‘Environmental struggle demands more national park land in public hands’

Campaigners say recovery in the UK’s national parks is being hampered because almost 90% of the land is still in private hands.

The Campaign for National Parks (CNP) has called for authorities overseeing protected landscapes to be given greater powers to buy up private land under what it calls a “People’s Charter,” so they can do more to enhance biodiversity.

New research has found that just under 595,000 hectares of the 5.7 million hectares of land covered by Britain’s 15 national parks is publicly owned.

The government said it remained committed to protecting 30% of the country for nature by 2030 and making national parks wilder, greener and more accessible.

It has been 75 years since the National Parks and Access to Rural Areas 1949 paved the way for the creation of a series of legally protected landscapes, which were managed for the country.

Today there are 10 parks in England, three in Wales and two in Scotlandwhich are managed by National Parks Authorities (NPAs) who are legally responsible for the conservation and enhancement of the natural beauty and wildlife of the area.

Access campaigner and environmental researcher Guy Shrubsole, who has mapped current land ownership within the boundaries of the 15 parks, said they are largely “not effectively owned by the nation”.

Some NPAs own virtually no land, for example in the South Downs – the newest park – and in the Yorkshire Dales, where the authority owns less than 0.4% of the land, made up of car parks, woodland and small nature reserves.

The largest landowning authorities are in Bannau Brycheiniog, also known as the Brecon Beacons, which still owns approximately 13% of the land, followed by Exmoor with approximately 9%.

Mr Shrubsole said the NPAs – which also act as planning authorities – “are almost powerless to influence the private landowners who own the vast majority of the land in our parks and who too often fail to manage the wildlife in their care”.

But the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said farmers and other private landowners played a crucial role in creating “cherished landscapes”.

Victoria Vyvyan, the CLA’s president, added that criticism “overlooks a simple truth: in addition to feeding the nation, many farmers invest their own time and money in protecting nature and fighting climate change”.

“Let them take the lead, it’s cheaper and more effective,” she added.

In England there is a £100 million government programme known as the Agriculture in Protected Landscapes Programme (FiPL)currently provides financing to farmers and land managers to partner with NPAs to implement environmental projects.

However, National Parks England chief executive Jayne Butler pointed out that the programme has not yet been extended beyond this financial year and that NPAs have been underfunded for years.

She said that “our experience of working with many landowners shows that land ownership alone is not the decisive factor in driving nature restoration, but rather whether the right mix of resources, funding and powers are in place”.

Earlier this year, a report from the CNP said NPAs have little influence over what happens on land they do not own, including areas owned by other public bodies such as England’s Ministry of Defence and Forestry, which manages almost half of the New Forest, and by water companies.

Dr Rose O’Neill, the CNP’s director, told the BBC that national parks “absolutely need more powers and resources, as well as reforms to governance and ownership”.

She called on the government to draw up a new People’s Charter for the parks, which would “include a requirement that any land above a certain size be first offered for purchase by the community or the public when it is offered for sale, supported by a Treasury-backed endowment fund to support the purchase of land in national parks by the public sector.”

In the meantime, new national parks must be created Galloway, Scotlandand in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley area in Wales.

Plans for a new national park for England were also announced by the previous UK government, while new regulations and powers for national parks are currently being reviewed.

A British government spokesman acknowledged that Britain was “one of the most depleted countries in the world” and that national parks were “in decline”.

“That is why we wasted no time in announcing a rapid review to achieve our legally binding environmental goals and better protect our natural environment,” he said.

“We will also create more nature-rich habitats and make our national parks wilder, greener and more accessible to all, while delivering on our pledge to protect 30% of the land for nature by 2030.”