The Landscape Institute joins organisations across the built and natural environment sectors to express concern about increasing tension between development and nature conservation.
The Landscape Institute has joined ten other organisations as signatories of a letter to Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. The letter, which can be read in full below, was sent in response to a prevailing narrative from the government which suggests that we must choose between building homes for people and protecting our natural environment, and that nature is a blocker to growth.
As signatories of the letter, we argue that we can achieve both. To do this the government must work closely with landscape architects, planners, ecologists, and other environmental and sustainability experts. We collectively urge the government to:
- Act on the findings of the Dasgupta Review by embedding natural capital accounting into economic decision-making and policy frameworks at all administrative levels of central and local Government.
- Engage with professionals in ecology, planning and sustainability to develop innovative housing, landscape and infrastructure solutions that integrate and enhance nature at all spatial scales.
- Support policies that promote nature-positive development, ensuring that new homes and other infrastructure contribute to, rather than diminish, biodiversity.
- Significantly invest in nature recovery initiatives, ensuring that economic growth is not at odds with environmental stewardship.
- Adequately invest in and support government agencies and local authorities to enable the effective delivery of nature recovery, and to create the necessary conditions for private investment in nature recovery innovation and enterprise.
The letter was sent on behalf of the following organisations: British Ecological Society (BES); Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT); Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB); Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM); The Environmental Policy Forum (EPF); Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF); Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM); Institution of Environmental Sciences (the IES); Institution of Royal Engineers (InstRE); The Landscape Institute (LI); Society for the Environment (SocEnv).