Defra’s Landmark Commitment

Defra’s Landmark Commitment: Strengthening Protected Landscapes and Nature Recovery on the 75th Anniversary of the 1949 Act

Defra marked the 75^th anniversary of the 1949 Act by committing to introducing legislative changes to strengthen the purposes of Protected Landscapes, to give them a stronger mandate on nature recovery and widening the public’s access to nature. They will also be introducing reforms to the governance of National Parks. This takes forward key outstanding recommendations from the Glover review and important changes that (in our capacity as Friends of the Peak District) we have supported Campaign for National Parks in calling for.

We hope that Defra will strive to introduce the changes as soon as possible. You can read more about the announcement in the Defra press release and this blog on their website.

Importantly, the announcement also includes a commitment to taking forward the regulations on the duty ‘to seek to further the purposes’ which came into force almost a year ago now (26 December 2023) and, Defra published the long awaited guidance on this duty yesterday.  This guidance sets out who the duty applies to and what they should be doing to comply with it, making it very clear, for example, that relevant authorities need to have documented evidence of “the measures to which consideration has been given when seeking to further the statutory purposes of Protected Landscapes”. It is also clearly states that the duty applies to activities undertaken outside the boundary of a Protected Landscape which have an impact within it, for example, in water catchments. It is great to see that Defra has published this guidance and to have it available. We now need to ensure that the bodies who are required to implement the duty know about this guidance.