Natural England - IUCN conference - Nature - what's in it for me
IUCN conference - Nature - what's in it for me
19 April 2010
Helen Philips speaking at the IUCN conference in Edinburgh about delivering ecosystem services in England.
Despite the huge transformation of the natural world that has taken place in England, especially over the last two hundred years, England still retains an extraordinarily rich diversity of plants and animals. There are over 50,000 species.
And that richness and diversity means that our wildlife is really important – for five groups in particular – Atlantic ferns and mosses, breeding seabirds, wintering wildfowl, grassland and woodland fungi and heathland insects – we have internationally, globally, important assemblages, in England.
This is a testimony to the expertise and determination of the conservation sector and the tens of thousands of volunteers who make a huge personal investment of time, energy and money into nature.
Our current system of conservation has admirably insulated the natural world from the worst excesses, reduced losses, created enclaves, and maintained the status quo.
But it is not sustainable in the long run – England continues to lose species and habitats.
And as natural systems are degraded, eco-system services are lost.
The current state of play
Natural England recently published a report detailing England’s lost and threatened species, taking a uniquely long look at the trends shown by over 2000 years of historical records.
We identified 492 species that have become extinct in England - the vast majority of which have gone in the last 200 years.
Some familiar losses like the lynx or beaver occurred several hundred years ago, hunted for fur in medieval times.
Other top predators such as wolves and bears were persecuted into extinction.
But the majority of losses are much more recent and tell a much more complex story of environmental decline.
The loss, or inappropriate management, of habitat, development pressure, pollution, persecution and the impact of non-native species have all taken an increasing toll over the last 200 years.
Recent losses have occurred across the species range as habitat loss has taken with it whole suites of animals, flowering plants, mosses, fungi and lichens.
Patterns of land management have changed dramatically over the last half century. Agriculture has changed beyond recognition; ploughing and fertiliser use left us with only 3% of species rich grasslands remaining. We have neglected woodlands, drained and dug peatlands and allowed downland to become scrubbed over.
At sea, we have exploited some species for food to the point where their populations are no longer viable.
As well as extinction, we looked at species that are still with us but threatened. 942 species are currently given priority under biodiversity action plans – the so called BAP list - partly owing to their drastic rate of decline over the last 25 years.
All of our regular dolphin and whale species are of concern. All of our reptile species; 60% of our amphibians; 40% of our freshwater fish; 40% of our terrestrial mammals and 33% of our butterflies and bumblebees. Taken together, over a quarter of the species of all the best studied groups are declining and/or on the BAP list.
These are not comfortable statistics.
They suggest that the extinctions we have recorded to date could be just the tip of an iceberg unless we take action.
Why change?
Why in a nation where 10 million plus people are glued to the TV by David Attenborough’s remarkable wildlife films; where over half a million people participate in the RSPB’s annual garden bird count; where we spend, according to some estimates over £70million each year on bird food; do we allow our natural systems to decay?
In large part because we have failed to value our natural eco-systems for the huge range of benefits that they provide for everyone.
People might mourn the loss of the wildlife – but they are not convinced that it will impact on their lives.
And the current system of conservation – which broadly maintains the species most at risk inside protected areas – helps perpetuate this disconnect.
We are, I sense, on the brink of the most significant shift in conservation for a generation.
The focus on delivering eco-system services – the positioning of nature as a vital public service, the foundation of future prosperity and health – demonstrates the undeniable, and fundamental importance of the natural world.
Into the future
The emerging goal for the conservation sector must be to demonstrate how, through our expertise and knowledge of the natural world, we can deliver the full range of eco-system services through a new focus on the reconnection and integrated management of natural systems.
This does not mean forgoing high levels of biodiversity - delivering eco-system services supplements the ethical case for conservation and a high proportion of our population believe it is ethically important we conserve our biodiversity.
Changes in non-ecological factors are also challenging orthodox environmental thinking. We can anticipate with some confidence global population growth, less certain energy and food supplies, water shortages and the gradual exhaustion of many natural resources, not least mineral phosphate which underpins current high levels of agricultural production.
