Plans to restore nature, improve environmental quality, and increase the prosperity of our country were set out by the government on Tuesday 31st January as it published its Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

Building on the vision set out five years ago in the 25 Year Environment Plan, with new powers and duties from the Environment Act, Agriculture Act and Fisheries Act, it provides a comprehensive delivery plan for the government’s approach to halting and then reversing the decline in nature.

This was the central target agreed in the new global deal for nature at the UN Nature Summit COP15 in December, which UK leadership helped deliver. The plan published today underpins that ambition domestically, with progress measured against stretching interim targets.

It covers how government will:

• Create and restore at least 500,000 hectares of new wildlife habitats, starting with 70 new wildlife projects including 25 new or expanded National Nature Reserves and 19 further Nature Recovery Projects
• Deliver a clean and plentiful supply of water for people and nature into the future, by tackling leaks, publishing a roadmap to boost household water efficiency, and enabling greater sources of supply
• Challenge councils to improve air quality more quickly and tackle key hotspots.
• Transform the management of 70% of our countryside by incentivising farmers to adopt nature-friendly practices.
• Boost green growth and create new jobs – from foresters and farmers to roles in green finance and research and development.

The public will also benefit from a new commitment to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home, such as woodlands, wetlands, parks and rivers.

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Full Document

The full Environmental Improvement Plan is available from: Environmental Improvement Plan 2023