Wildlife recovery is prioritised

Bison Calf

Donovan Wright

General Election 2024: Our priorities

Wildlife recovery is prioritised

Shockingly, 1 in 6 species in the UK is now at risk of extinction. In Kent, 1 in 10 species is threatened. Immense pressure from decades of pollution and habitat loss compounded by climate change has driven wildlife into catastrophic decline. 

Kent Wildlife Trust's ambitious programme for species recovery in Kent includes the return of missing species and the focus on keystone and flagship species as a way to drive habitat protection and restore functioning ecosystems at a landscape scale to reverse these declines. 

Learn more about our Wilder Blean project

Bringing back Kent's lost wildlife requires robust changes in species licensing and regulation to allow translocation of native species such as pine marten, beaver, and red-billed chough to become re-established in our landscapes. It also requires a recognition of the importance of returning missing species to restore ecosystem functionality within Local Nature Recovery Strategies. 

What we want to see is not words, but rhetoric; not empty promises but a government that acts. Positive, long term action to help our biodiversity recover.
Iolo Williams
Wildlife TV Presenter and Vice President, The Wildlife Trusts

To bring back our lost wildlife and put it on a path to recovery, we’re calling on all political parties to...

Water vole

Water vole © Terry Whittaker/2020VISION

Make more space for nature

The next UK Government should uphold their commitment made at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference to protect and restore at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 and launch an Olympic-style cross-government delivery strategy.

 

 

Bluebell woodland

© Jon Hawkins Surrey Hills Photography

Protect our most important wildlife sites

Only 37% of the UK’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest – our most precious sites for nature - are in favourable condition. We urgently need policy interventions, legally-binding targets, support for landowners, and increased funding to prioritise action and investment in our SSSI network and prevent further decline.  

 

 

beaver wildlife trust

David Parkyn

Fund and simplify species reintroductions

Bringing back Kent's lost species should be a priority if we want to create biodiverse, resilient landscapes. We're asking the government to fund species reintroduction projects and properly protect the species that are already reintroduced (such as the beaver who's making a home on the Stour River). We're also calling on the government to look at simplifying the species reintroduction process through mechanisms such as a traffic light system. 

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