‘Act now to make a difference over the next ten years’ is the message from a recent Meeting the Challenge of Nature webinar.

Hosted by the South Downs Network, a ‘hub’ partnered with local organisations and charities working to support their interests and protect the environment of the South Downs National Park, the online webinar had five speakers, including Baroness Kate Parminter, chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Environment and Climate Change .

According to the speakers, we have entered a crucial decade for restoring the planet’s biodiversity.

And the South Downs, ‘a national and international gem,’ needs to be at the forefront as local people, councils and the government step up to new responsibilities.

Baroness Parminter said: “It is down to us what happens next as well as parliaments.”

Landscape and biodiversity lead at the South Downs National Park Chris Fairbrother said: “This is a big decade. It is about delivery and we all need to play a part.”

Speakers heard we are now seeing the planet’s sixth mass extinction, with major declines in mammal and insect species.

Crucially, biodiversity is directly linked to climate change; climate change is accelerating the rate of sea level rising along the south coast.

“We must listen to nature – we can take bites out of nature, but nature will bite back,” said Professor Dan Osborn, chairman of the Sussex Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.

In response, some of the nature recovery work already under way through the South Downs National Park’s Net Zero with Nature initiative was outlined.

Sustainable farming (below at East Meon) and new woodlands were part of this, but so was the creation of wildlife corridors linking the park to other areas of countryside.

Chris Fairbrother said: “Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and national parks account for 12 per cent of the UK, and 34 per cent of this region’s productive landscape, so we could start to make a positive difference.”

Dr Rob Stoneman, director of landscape recovery for The Wildlife Trusts, said: “We need to bring back abundance, not just diversity.

“We want to see regenerative agriculture and systems of agriculture that enhance wildlife.”

He praised the success of a scheme on the north Norfolk coastline that had seen it become a prosperous and beautiful part of the countryside, successfully combining wildlife with farming.

Speakers agreed that what was missing was the promotion of nature in decision making:

Sussex Wildlife Trusts conservation expert Henri Brocklebank said: “We are used to a system where the economy is put above wildlife. That is not a valid way of operating any more – for too long nature has played second fiddle.”

South Downs Network chair Dr Tony Whitbread said: “Nature is not a niceness. We need to move away from a human story about domination and exploitation, and move to one which delivers regenerative lives and regenerative nature.”

The government’s policy of relying on consumer choice and technology to combat climate change was roundly criticised. Baroness Parmenter described it as “a derogation of responsibility”.

She added: “Government should be shaping new norms of social behaviour as part of the way we respond to nature and climate.”

Speakers were agreed that changes to the planning system, which the government is expected to announce shortly, should include set targets for nature, just as it includes targets for housing numbers.

They were concerned the proposed system of zonal planning would remove the element of local democracy from the planning system.

Professor Osborn said Local Plans were almost certain to fail because of the way planning principles are applied in practice.

He said: “We need a better land use planning system which accounts for nature, not just housing and infrastructure.”

He also voiced concerns about the effect new housing close to the South Downs would have on the water supply.

See a recorded video of the South Downs Network COP26 webinar on the website at www.southdownsnetwork.org.uk