Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust expert explains potential for nature’s recovery beyond new UK government’s plans for a new national park

Plans to create a new National Park grabbed the headlines last week following the government’s announcement of a raft of new measures to improve access to greenspace and people’s connection with nature, writes Erin McDaid, of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

The package was announced by the new Environment Secretary Stephen Barclay ahead of COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai and billed as the government putting nature at the forefront of efforts to tackle climate change.

As someone who has spent a lot of time in national parks across the UK and who regards the Peak District as my ‘happy place’, I very much welcome the prospect of a new national park.

But I feel that other, less high-profile measures announced have greater potential to restore nature, and to secure that recovery where we need it most right on our doorsteps.

Since the Peak District was established as the UK’s first national park 70 years ago, there is no question that National Parks have helped protect and secure public access to some of our best loved landscapes.

However, protected landscapes, often chosen for their scenic value, are not necessarily rich in wildlife. Over the 70 years we’ve had National Parks we’ve witnesses a dramatic decline in the UK’s nature and today, one in six native species are under threat of extinction.

While there are undoubtedly places within our national parks where wildlife does flourish, many areas that people view as beautiful scenically are largely barren in terms of biodiversity.

Back in the 1990s, as an enthusiastic Recreation & Tourism Management student in Sheffield studying in a campus just a short walk from the Peak District National Park boundary, I learned about the ‘loo, brew and view’ principle used to describe the basic needs of most countryside visitors.

There’s no doubt that our national parks largely meet this triad of requirements, but it could be argued that many of the views so central to the parks’ popularity are largely devoid of wildlife.

Things are changing, with more focus on efforts to restore wildlife within these treasured landscapes. If teamed with proper funding, the protections provided by National Parks’ planning restrictions can deliver real results.

Fond as I am of the Peak District and other national parks which helped shape my love of the countryside, other measures announced last week could do more to restore nature and increase people’s access to wildlife-rich greenspaces than an additional national park.

Towards the bottom of the list of new measures, after the National Park, a new National Forest and two new Community Forests, including one over the border in Derbyshire, was confirmation that the delayed legislation for biodiversity net gain would be brought to parliament imminently.

This is designed to ensure that all new development, whether housing, commercial or infrastructure leaves nature in a better state than if the development had not taken place.

This is a dramatic shift from developers simply needing to prove that their projects will deliver no net loss of biodiversity.

If local planners are properly resourced to ensure that it is implemented, monitored, and enforced rigorously it could be transformative.

Because it applies to developments across the country it could stem the loss of local habitat and provide us all with access to new wildlife rich greenspaces on our doorstep.

Here in Nottinghamshire, we have been working with all local planning authorities to develop a coordinated and robust approach to ensure that our county’s wildlife benefits from the new rules and associated funding.

The government also announced 34 new landscape recovery projects across England which will cover 200,000 hectares of land.

These are a key part of the government’s new farming schemes — promised as part of our departure from the EU — and are designed to help farmers produce food whilst delivering environmental benefits for wildlife and wider society.

Given that most of our landscape, including most land in our national parks, is farmed, it’s great to see more support for farmers who want to help heal nature through landscape recovery.

There has been a huge demand for this new scheme which can strengthen farm businesses, reverse species decline and restore habitats at scale.

It brings a huge range of benefits for wildlife whilst storing carbon, preventing river pollution and helping alleviate flooding.

As ever, the devil will be in the detail, but if we can ensure that our planning system secures investment in nature’s recovery and speed up the roll out of ambitious nature friendly farming schemes, the impact of a new national park, while welcome, will pale in comparison.