From global to local: biodiversity action for South Cambridgeshire

Today sees the start of a crucial global summit for Biodiversity- CBD COP 15 (the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) which will take place in two parts in Kunming, China. The first part is held this week in virtual format, and the second part is in May next year.

Nature is in crisis, with human pressures causing unprecedented rates of deforestation, loss of wetlands, pollution to our rivers and seas and mass species extinctions.  Biodiversity loss is critically linked to climate change- with climate change degrading ecosystems and threatening species survival whilst deforestation and degradation of wetlands and peatlands releases carbon and makes climate change worse. The combined impacts of climate change and biodiversity are impacting significantly on health, wellbeing and survival of people around the world, with the most severe impacts on the world’s poor.  This Biodiversity summit will come together to agree a new set of global targets for biodiversity. This is not new – previous targets have been set before and not met so more action is urgently needed.

Here, the UK met just 17 out of the last set of 20 global biodiversity targets agreed in 2011 and on the eve of CBD COP 15, this report from London’s Natural History Museum has found the UK to be one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. The global pandemic highlighted the importance of nature for our physical and mental wellbeing but also that a huge inequality exists because of the number of families who do not have close and easy access to wild, open green spaces. In South Cambridgeshire we have one of the smallest areas of land managed for nature relative to our size, declining biodiversity and threats to rare habitats such as chalk streams and we need to significantly improve space for nature.

I have been proud to have championed the adoption by the South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Combined Authority of the Doubling Nature Strategy which lays out how we will work to reverse declines in habitat and species, make more space for people to enjoy and benefit from nature, and address climate change whilst still boosting the economy of our area. I also drove the first ever call for green sites for the Local Plan to help ensure green infrastructure is an integral part of our planning system. In the Lib Dem party my work with the Federal Policy Committee’s Working Group on the Natural Environment will help develop a new ambitious Lib Dem policy for nature, and I will continue to campaign every day for the protection of important greenspaces in our local area, and for inequalities in access to be addressed for the benefit of all South Cambridgeshire residents.