I am recently retired but have spent the last 20 years working as an ecologist, primarily in the conservation of our native reptile and amphibian species.
During this time I had to deal with many housing developers and the message I and other ecologists were always trying to get across was that our biodiversity was in crisis and therefore there was a need for developers to comply with the various wildlife legislation that protects the most threatened species.
barrykemp247@gmail.com
Don’t Look Around You
This time last year in a guest blog – click here – I highlighted the speech Rachel Reeves gave about “Developers will no longer have to worry about bats and newts”. Not long after these words were spoken Angela Rayner also attacked the conservation rules in favour of development.
In November 2025 a House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report – click here – was published stating that:
“The Government must not veer down the path of viewing nature as an inconvenience or blocker to housebuilding. Using nature as a scapegoat means that the Government will be less effective at tackling some of the genuine challenges facing the planning system”.
It added that:
“At worst, this approach could lead to the degradation of the natural world, preventing the achievement of legally-binding climate and nature targets, upon which our society and economy depends.”
In November a National Emergency Briefing on Climate and the Nature Crisis – click here – was held at Westminster Central Hall. The event featured leading experts briefing over 1,200 politicians and industry leaders on the severe impacts of climate change on biodiversity, food, economics and security.
This briefing went almost completely unreported by the media. A summary of the meeting is available on Youtube.
There is now a crowdfunding appeal to produce a TV documentary so that the public are made aware of it, which is close to target but also close to closing – click here.
Since this briefing even more documents have been published by the government and public bodies. In Wales, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have published their take on biodiversity and climate in The State of Natural Resources Report 2025 – click here – which states :
“Wales stands at a turning point…..our ecosystems are struggling to withstand the pressures of how we manage the land in Wales….It’s a critical time for conservation efforts in Wales”.
Prior to the NRW report, in 2023 Natural England contributed to the publication of the fourth State of Nature Report – click here. This report put forward several initiatives including achieving 75% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in favorable condition and implementing legally mandated Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). I’ll talk more about BNG later.
The most recent report and perhaps the most chilling is the National Security Assessment – click here. This document was published by Defra, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. The report which outlined biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse was supposed to have been published in October 2025 but was withheld by the government until it was released as the result of a Freedom of Information request by the Green Alliance.
The report contained some very stark observations including:
“The world is already experiencing the impacts of biodiversity loss, including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks”.
It goes on to say:
“Ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions and ecosystems. The average size of monitored wildlife populations declined by 73% between 1970-2020. Populations of vertebrate species have declined by an average of 68% since 1970”.
There are still many people that for various reasons refuse to accept that climate change or biodiversity loss are issues which should be addressed and dismiss anyone with a different view as being tree-huggers or NIMBYs. Surely even they couldn’t accuse the UK security services of this?
The report concludes that : “The rate of extinction is tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years. It suggests that a sixth mass extinction may be underway.”
Amazingly, still, this report goes un-noticed by the general public and still the government continues to water down measures to address these issues.
As I write I note a letter recently produced by the CIEEM – click here – which asks why the government is altering the rules of BNG effectively to allow developers to self-declare that a site has minimal biodiversity impact, without the need to provide any evidence. It would appear that 86% of approved planning applications have already claimed exemptions.
The plan now is to introduce a new 0.2-hectare exemption which could result in over 90% of eligible developments being exempt from any BNG requirements.
The way all these reports are being ignored reminds me of the Netflix black comedy Don’t Look Up. The plot follows two astronomers who discover a massive comet on a collision course with Earth. The scientists face indifference and inaction from the White House and media.
I can’t help thinking that the UK version would be Don’t Look Around You.
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