Andrew Hall is the Campaigns and Communications officer for Campaign for National Parks (CNP). CNP is the only national independent charity dedicated to all the National Parks. CNP was established as the standing committee for committee in 1936 to make the case for the establishment of the National Parks, it is now dedicated to protecting and improving the National Parks for all to enjoy.
Andrew is responsible for communications and campaigns for the charity, this has included leading on the 70th anniversary celebrations of the 1949 Act and leading on parliamentary engagement for the charity Andrew co-authored the 2018 report on improving nature in the National Parks: Raising the Bar: improving nature in the National Parks.
2019, it turned out, was a vital year for the future of wildlife in our National Parks. The reporting of the Glover review, the forthcoming agriculture & environment legislation, the 70th anniversary of National Parks and the general election promises from the main parties demonstrate an incredible appetite for change in the National Parks. If 2019 laid down the groundwork, for this change 2020 must be a crunch year.
In many ways our National Parks are a success story. As a family they contain rich habitats and truly special species. However, the challenges they face are imposing.
Campaign for National Parks has been pushing for big changes to the whole approach to nature in our National Parks.
- We are calling for a move away from small scale, often single species conservation, to the ambitious, landscape-scale restoration of whole ecological processes in the Parks.
- We want each National Park to identify areas of greater relative wilderness, where there is a clear feeling of something special, something different to the surrounding landscapes for people to visit.
- We want National Parks that are leaders in nature conservation, the premier sites for new and different ways of conserving nature.
- We want National Parks to be at the centre of a renewed relationship between society and nature. Through measures such as giving every child the chance to visit these National Parks we can nurture a new respect for nature’s wonders.
Of course, for all this to be true our National Parks must be properly protected and supported. Too often our National Parks have been eroded by inappropriate development.
All this to see our Parks brimming with bird song, the buzz of invertebrates, pine martens, dormice and more. And to give future generations the opportunity to experience them.
The Glover review of England’s designated landscapes, considering the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) as well as the 10 National Parks, took many of our asks on board when it was published in the Autumn. And during the General Election, every major party published recommendations for the National Parks in their manifesto. We are delighted so many have recognised the key themes of the review, if not the specific detail at this stage.
There are reservations. In some conversations we’ve had there’s a sense of disappointment the Glover review did not pick up on specific issues such as upland management – which has become an almost totemic issue across the National Park family. These are issues that must be addressed by policy makers. And some of the recommendations, such as a National Landscape Service, will take time and are therefore difficult to visualise in this time of political turmoil. What’s more Campaign for National Parks believes there needs to be careful consideration given to the proposed changes to National Park purposes.
However, the Glover represents a once in a generation opportunity for change, that should and must be taken forward.
2020 marks a key turning point for the Parks. We have the opportunity to improve the National Parks, to make them better for people and for nature. We could even be welcoming new members to the family should our political leaders make good on their promises.
Allow me to time-travel from the past to the future. Over 80 years ago a huge number of organisations from wildlife campaigns to access and social justice campaigns came together. From ZSL to the Ramblers. They came together to fight for the National Parks we know and love – forming Campaign for National Parks to do just that. Staring into my crystal ball, 2020 will be a year of collaboration between the environmental organisations who all want to see thriving landscapes that are full of life.
This year, Campaign for National Parks will be leading the fight for better Parks, properly protected and properly managed Parks.
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I do hope it will happen – though the promises are both big and vague. But I’m not that hopeful – the huge gap between the landscape and nature conservation lobbies – National parks where as long as its green, purple, whatever, the details of what’s happening to the wildlife don’t seem to matter. The anomalous and generally ignored position of one National Park – the New Forest, characterised, uniquely, by predominantly national ownership and 20 years of the sort of large scale habitat restoration that should be an exemplar for the Parks as a whole.
The reluctance on upland management is extraordinary – we’re on the cliff edge, agriculture is going to change one way or another, and everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to do something. In the meantime, Wild Ennerdale, set up to try and encourage wider thought is still there, 20 years on, still on its own.
While this is a wonderful idea that we should all be supporting, especially in the uplands, it is difficult to see how this will work effectively in those National Parks like the Yorkshire Dales where almost all the park is in private hands.
As most agricultural management of national parks is subsidised by us, the tax payers, then a very good start would be to stop subsidising management that is bad for nature and switch to subsidising only what is good. This is what government has said it will do but the trick will be to make sure this actually happens and we don’t slip back to paying for the status quo.
If what is happening in the Chilterns AONB with HS2 is anything to go by, I’m not hopeful the government does think these areas are outstanding or beautiful. Bulldozing ancient woods, drilling into chalk aquifers putting our water supply at risk, destruction of habitat. Mindless devastation.
Just over two years ago I left the Lake District National Park in disgust after it was awarded Unesco World Heritage status, I had lived there for many years. Mass tourism and the farmers dominate decision making. Since I left it has become even more of a theme park with the head of the NP being in the pocket of any “entrepreneur” with a yet more stupid money making concern – zip wire, teleferique for Whinlatter etc etc. The park does not need anymore incentives for mass tourism it already has the bleeding obvious problem of overtourism.
What it does need is a few pairs of Golden Eagles, it had two pairs in the 1980s, sheep farmers shot out the pair in the Western lakes late that decade. The last male bird died some six years ago years above Haweswater. Not much wildlife on sheep wrecked fells which have no prey for Golden Eagles, in fact not a great deal of wildlife at all and that is NOT NATURAL although it may be a park. Even Pine Martens are difficult to reintroduce to Ennerdale let alone Lynx.
The National Park is part of the problem and is getting worse, its management is a disgrace and is of no benefit to wildlife conservation. Why no Springwatch from the lakes? Just endless Countryfile chocolate box progs on farming and “idyllic” scenes.
I left the lakes and headed to Scotland for some of the benefits of being amongst wildlife and fewer people.