Natural England campaign

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Earlier this year, specialists’ union Prospect members at Natural England (NE), the government’s adviser for the natural environment, launched a campaign to highlight the threats facing their organisation and the valuable work it does. It calls for the organisation to be properly recognised and funded in order to:

• restore and enhance the wider countryside and the marine environment;

• help species to recover;

• achieve favourable condition of protected sites;

• improve access to, and enjoyment of, the natural environment; and

• ensure that the government’s 25-year environment plan has a chance of success.

Groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) are supporting the campaign, which sets out that the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) grant to NE has been cut by more than 50% since 2007, with more cuts to come. Prospect’s Stand up for Natural England report can be downloaded from its website.

A motion to the 2019 GMB annual conference called on the union to raise the profile of Environment Agency workers and use it’s Go Public campaign to put its crucial work in the spotlight. The Agency also has a role in conservation and ecology.