A New Deal For Nature: Amplifying the Voices and Rights of Nature and Wildlife
December 08, 2019
Within the walls of the world’s oldest active biological society, and under the watchful eye of gold-framed faces belonging to men who named and studied all manner of plants and life gathered a voluntary team of conservationists, nature writers, and one woke politician with a plan to amplify the voices and rights of these islands’ non-human beings for the first time in modern history.
Had these 18th-century folk Linnaeus, Darwin and Wallace now poised on the wall, known the abuses the next 200 odd years would cause nature to befall, they might have too stood in this way to save her. Yet as enchanted by the natural world that they were, they couldn’t have imagined how viciously our society would treat her.
Life of the living on all levels has been purposefully neglected in political and public debate across the world. Painted over with threats of new borders and new wars which cover nature’s cries with other noise, as we bleed her dry for the sake of a vault full of tree pulp with numbers and faces on it.
Aware of these imbalances and injustices, those gathered behind the carefully carved podium at The Linnean Society of London announced their ‘New Deal For Nature’ with poetic urgency. Each line of each page laid out promising ideas to enhance the biodiversity of the natural world, while also increasing the diversity of human access to her. Ensuring the full spectrum of our species is engaged and empowered to know her, so their voices will also be raised to speak with and for her.
To make the ideas presented more accessible, I’ve coalesced their proposals into an acronym for N.A.T.U.R.E, gathering the gist of their ideas, leaving space for the reader delve into the details (via the link in my profile) by desire and in time.
Like The Green New Deal written by the same soulful leader (Caroline Lucas), I hope these words will help inspire you to spread the New Deal For Nature to the lands you dwell on too (alongside the Red Deal which protects the land and demands multi-species caretaking beyond the GND and beyond GDP also).
N - NATIONAL PARKS
and other protected landscapes
Approximately 60,000 species of animals and organisms inhabitant the UK, each deserving of the right to thrive and live a healthy life alongside us. Currently, the corners of the natural world protected by dutiful designations like ‘National Parks’ or ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ are islands of biodiversity, caged by a sea of degenerative agriculture and concrete highways. To free nature from our imposed constraints, we have to open up the gates, creating a connected capillary network of corridors which stretch across the UK making space for nature to travel and flourish in levels not recently seen. This web of wonders must also be paired with similar definitions of expansion, increasing the number of protected places from 9.45% to 20%, bringing nature closer to people and - with the development of proper sustainable and affordable transport links – people from all walks of life, closer to nature. READ MORE
A - ADVOCATES
public voices for nature
For the natural world to have a place at the table, its voice must be restored in the corridors of power and on every neighbourhood council. To do this, statutory nature framework on all levels of local and national decision making would be inserted, to ensure, no matter which party presides over these islands, that state-funded conservation advisors will be heard. This voice made up of a re-empowered NCC and a newly established ‘Council For Nature' would be encouraged to work collaboratively. Reinforcing the links between non-government and government organisations to create a unified voice on nature policy across the nation. To support these groups, a budget framework would be built to fund their programs, census work and research, ensuring decisions made are backed by the latest science and traditional knowledge. READ MORE
T - TUTELAGE
biosecurity for our wildlife
N - NATIONAL PARKS
and other protected landscapes
Approximately 60,000 species of animals and organisms inhabitant the UK, each deserving of the right to thrive and live a healthy life alongside us. Currently, the corners of the natural world protected by dutiful designations like ‘National Parks’ or ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ are islands of biodiversity, caged by a sea of degenerative agriculture and concrete highways. To free nature from our imposed constraints, we have to open up the gates, creating a connected capillary network of corridors which stretch across the UK making space for nature to travel and flourish in levels not recently seen. This web of wonders must also be paired with similar definitions of expansion, increasing the number of protected places from 9.45% to 20%, bringing nature closer to people and - with the development of proper sustainable and affordable transport links – people from all walks of life, closer to nature. READ MORE
A - ADVOCATES
public voices for nature
For the natural world to have a place at the table, its voice must be restored in the corridors of power and on every neighbourhood council. To do this, statutory nature framework on all levels of local and national decision making would be inserted, to ensure, no matter which party presides over these islands, that state-funded conservation advisors will be heard. This voice made up of a re-empowered NCC and a newly established ‘Council For Nature' would be encouraged to work collaboratively. Reinforcing the links between non-government and government organisations to create a unified voice on nature policy across the nation. To support these groups, a budget framework would be built to fund their programs, census work and research, ensuring decisions made are backed by the latest science and traditional knowledge. READ MORE
T - TUTELAGE
biosecurity for our wildlife
There is no simple nor singular solution to the wildlife and nature
crisis we’re wound in. To untangle ourselves we must retrain our brains to
embrace collaborative critical thought led by intersectional systemic
understanding to be integrated into comprehensive policy planning. Part of
conservation and regeneration is protection (or for the sake of this acronym,
‘tutelage’) which is a complex section of stewardship not often shared. Though
nature knows no borders, human aided migration of organisms and wildlife has
introduced 3,000 non-native species and augmented an additional 10-12 every
year, causing biodiversity and biosecurity issues for other living beings. In addition, archaic industrial hunting practices have further
tipped the imbalance between native and non-native species, unnaturally
increasing populations of favoured breeds, shooting endangered species, and
mismanaging ‘pests’ to suit singular need. A New Deal For Nature proposes to
activate implementation and ongoing development of the Invasive Non-native
Species Framework Strategy for Great Britain and Overseas Territories, as well
as reform of hunting practices here in the UK and an end to industrial shooting.
