With a rather eventful general election providing Sheffield and Rotherham with a full complement of Labour MPs, the biggest item on the political agenda is the Brexit negotiations. With a minority government in power, now more than ever we need your help to seize this opportunity to make our new post-Brexit environmental laws ambitious and meaningful.
You can keep the environment high on the agenda by asking your newly-elected MP questions such as:
- How will you ensure the same level of legal protection for our internationally important species and local wildlife sites after Brexit?
- How will you ensure the same level of funding for schemes that encourage farmers, landowners and managers to deliver environmentally friendly farming and a natural environment we can all enjoy and benefit from after Brexit?
- How will you ensure that our air and water quality continues to improve, meeting or exceeding the standards currently set by EU frameworks?
Why not email your MP today and share their response with us at takeaction@wildsheffield.com
What does the EU Referendum Result mean for our local wildlife and natural environment?
The EU’s environmental legislation has provided a strong framework for wildlife protection and air and water quality improvements. The decision to leave the EU brings significant long-term risks to our local wildlife and the quality of our natural environment.
Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust calls on the UK Government to:
Ensure that, on leaving the EU, the Government affords at least the same level of legal protection to our internationally important wildlife sites. Habitats such as Blacka Moor, Wyming Brook, Bradfield, Broomhead and Midhope Moors will no longer have the added protection of the European Nature Directives and we ask the Government to take forward the promises made during the referendum campaign to strengthen UK legislation to protect wildlife.
We ask the Government to take forward the promises made during the referendum campaign to strengthen UK legislation to protect wildlife.
Ensure that, on leaving the EU, the Government, as a minimum, delivers the same level of investment in schemes that encourage farmers, land owners and managers to deliver environmentally friendly farming. Local sites such as Woodhouse Washlands will need the same, if not more, investment in habitat improvements if wildlife and ecosystems are to flourish.
Continue to improve air and water quality, adopting the same standards as the EU frameworks even on leaving the EU. The Water Framework Directive has been key to ensuring targeted investment in improving the water quality and biodiversity of Sheffield and Rotherham’s rivers. We ask the Government to adopt a similar framework to ensure these improvements continue.
The challenges faced by the UK’s wildlife are as great as they have ever been.
Now is the time to focus on the future of our natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife. To concentrate on what we can do for nature and what nature can do for us.
Our politicians need to know that now the UK’s relationship with the EU has been decided, people who care for wildlife and the natural environment want to see significant changes for the better – a bold and visionary approach to nature’s recovery – mapped out, committed to and funded across the UK. A vision that will help our farming, fishing, flood management, health and wellbeing as well as our wildlife.
Join Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust today [link to Join us page] to help make this vision a reality.
You can read The Wildlife Trusts’ reaction to the EU referendum result here.
Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust, along with the other Wildlife Trusts nationwide, has come together with the other UK’s major environmental and conservation organisations – a combined membership of almost 8 million people – to form the Greener UK coalition. This coalition is working to ensure that, as the UK Government negotiates exit from the EU, it does so in ways that mean the nation has clean air and water, a stable climate and a thriving natural environment for the future.
The Green Alliance Pledge for the Environment, as well as signatories, can be found here.