Nature fight ‘needs more publicly held national park land’

Nature restoration in the UK’s national parks is being hampered because almost 90% of their land remains in the hands of private owners, campaigners say.

The Campaign for National Parks (CNP) has called for authorities managing protected landscapes to be given more power to buy private land under what they call a ‘People’s Charter’ so they can do more to boost biodiversity. .

Meanwhile, new research estimates that less than 595,000 hectares of the 5.7m hectares of land covered by Britain’s 15 national parks is in public ownership.

The government says it is still committed to protecting 30% of the land for nature by 2030 and making national parks wilder, greener and more accessible.

It has been 75 years since National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 paved the way for the creation of a set of legally protected landscapes, managed for the country.

Today there are 10 parks in England, three in Wales and two in Scotlandmanaged by the national park authorities (NPA) who have the legal responsibility to preserve and enhance the area’s natural beauty and wildlife.

Access campaigner and environmental researcher Guy Shrubsole, who has mapped current land ownership within the boundaries of the 15 parks, says most “is not, in fact, national property”.

Some NPAs have almost no land of their own, including in the South Downs – the newest park – and in the Yorkshire Dales, where the authority owns less than 0.4% of the land, which consists of car parks , woods and small nature reserves.

The largest land owning authority is in Bannau Brycheiniog, also known as the Brecon Beacons, which still owns around 13% of the land, followed by Exmoor with around 9%.

Mr Shrubsole said the NPAs – who also act as planning authorities – have “virtually no power to influence the private landowners who own most of the land in our parks and are often unmanaged nature in their care”.

But the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) says farmers and other private landowners have a key role to play in creating “treasured landscapes”.

Victoria Vyvyan, the president of the CLA, added that the criticism “misses a simple fact: along with feeding the country, many farmers invest their own time and money in protecting nature and fighting climate change”.

“Let them rule – it’s cheaper and more effective,” he added.

In England, a £100m government scheme, known as the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) Program.currently provides funding for farmers and land managers to work with NPAs to deliver environmental projects.

But Jayne Butler, executive director of National Parks England, pointed out that the program would not be overturned this financial year and that the NPAs had suffered years of underfunding.

He said that “our experience working with many landowners is that land ownership itself is not the decisive factor in driving nature recovery, but rather whether there is the right mix of resources, funding and power in place.”

Earlier this year, a CNP report said the NPAs have little influence over what happens on land they do not own, including areas held by other public bodies such as the Ministry of Defense and Forestry England, which manage about half of the New Forest, and water companies.

Dr Rose O’Neill, the chief executive of the CNP, told the BBC that national parks “really need more powers and resources as well as management and ownership reform”.

He called on the government to create a new People’s Charter for parks that would include “a requirement that any land of a certain size be first offered for community or public purchase when put up for sale, backed by a capital fund which is supported by the Treasury to support the public sector purchase of land in national parks.”

Meanwhile, new national parks are being planned in Galloway, Scotlandand on Clwydian Range and Dee Valley area in Wales.

Plans for a new national park for England was also announced by the previous UK government, while new regulations and powers for national parks are currently being reviewed.

A UK government spokesman acknowledged that Britain is “one of the most depleted countries in the world” and that its national parks “are in decline”.

“That is why we have wasted no time in announcing a rapid review to deliver our environmental targets with legal effect to better protect our natural environment,” he said.

“We will also create more nature-rich habitats and help our national parks become wilder, greener, and more accessible to all as we deliver on our commitment to protect 30% of the land for nature in 2030.”