Natural England, a non-departmental adviser for the environment in the UK, is deliberating on the site of a new national park for England. The new national park will be the first one designated in the country since South Downs in 2010.
The park announcement is part of a larger package of projects aimed at preserving nature and increasing green space access. Proposals for the next national park site will be considered by Natural England in summer 2024, and the selected site will need to gain approval from the Environment Secretary before the site will receive its official national park designation.
As the BBC reported, some sites being considered include the Chiltern Hills, the Cotswolds and Dorset. The official search is slated to begin in early 2024.
Currently, England has 10 national parks and 34 national landscapes. Together, these protected areas cover almost a quarter of England.
“Nature is at the foundation of food production, water security, and is critical to our economy, and our mental and physical health,” Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement. “It is why it is so important to deliver on our commitment to halt the decline of nature and safeguard at least 30 percent of our extraordinary landscapes.”
The UK has a goal to preserve 30% of its land and waters by 2030, although a report from the British Ecological Society released earlier this year warned that the country is not on track to meet this target. The report also warned that much of the protected areas are not actually very effective at preserving nature, particularly due to a lack of sufficient funding.
As part of the newly announced nature preservation package, Natural England announced £25 million ($31.6 million) in project development funding. In total, the package includes 34 landscape recovery projects spanning 200,000 hectares of land. In addition to preserving land for nature, some projects will also be addressing more sustainable agriculture.
The plan for the 11th national park is not only to preserve nature but to also boost public access for those who currently have limited access to natural green spaces, Natural England shared in a press release.
“Having more well connected and wildlife-rich habitats is a central priority for meeting our Nature recovery ambitions,” Tony Jupiter, chair of Natural England, said in a statement. “This includes enhancing landscapes, helping more species thrive, improving climate adaptation and wellbeing for people.”
The announcements follow long-standing funding cuts to national parks since 2010, Rose O’Neill, chief executive of the Campaign for National Parks, told the BBC. Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic about the announcements.
“A new national park is good news for Britain. It’s brilliant for our economy, brilliant for our environment,” Kevin Bishop, chief executive of Dartmoor National Park, told the BBC. “I suppose the key thing for existing national parks is that the money for the new national park needs to be on top of what the existing national parks receive.”
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