These pressures are increasingly being taken seriously as their effects become apparent. For example between 2004 and 2007 the area of oilseed rape grown for biofuel increased twenty fold to 240,032 ha (National Non-Food Crops Centre 2009); the over abstraction of ground waters already occur in parts of central and northern England, not just in the dry south east (Environment Agency 2009).
Conservation planning needs to think forwards to anticipate and address these issues if we are to find space for nature in a future of greater resource competition.
To help us engineer and test the delivery systems of the future Natural England has commenced two programmes of work.
Scenarios
Firstly, we have developed Scenarios for England’s natural environment, from mountain to sea bed, looking 50 years into the future.
We have looked beyond the “perfect storm” of climate change, rapidly growing populations and the dwindling supplies of many natural resources.
We explored how factors such as technological progress may play out, and the impact of severe climatic shocks – floods and draughts - and what that might mean for the natural environment.
And we have looked at the evolving relationship between people and the natural world.
In developing and consulting on this work it became clear that whatever path to the future you follow, nature and natural systems were essential. In all four scenarios nature’s value is grounded in the benefits it can deliver to people (ecosystem services).
Upland eco-systems atlas
Secondly, we are conducting comprehensive audits of England’s natural asset base
Starting in the uplands where:
Up to 70 per cent of UK water supply is sourced from upland rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
Nearly 300 million tonnes of carbon is stored, more than the forests of Germany and France combined.
We are also auditing the condition of these assets – for example only last month we released our assessment of the state of our peatlands, which found that the majority (75%) of England’s deep peatlands are degraded.
Which means that instead of storing carbon they are emitting 3 million tonnes of CO2 a year to the atmosphere, equivalent to around a third of a million households.
And the degradation is not limited to the uplands – peat on the Lowland Fens is subsiding by around 2cm a year due to continued intensive drainage and cultivation. We estimate that most Fen peat soils will only retain a significant covering of peat for the next fifty years or so at current rates of loss.
We are now conducting an audit of the eco-system services provided by all 159 of England’s character areas – showing local people, businesses and leaders what they have, what they might lose and where they most need to take action.
No Charge
To strengthen the case for action, and for investment into natural systems, we have also conducted an economic analysis of the services provided by England’s natural environment.
This makes the case that a healthy natural environment is indispensible to current and future economic prosperity – it is a vital part of the infrastructure of a successful modern economy.
Alongside a cost benefit analysis of the services provided by the uplands, we showed the benefits of managed realignments on the coast and of enhancing urban environments.
Managed realignment
Sea level may rise by 18 cm in the London area by 2050 and storm surge in this area that overwhelmed the Thames Barrier would have consequences of New Orleans proportions.
We currently tackle this problem by building and maintaining ever higher sea defences. Approximately £358 million was spent on coastal and inland flood defences between 2006 and 2007, and even this huge sum wasn’t enough to keep pace with the erosion caused by sea level rise. We know too that building sea walls can divert the flood risk further down the coast, rather than stop it. And we also sacrifice natural habitat in the process– rich in bird and marine life.
On Alkborough Flats on the south bank of the Humber Estuary we have been partners in an eco systems approach to the problem. It is currently the UK’s largest managed re-alignment site.
In 2006 a 20 m wide breach was cut into the flood defence bank and 170 ha of land was converted to mudflat, saltmarsh and reedbed. The remaining 230 ha of land serves as storage capacity during extreme storm surges. It is calculated that there is an annual flood protection benefit of £400,667.
The wildlife and wildlife habitat on the site has been valued at £535,000 per year. The restored intertidal area also plays a role in climate regulation (approximately 539 tonnes per year of carbon are trapped in sediments worth an estimated £14,553 per year), air quality improvement, nutrient and pollutant sequestration, and recreation and tourism.
Creating this habitat can save £4,600 per metre in sea defence costs.
There are now 23 such similar schemes across England, cost-effectively delivering a wide range of ecosystem services.
Green infrastructure in towns and cities
Green spaces, parks and gardens are still seen by some as decorative features – good marketing material for estate agents but not part of the critical infrastructure of urban areas.
So for many years we have failed to invest in greening our towns and cities
The reality is that green spaces transform city life. Parks, gardens and trees reduce noise levels and flood risks, and improve air quality. In heat-waves they can cool neighbouring areas by as much as 4 degrees C.
