Climate change and nature’s increasing decline are interlinked, and their effects are taking hold at alarming speed – the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on the UK’s economy and the health and wellbeing of its citizens. Three million people are unemployed and this only stands to rise.
Some parts of society have been more badly affected than others. Many communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic have suffered further from limited access to safe, wild spaces nearby.
Our long-term recovery from this health crisis is deeply linked to nature’s recovery. We believe that, with the right Government support, there can be more opportunities for paid work in nature restoration. We’re particularly keen to ensure that young people and people in disadvantaged communities can earn a wage by working for nature.
We propose a National Nature Service.
If more jobs were designed to help nature recover across our land, coastlines and oceans, and if there was focused investment in training and development, people of all ages and backgrounds would face a greener, healthier and more prosperous future.
This could be the opportunity we need to turn unemployment into employment, despair to hope, and to transform both our bruised economy and our broken ecosystems.
You can help us make it happen.
More than 60 organisations representing nature conservation, young people, BME communities, creative arts and more have united behind a National Nature Service proposal that would benefit society and our natural world.
Help us convince the Government to set up a National Nature Service
We want the UK Government to agree to take this proposal forward, and commit to:
- Developing a well-funded training and employment programme
- Investing in a portfolio of conservation projects, co-designed with nature groups
Public support is crucial to ensure the Government progresses this proposal now, when it will benefit people and nature the most, and help the UK out of the recession that looms.
Please show your support for a National Nature Service today.