Thursday 12 November 2015

DEFRA Budget Cuts


Following Monday’s announcement regarding severe cuts across DEFRA, the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts have come together to highlight what it could mean for the environment

Stephen Trotter, The Wildlife Trusts’ Director, England, said: ‘Even before yesterday’s announcement, the Government was only investing a tiny proportion of our national income in environmental stewardship and the restoration of wildlife habitats – its already far below the levels that we need. It will now be reduced to such low levels that there are real question marks over whether the Government can continue to deliver its most basic functions and responsibilities for the natural environment. When everything we depend on comes from the natural world this makes no sense for the economy and it makes no sense for the health and wellbeing of our society.

The UK has been running up a massive environmental deficit over recent decades and which future generations will have to pay off. These cuts are a false economy and will undermine and jeopardise the future growth and development of the economy. I fear this is a missed opportunity for Government to start paying off the environmental debt that we’re leaving to our children and grand children. We are now faced with the extremely worrying prospect that Government no longer has the ecological literacy or functionality that society needs if we are to build a genuinely sustainable future.‘.

Read more at Wildlife Trusts News.
and Mark Avery's blog.

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