A wooded park can filter out 85% of air pollutants and a street lined with trees 70%.
And people who live within 500 m of green space are 24% more active. Reducing the sedentary population by just 1 per cent would save lives and £1.44 billion.
Into the bargain people get better places to live and work. And wildlife somewhere to thrive.
The problem is that investment or incentive mechanisms to deliver eco-system services are limited.
At the moment the market only delivers rewards for the food, fibre energy and other produced by ecosystems.
Other environmental goods and services needed by society are classic non-market public goods.
And as a result the huge benefits that healthy natural systems deliver are often left to chance (incidental, not intended, not planned/designed)
Funding mechanisms
In England there are some delivery models to build on.
The Environmental Stewardship scheme, run by Natural England, puts around £400 million each year into the hands of farmers and other land managers, in return for environmental action.
We have over 50 000 agreements bringing 67% of the land under some form of environmental management, and helping to integrate production and conservation – creating habitat and food resources for farmland birds and other wildlife, protecting water courses and soils.
We have estimated carbon savings of just under 1 million tonnes CO2 a year through the restoration of degraded habitats and creation of new habitats, including 90,000 hectares of carbon-rich upland peat moorlands, which are being restored by the scheme.
And a saving of a further 700,000 tonnes CO2 a year is achieved by allowing levels of soil carbon to build up in unfertilised, uncultivated buffer strips in arable and grassland and hedgerows – the equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from over 100,000 UK households. Over the five years of the agreement savings of 3.46 million tonnes of CO2 per year are made; with a value of around £1.25 billion.
Eco-system pilots
But ultimately we are going to have to design and implement delivery models that do not rely exclusively on the largesse of the taxpayer – which current schemes like our Environmental Stewardship scheme, or indeed the centrally provided funding for biodiversity action plans, are entirely reliant upon.
The challenge in the future is to find the right incentives and mechanisms to broaden the funding base – where land management practices are shown to reduce flood risk, might insurance companies pay for them? Where natural processes improve water quality, would water companies to invest too? Similarly with beneficiaries of local cultural services, or tourism spend, or public health benefits.
Our Eco-system pilots
We are now testing these principles in three pilot areas in England’s uplands– in the South Pennines, in the Bassenthwaite Lake catchment, Cumbria and on Dartmoor and Exmoor, in the South West.
Each project is being run by local interest groups – bringing together government agencies – The Forestry Commission, the Environment Agency with their responsibility for water courses and pollution; National Park Authorities; and a combination of land management interests and other business interests.
By bringing all the fundholders and local interest groups together, we avoid duplication and waste – delivery is more efficient.
Water extraction
By working from one integrated plan designed to maximise the eco-system services identified in the audit – agreed, sometimes painstakingly, by all parties - we can deliver multiple benefits from a single project – tackle water pollution alongside increasing forestry cover, creating new habitats for wildlife, and reducing costs for water companies for example.
This is real ‘on the ground’ work – it takes time, it takes determination – but it is the only way in the long run to deliver significant change to whole eco-systems.
Next steps
The conservation sector has a remarkable track record of delivery - targeted species recovery programmes and reintroductions of species that have gone extinct have proved particularly successful.
The red kite had disappeared from England by the end of the 19th Century. Now - thanks to a series of regional reintroductions – they are firmly re-established and numbers are rising.
Localised recovery projects too. The ladybird spider, sand lizard, and cirl bunting are returning to sites across the South West.
From the species that were included in the BAP list in 2005, recent surveys show that 45% of them were stable or recovering.
But fire fighting to rescue species in severe decline is surely not a long term solution.
We need a step-change in conservation that goes beyond the targeted work that has gone on to protect individual sites and species and which focuses on restoring the health of the environment across entire eco-systems.
And to do this we will need to talk a different language – to understand and explain the economic value of nature; to shifts people’s values and behaviours; to broaden the investment base in the natural environment; and to develop new mechanisms and institutions that enable more ecosystem services to become part of the formal economy, stimulating innovation, enterprise and investment in their provision.
With this wider approach to conservation species loss is not inevitable. We can recreate habitats and restore natural systems.
We need to be bold and to innovate.
But it can be done.
