Earlier this year, the Guardian highlighted how nature is declining in the UK and how development pressures are threatening biodiversity (Revealed: 5,000 English nature sites at risk under Labour’s planning proposals, 3 June). Your recent article (Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most, 1 November) also shows that, despite our high levels of environmental membership, the UK remains one of the least nature-connected societies.
When I first visited the UK in the early 1970s as a child, I was enchanted by the countryside and London’s parks. I absorbed BBC nature programmes, marvelled at the AA Book of the British Countryside and thought Britain was a land where nature thrived. Forty years later, returning as an ecologist, I realised the reality: it’s one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, with around 98% of native woodland lost.
After 12 years of working in conservation here, I see what I call “the good chaps theory of conservation” at play. Borrowing from Peter Hennessy’s “good chaps theory of government”, it assumes those in charge will act honourably without scrutiny. In conservation, this means relying on goodwill rather than accountability.
Britain has excellent environmental laws, but not a coherent protected-areas system. We need large, connected landscapes managed for ecological integrity and open for everyone to enjoy, not just small, fragmented enclaves for the few. Bridging the gap between our self-image as a green and pleasant land and our ecological reality begins with facing that truth and implementing a truly connected system of protected areas.
Dr Marcelo Lima
Girton, Cambridgeshire
• I was surprised to read that Britain is among the world’s least “nature connected” nations. Since moving here three years ago, I’ve found the opposite to be true. I’ve walked the Pilgrims’ Way from Southwark to Canterbury, traced the River Ravensbourne from a spring in Keston to Deptford Creek, and followed the Thames Path from the source to Reading. Everywhere, nature is still present: in ancient hedgerows, forgotten footpaths and rivers that refuse to stay hidden.
If people here feel cut off from nature, perhaps they’ve just stopped noticing it. The countryside hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s waiting to be rediscovered.
Elia Kabanov
Deptford, London
