On 11 July Deborah Long, chief officer of Scottish Environment LINK, wrote to First Minister John Swinney announcing the forthcoming launch of the Scotland Loves Nature campaign.
The full letter, also available here, follows:
To: John Swinney MSP, First Minister
Dear First Minister,
As environmental NGOs, we were pleased you highlighted that tackling the climate emergency is a priority for your government, alongside your acknowledgement of the crisis of biodiversity loss.
LINK has a membership of over 40 environmental organisations with a combined supporter base of more than 500,000. 92% of people in Scotland say that the natural environment is important to them personally, according to a poll commissioned by LINK.
Tackling biodiversity loss and restoring nature is a key part of tackling the climate emergency. Nature restoration can play a significant role in climate adaptation through, for example, carbon capture via healthy ecosystems and flood prevention. However, we have lost more of our natural biodiversity than most other countries, and today 1 in 9 species are at risk of national extinction.
On 17 July, LINK will launch a campaign, Scotland Loves Nature, which calls on Scottish Government to bring forward legislation to protect nature.
The campaign, backed by 43 environmental organisations from within the LINK network and beyond, calls on Scottish Government to introduce a Natural Environment Bill to bring in legal targets to restore nature. A Natural Environment Bill is an opportunity to prevent and halt declines across land and sea by 2030 and make significant progress towards restoration by 2045.
Environmental recovery is enormously popular with the Scottish public and is essential to support our wider economy, and particularly the rural businesses, including agriculture, that are most dependent on nature for their resilience and survival. A new opinion poll has found that 74% of people in Scotland support legal targets to restore nature.
We urge the Scottish Government to commit to introducing a Natural Environment Bill, including statutory targets to recover nature, in the upcoming Programme for Government.
We look forward to working with your Ministers to deliver a workable, effective and ambitious set of targets.
Yours sincerely,
Deborah Long
Chief Officer
Scottish Environment LINK