Wildlife Trusts Concerned Over Impact of Cuts

Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, and the National Trust are to take over some of the state’s stewardship of the countryside due to Spending Review cuts
Wildlife Trusts Concerned Over Impact of Cuts
Wildlife Trusts volunteers look after some of the small things in life like this late blooming buttercup which crowned with the first frost of winter in the Cheshire countryside at dawn on October 24, 2007, in Knutsford, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
11/4/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/77471632.jpg" alt="Wildlife Trusts volunteers look after some of the small things in life like this late blooming buttercup which crowned with the first frost of winter in the Cheshire countryside at dawn on October 24, 2007, in Knutsford, England.  (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)" title="Wildlife Trusts volunteers look after some of the small things in life like this late blooming buttercup which crowned with the first frost of winter in the Cheshire countryside at dawn on October 24, 2007, in Knutsford, England.  (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1812593"/></a>
Wildlife Trusts volunteers look after some of the small things in life like this late blooming buttercup which crowned with the first frost of winter in the Cheshire countryside at dawn on October 24, 2007, in Knutsford, England.  (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The head of The Wildlife Trusts has warned that austerity cuts could undermine the indirect benefits and savings that the natural environment brings to society.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has lost 30 per cent of its budget under the axe of the spending review.

Defra intend to devolve much of the cutbacks in the state’s stewardship of the countryside to NGOs like The Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB, and the National Trust.

Stephanie Hilborne, OBE, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, is worried that the cuts will overlook the indirect benefits of a well-managed natural environment, whose more subtle influences don’t register in the chancellor’s balance books.

“Investment in securing effective management of land for nature yields dividends for people’s quality of life,” she said.

“Contact with the natural environment is proven to have a positive impact on mental health, and studies have shown it can also boost recovery times after surgery.

“As well as providing social benefits,” Hilborne said, “such management may actually be cheaper for local authorities than, for example, conventional mowing regimes.”

She also worries that these cuts, which have already taken 800 jobs at Natural England, the conservation arm of Defra, may happen too quickly.

“Any roles for The Wildlife Trusts or other voluntary sector bodies cannot be prescribed by government because decisions are taken by entirely independent boards of trustees of each charity.”

Government and local authorities need to understand the role these charities can play, she said.

“The Wildlife Trusts, for example, can provide full local coverage and genuine local ownership because they are run by local people and are part of the local community.”

But she says that the government needs to continue to oversee the broader standards for key national wildlife sites like National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Yet, here too, the government indicates its intention of using individuals, businesses, civil society organisations, and local authorities as part of the “Big Society” initiative.

In a letter to MPs about the modernisation of the forestry legislation in the Public Bodies Bill, Defra says, “This will be a new approach to ownership and management of woodlands and forests, with a reducing role for the State and a growing role for the private sector and civil society.”

There is no mention of the details of how this will happen.