Conservation and climate change policy ‘should be two sides of same coin’, says chair of Natural England

A new generation of national nature reserves are being created to help improve people’s health and mitigate the effects of climatic extremes, according to the chair of the government’s conservation watchdog.

The South London Downs reserve is the first in a series of landscapes that will be designated a national nature reserve this year, said Tony Juniper of Natural England. Several more will follow this autumn, including what he described as one “very significant” newly protected area.

Juniper said these new reserves highlighted his austerity-hit agency’s determination to do “the practical work of conservation” that would also help the government meet its target of net zero emissions and help England adapt to global heating.

The South London Downs reserve is only the third national nature reserve to be created in the capital, and protects 417 hectares (1,030 acres) of flower-rich chalk downland on the border of Croydon and Surrey. It includes Farthing Downs and Happy valley.

Juniper said: “It’s a wonderful area of natural beauty, it’s very close to where people live and another reminder of how much benefit we can get for our society through the intelligent and wise management of the natural environment and its restoration.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A waymarker post for the Happy valley and Farthing Downs nature trail. Photograph: UrbanImages/Alamy Stock Photo

In a wide-ranging interview on his vision for Natural England, which he admits has been “massively depleted” by budget cuts, Juniper welcomed Boris Johnson’s reaffirmation of the emissions target and said the agency could play “a central role in helping government meet net zero”.

Juniper, who has campaigned on climate change for years as former executive director of Friends of the Earth, said tackling greenhouse gas emissions had so far focused on reducing the use of fossil fuels in energy and domestic heating, and electrifying transport.

But he said climate change policy and the nature conservation agenda “should be two sides of the same coin”.

Restoring peatland helps capture carbon and prevent flooding, for instance, while forest restoration and wildlife-friendly food production can also sequester more carbon.

Improving the health of natural systems is one of our most cost-effective ways of achieving adaptation to climate change

Juniper also explained how natural systems can help adapt to global heating – such as planting trees in cities to lessen the urban heat island effect during heatwaves.

“Improving the health of natural systems is one of our most cost-effective and effective ways of achieving adaptation to climate change,” he said. “The opportunity to harness nature-based solutions is huge but it does require quite a lot of joining up.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England. Photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images

According to Juniper, such solutions require a coordinated effort across government and its agencies including Natural England, the Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency.

Juniper said he hoped nature could be restored in England through legally binding targets similar to those for climate change, via a post-Brexit environment bill. Biodiversity would be measured using existing datasets on water quality, farmland birds, areas of flower-rich grassland and insect abundance, with successive governments committed to improvement.

“It’s really about the extent to which the country wants to own that kind of long-term ambition, and I think we do,” he said.

Juniper welcomed the emergence of Extinction Rebellion and the school climate strikes and said such mass protests helped him fight for more resources within government.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Children take part in school climate strikes in London this month. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

“Sometimes it’s possible to think there’s some activists and a minority interest calling for big ambitious goals but actually when it appears as it is – a much more mainstream agenda – that helps enormously. When it comes to the children and the school strikes, nobody has got more moral authority than the young people who will own the consequences,” he said.

Juniper’s appointment as chair of Natural England in April was a surprise, not least because the influential environmentalist was joining a beleaguered organisation whose funding has been halved over five years.

Conservationist critics have attacked Natural England for licensing the badger cull and pursuing hen harrier “brood management” whereby chicks of the endangered bird of prey are removed from nests on grouse moors to help the shooting industry thrive.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Juniper says Natural England would had advised against a badger cull. Photograph: Tim Hunt/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo

Juniper signalled his discomfort with the badger cull but said it was the watchdog for nature’s statutory duty to license it as the government instructed.

He said: “I think it’s fair to say that Natural England would not have advised that a badger cull should be done but the reality is that we’ve been asked to do it and under the framework agreement that we have with Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] we are obliged to take forward that policy.”

Critics of Natural England’s “hen harrier recovery plan” say it rewards lawbreakers, with hen harriers illegally killed to ensure there are enough red grouse to shoot.

Juniper cited research by his agency that revealed tagged hen harriers mostly “disappeared” on grouse moors – strong evidence of illegal killing by grouse moor interests. “It’s pretty unequivocal that it is still a problem,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Critics say Natural England’s ‘hen harrier recovery plan’ rewards lawbreakers. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

But Juniper also argued that the “brood management” trial was vital to ensure shooting stakeholders assisted the hen harrier’s recovery.

“We’ve got more chance of convincing those people to come on the journey if they can see that they’ve got part of what they think is the solution for them also on the table,” he said. “My only benchmark is whether the hen harrier recovers or not. That’s all I’m concerned about.”

Juniper said he had not yet been promised any extra resources to help Natural England but he was determined to show that looking after the natural environment was not a cost, but “an essential investment in the future of our country”.

“We know that dividend from healthy nature is bigger than ever,” he said. “This is an investment in the nation’s health but also an investment in resilience against climate change, it’s an investment in essential infrastructure in terms of flood protection and water purity and it’s also an investment in long-term food security because in the end all our food comes from nature.

“Too often it’s been easy to see the environment as an inconvenience that’s getting in the way of development and progress. It’s the exact opposite – by investing in nature we make the country stronger and better.”