The United Kingdom and its four nations are known for their rolling green fields, rugged coastal cliffs and majestic lakes, lochs, loughs and llyns.
But the country’s nature is under threat, with scientists concluding that only half of the UK’s natural biodiversity remains intact. Nearly one in six species is threatened with extinction.
Wanting to raise global ambition on nature recovery and protection, the UK appointed environment specialist Ruth Davis as its first-ever Special Representative for Nature.
As she prepares to travel to an international gathering on biodiversity in Armenia (COP17), Davis reminds us: “Nature is our friend in facing multiple interconnected crises.”
The value of nature-based solutions
“Every part of the United Kingdom has a passionate love of its landscapes and its nature, […] but that’s under a lot of pressure from climate impacts,” Davis told the UN in an interview in Brussels.
After a “tough” summer, which was the UK’s hottest on record, Davis underlines the important role nature-based solutions play in building a better future.
With 71% of England in drought in August, aerial photographs highlighted how farmers who had invested in wetlands and rivers had green fields. This was a stark contrast to the surrounding brown.
“They retained water in the land much more effectively,” said Davis.
She also highlights the role of nature in helping to reduce pollution or to provide a cooling effect in cities, not to mention its known benefits to mental health.
“We’ve got to start seeing nature as our friend. It doesn’t mean there aren’t hard choices to be made, when you need to develop a railway line, or you’re developing energy infrastructure. But we could do better in recognising that the natural environment has got a lot to offer us as a society, and underpins our economy.”
National Security Threat
The UK’s Nature Security Assessment, published earlier this year, examines how biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation could affect the UK’s national security, including through impacts on food and water security and economic resilience
“It’s a problem for our capacity collectively to be able to produce the food we want to produce, to have the water that we need, to manage disease risks and to provide healthy places for people to live,” she adds.
As it relies heavily on imports, it is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if global ecosystems collapse without significant increases in UK food production and supply chain resilience.
“Nature is the economy. It is literally what’s underpinning our collective ability to have safe and prosperous societies.”
Giving back to the land
The UK, as with many countries across the globe, faces pressures on the natural environment, such as habitat loss from farming, urban development, and infrastructure projects; the impact of pollution spills; and the effects of climate change.
In England, government policy now requires most new developments to leave nature in a measurably better state than before.
Davis also cites the importance of nature-based solutions in improving water quality, with all of England’s rivers and lakes recently found to be polluted with chemicals.
“There’s been an ongoing scandal about the quality of our rivers and people really care about it,” says Davis. “They want those places to be clean.”
She also praises the efforts of farmers for their role in restoring nature.
“It’s the people who live in the land that have the resources, the opportunity, the know-how, and the love to put things back into the landscape.”
In England, the government is implementing schemes to pay farmers for environmental improvements.
“We allow farmers to make choices about making their land more resilient, and their systems more regenerative,” outlines Davis, calling for a need to “fire the enthusiasm of the people who live in places and around the land.”
En route to COP17
This week, Davis is travelling to COP17, the UN’s conference on biodiversity, in Yerevan, Armenia.
Countries will assess for the first time their progress towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
The framework was agreed in 2022 and targets include restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030, as well as conserving 30% of land, waters and sea. It also set a goal of halting human induced extinction of known threatened species. By 2050, it wants to see the abundance of native wild species increased to healthy and resilient levels.
“I think it will tell a story about genuine progress, but probably not fast enough. I hope we’ll be able to celebrate the governments and communities that are taking action because I can genuinely see change happening around us,” says Davis.
The UK recently announced its intention to invest £400 million loan into the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF). Launched at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, it is designed to reward developing countries for preserving their moist broadleaf tropical forests, which are one of the planet’s most powerful tools against climate change, removing climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The wonder of the natural world
For Davis, who studied plant sciences and horticulture science, she notes how for most people, and in particular small children, their relationship with the natural world is one of “wonderment and curiosity.”
“We influence the world, we change it, but we didn’t create it. And being a mortal, embodied creature that’s part of a world that you didn’t make, that has an independent existence from you, is a very grounding and important thing.”