Soil Association Policy Advisor Alex Mackaness said: "It is good to finally see the publication of the Government's Environment Act Targets, but the fact they've been published so late is a worrying indication of the Government's commitment to reversing nature's decline.  We are particularly concerned that instead of raising ambition to end the decimation of our rivers by tackling nutrient pollution from agriculture and sewage, they have kicked the deadline to meet key water targets further down the road. The decision to reduce ambition for tree cover from 17.5% to 16.5% is also highly questionable in the midst of the biodiversity and climate crises. It is also critical that they join up these targets with our climate ambitions, integrating nature into net zero pathways.

"The Soil Association has already called for more ambition from the Government on these targets to go further and faster - particularly focusing on the need to put the brakes on any further wildlife loss. Central to this challenge will be expanding nature-friendly farming which offers real opportunities to redress the balance. Organic farms have been shown to have 50% more wildlife on average – so we would expect to see support for the expansion of organic and agroecological mixed farming practices to help meet these targets while producing healthy and sustainable food.

"It is massively frustrating to see that they have compromised on woodland cover targets for England cutting back from the originally proposed 17.5%. We call on Government to spark a 'farmer-led tree revolution' by incentivising agroforesty – integrating more trees on arable and livestock land to achieve this level of tree cover. We urge them to seize the opportunity to go beyond these lame targets by supporting a 50% increase in woodland on farms with a diverse range of species which will help deliver our climate ambitions more swiftly. Defra must also redress the shameful record on water pollution by tasking industry and agriculture to immediately tackle their harmful emissions before it is too late.

"We look forward to further detail on how these are going to be achieved and the mechanisms they propose to support their delivery."