Both of which shall protect the natural world and the species native to
it. READ MORE
U - URBAN WILDLIFE
bringing nature to people and people to nature
They say it
is hard to Love what you do not know, and hard to save what you do not Love,
yet today, 83% of England’s population lives in urban areas, putting the
majority of human beings out of reach of wild green spaces. A national rewilding
and regreening of personal and public lands has been scientifically proven to increase
our physical and mental wellbeing, while enhancing wildlife biodiversity and
carbon drawdown. UK gardens cover an area larger than the county of
Somerset, and more than 25% of the
UK's public land could be restored to nature. For greening both public
and private land, A New Deal For Nature proposes banning the use of toxic chemicals
including pesticides, removing plastic grass, concrete, and other non-porous
surfaces, and embracing instead the scruff and scrub which helps nature flourish.
In addition, outfitting all homes and buildings with nesting houses and
hedgehog holes for wildlife to live in and pass through will aid in
cohabitation and care. Pocket parks and wildlife patches within 1km of every
home, as well as ponds, marshes, or reedbeds and a village green per five
houses newly build will create spaces for communities to gather in and children
to play. Even industrial estates and shopping centres would be beholden to
rewild and regenerate surrounding natural spaces. READ MOREU - URBAN WILDLIFE
bringing nature to people and people to nature
R - REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE & AQUACULTURE
how to produce food and revive wildlife
Regenerative Farming (practised with the use of cover crops, by mob grazing native animals, and by eliminating monocultures, GMO, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, nitrogen fertilizer and tilling) and Regenerative Aquaculture (which enhances fish populations and coastal habitats through small-scale, near shore, local traditional methods) offers restoration of both land and sea. Building healthy soil and de-acidifying oceans by feeding carbon to plants, which in turn forms nutritious food, reverses global warming and revitalizes local economies. The bulk of current farming and fishing practices displace carbon from plant matter on land and in the sea (where it creates life) and forces its migration into the earth's atmosphere and ocean's waters (where its overpopulation causes harm). ANew Deal For Nature proposes rewarding farmers financially for the biodiversity of their farms, supporting farmers and fishers to convert to regenerative practices, and funding people interested in becoming regenerative farmers or fishers to start their own low impact and environmentally beneficial methods of cultivation, locally, increasing biodiversity and human diversity on sea and land while enhancing food justice and food sovereignty for every human in the nation. READ MORE
E - EDUCATION
schools, curriculum and young people
The circle of
ecological compassion is enlarged by direct experience in the living world and
shrunken by its lack. Far too many young people have been robbed of access to
nature, and by proxy hold little knowledge of our dependence on other species
for healthy food, air, water, and wellbeing. A New Deal For Nature proposes to
empower the next generation with ecologically literate education which puts
nature at the heart of their learning, guiding each child and teenager with
hope and solutions rather than fear and doom. By ensuring daily access to the natural world through a minimum of one-hour outdoor learning, establishing
Natural History GCSE, twinning primary schools with local farms, creating outdoor
edible growing areas in playgrounds and offering 10k annual work-placement opportunities in
the natural world for teenagers to ensure relationships of reciprocity resonate
past formative years. These programs intend to enhance nature relatedness by
creating unbreakable bonds between the living world and each young person,
regardless of ethnicity and social backgrounds. READ MORE
