Just a sixth of legally protected land offers protection for biodiversity and only exists as “lines on a map”, a new report has claimed.
A report by the British Ecological Society has criticised the government’s target of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030, even though that target has almost been achieved on paper.
This is partly because protected status includes areas that allow intensive fishing or agriculture, or have invasive species. Legal designations such as “area of outstanding natural beauty”, for instance, do not necessarily include stipulations for wildlife.
“Many protected landscapes, such as national parks, AONBs, etc, were not designated primarily for biodiversity, so a repurposing is required for them to be included in 30 by 30,” said Joseph Bailey, lecturer in geography at York St John University. He said “transformative changes” would be needed “to ensure that protected areas not only exist on maps”.
