Restoring nature in the UK’s national parks is being held back because nearly 90% of their land remains in the hands of private owners, campaigners say.
The Campaign for National Parks (CNP) has called for the authorities overseeing the protected landscapes to be given more powers to buy up private land under what they call a ‘People’s Charter’ so they can do more to boost biodiversity.
New research estimates that just under 595,000 acres of 5.7m acres of land covered by Britain’s 15 national parks is in public ownership.
The government said it was still committed to protecting 30% of land for nature by 2030 and to making national parks wilder, greener and more accessible.
It is 75 years since the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 paved the way for the creation of a range of legally-protected landscapes, managed for the nation.
Today there are 10 parks in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland, which are run by national park authorities (NPAs) that have a legal responsibility to conserve and enhance the natural beauty and wildlife of the area.
Access campaigner and environmental researcher Guy Shrubsole, who has mapped current land ownership within the boundaries of the 15 parks, said mostly they were “not, in fact, owned by the nation”.
Some NPAs own almost no land at all, including in the South Downs – the newest park – and in the Yorkshire Dales, where its authority owns less than 0.4% of the land, made up of car parks, woodland and small nature reserves.
The biggest land-owning authorities are in Bannau Brycheiniog,
The post National parkland in public hands ‘would help nature’ first appeared on EnviroLink Network.