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Issues in conservation, Uncategorized
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Nature Reserves, Uncategorized
AFON
AFON
AFON
On World Environment Day, and in the final days before the UK General Election, we’re proud to publish this statement from young people across the UK and from some of our friends further afield. It calls on the next Parliament of MPs and the next Government to take strong action Now for Nature.
We’re so grateful to everyone who has signed this statement for us calling for the urgent action that’s needed to help the UK’s wildlife.
We’ve sent this statement to the leaders of all the main political parties:
Young people across the UK, and the world, are calling on the UK’s politicians and next Government to ensure that ambitious action is taken for wildlife and nature.
The declines of nature in the UK and beyond have never been more worrying. It is young people and future generations, as well as the natural world itself, who will deal with the consequences of these declines. As young people who care passionately about wildlife, we’re ambitious about the kind of world we want to grow up and grow old in: we want to continue to hear turtle doves purring, we would love to see beavers reintroduced across the UK and we hope that one day soon we’ll see an end to wildlife persecution and crime.
We are calling on the UK’s next Government and its next Parliament to put in place strong protections for nature, particularly as the UK leaves the European Union. The EU has, to date, provided some of the strongest protections that wildlife has in this country, notably the Birds and Habitats Directives, and these should be at least maintained if not strengthened.
The UK has also achieved success in helping wildlife independent of its EU obligations, such as the return of iconic species like the bittern and large blue butterfly. These successes could not have happened without the work of Government, NGOs and public support. We would like such achievements to continue.
But despite these protections and successes, nature continues to decline in the UK and beyond at alarming rates. This puts species at risk, but also people through damage to services that ecosystems provide us with like clean water and air, flood protection and food.
The UK is responsible for a huge number of rare and endangered species on its mainland, and particularly in its crown dependencies and overseas territories. So young people from across the world are also calling on the UK to be a leader in living up to its commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Young people in the UK who care about wildlife would like to work with politicians of any party, and the next Government to ensure that the UK’s next Parliament takes action now for nature.
Organisational Signatories:
A Focus on Nature
Bristol Nature Network
Synchronicity Earth
New Nature magazine
Wilderness Foundation UK
Black2Nature
Wren Zoological
Change in Nature
Aberystwyth Sustainability Society
Cambridge University Nature Society
Emerging Leaders for Biodiversity, Canada
Youth for Wildlife Conservation (UK members)
CoalitionWILD
National Youth Agency
Individual Signatories:
Findlay Wilde, young nature campaigner
Georgia Locock, young nature campaigner
Mya-Rose Craig
Tiffany Francis
Jennifer Garrett
James Shooter
Josie Hewitt
Chris Calow
Nicola Boulton
Holly Hucknall
Sophie Barrell
Sian Jones
Robbie Phillips
Mya Bambrick
Alex Berryman
Lucy McRobert
Adam Canning
Matt Collis
Alysia Schuetzle
Lauren Hoops
James Common
Andrew Catherall
Connie Turton
Marcus Rhodes
Caroline Collingwood
Ellen Marshall
Leanne Tough
Bryony Yates
Georgie Bray
Lucia Watts
Max Hellicar
Martin Cooper
Eleanor Morrison
Alice Banahan
Sarah Woods
Dan Rouse
Genevieve Dally
Simon Phelps
Tom Mason
Peter Cooper
Chris Kirby-Lambert
Robyn Womack
Lucy Witter
Ben Eagle
Matt Williams
Imogen Lindsay
Emily Wood
Amy Robjohns
Alice Collier
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