscapes as being crucial to combating climate change, restoring nature and supporting the nation’s health and wellbeing through providing better access to green space.
Tim Slaney, interim chief executive of the SDNPA, said, “As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our glorious National Parks this year, we must once again summon the passion that coalesced around the simple but powerful idea all those years ago: We need access to nature and nature needs us.
“If we put the resources and powers needed behind this idea, we can harness the innovation and partnership working taking place across all of our Protected Landscapes and ensure our precious protected landscapes remain world-class havens for wildlife and people. The nation deserves nothing less."
READ MORE: Winners of national park astrophotography competition announced
Jayne Butler, executive director of National Parks England, said “The challenges that we face to restore nature and tackle climate change are enormous and so we must have ambition to match.
"Within National Parks we have that ambition and we see the role of National Park Authorities as key to achieving these targets. Yet, whilst the ambition grows, our resources to deliver on this are dropping – in the last 13 years National Park Authorities funding has seen real-terms cuts of around 40 per cent. Targets like these centre National Parks and other Protected Landscapes in the vision to restore nature and tackle climate change and now we must be given greater financial resources to deliver this vision."
One plan at the South Downs National Park is its ReNature initiative to create 13,000 hectares or roughly 20,000 football pitches of new habitat for wildlife, tackle biodiversity loss and improve access to nature for all.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here