Member Article

“Save European Laws” says conservation chief

Across Europe, the UK and here in this region, two vital laws, known as the ‘Nature Directives’, protect our most precious wildlife and wild places and Steve Lowe, Head of Conservation at Northumberland Wildlife Trust, is urging people of the Region to take action to ensure they remain in place.

It’s not just wildlife that depends on the ‘Nature Directives’ - humans do too - for cleaner rivers, vital habitat for pollinating insects and natural places where they can escape the stresses of modern life and, without such laws, the world would be a poorer place for everybody.

Across Europe all countries share two main nature laws - the Habitats Directive, adopted in 1992, which protects a range of important habitats and species, and the Birds Directive, which aims to protect all European wild birds.

There is also a network of protected wild places - called Natura2000 - stretching across Europe.

In the UK, more than 800 places are part of this network including the New Forest, Chesil Beach in Dorset, Isles of Scilly, and, locally, the River Tweed, Lindisfarne, Northumberland Coast, North Pennines, Border Mires and a host of other sites, some of which are owned by Northumberland Wildlife Trust. Worryingly for conservationists however, the European Commission (EC) is currently reviewing them and, as part of the review process, is asking people to give their opinions on them in a 14 question online consultation.

The 47 UK wildlife trusts, including Northumberland Wildlife Trust is joining 100 other charities and environmental organisations across Europe to provide suggested responses to the consultation in support of the Nature Directives. Simply by logging on at http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/defendnature or https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EUNatureDirectives people will be able to send a clear and consistent message to the European Commission about the area where they live.

Steve Lowe is passionate about the campaign, he says: “These special places need all the protection they can get - if we don’t stand up for them who will? So it’s vital that as many of us as possible say how we feel about this and campaign to stop these laws being laws weakened.

“If we can’t be bothered doing this, we are letting down our wild places, so please, when you have few minutes spare, log on and complete the consultation - it could affect your whole lifetime.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .