Although today is World Habitats Day, the chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management has said there is little cause for celebration in the UK. CIWEM said last week it has “serious doubts” over the UK Government’s ability to protect and reintegrate vital habitats, safeguarding the ecosystem services these provide, given its commitment to the new National Planning Policy Framework. CIWEM said that, unless a much more integrated policy approach is adopted, increased habitat fragmentation could prove hugely detrimental to the UK’s resilience to the impacts of climate and demographic change. image expired

Fragmentation of habitats can damage whole ecosystems, reducing genetic diversity, limiting migration and reducing predators’ range. Worryingly for the UK, the National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), conducted in May, found that of the 8 habitat types assessed, 30 per cent are in decline. 

In the run up to World Habitats Day CIWEM pointed out the impact such decline could have; studies which attribute a financial value to ecosystem services, such as the international TEEB study (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) have placed a value of trillions of dollars on their potential loss.

The environmental management charity acknowledged the part played by the recent Natural Environment White Paper, released in June this year, which recommended a shift in approach of government policy, but warned that, since the White Paper’s release, the coalition’s stance has not changed. It said the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in particular compromises many of the government’s outlined objectives.

The charity said a loss of regional tier planning, the removal of any protection for local wildlife sites (which could put 40,000 such sites at risk across England) and the absence of any reference to the Nature Improvement Areas introduced by the White Paper spectacularly misses the opportunity to integrate this new thinking into practical delivery via planning.

CIWEM’s Executive Director, Nick Reeves OBE, commented, “Fragmented approaches across government departments raise serious doubts over this Government’s green credentials.  A lack of compatibility between the NPPF and Natural Environment White Paper leaves huge questions over how planning delivered at a local level will incorporate wider strategic aims.

“At the current speed of the planning reforms, England looks set on a trajectory of increasing biodiversity loss and fragmentation, further reducing the ability of this nation’s ecosystems to undertake the valuable services they provide threatening our natural heritage.” 

The planning policy is the government's latest initiative which has attracted a huge amount of controversy;the level of resistance to many of the coalition's plans which would affect the countryside led Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh to claim the Conservatives no longer speak for the countryside at last week's Labout Party Conference in Liverpool. The comments sparked a social media spat with the Tories. A recent yougov poll revealed rural residents lacked faith in any of the major political parties.