Protecting Everyday Nature

Layard, Antonia; Marshall, Adam; de Vito, Laura; Few, Roger; Hatzisavvidou, Sophia; Mabon, Leslie and Selomane, Odirilwe (2024). Protecting Everyday Nature. Journal of Environmental Law, 36(3) pp. 275–299.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqae018

Abstract

‘Everyday nature’, understood as people’s ability to access nature nearby, should be protected in law and planning policy, facilitating three key benefits: (1) human health and wellbeing; (2) intrinsic and extrinsic ecological advantages; and (3) supporting the UK’s 30by30 nature conservation commitment. Yet there are three obstacles to the protection of everyday nature: (1) the prioritisation of ‘special’ and ‘priority’ nature conservation habitats; (2) the lack of protection for Local Wildlife Sites; as well as (3) counter-intuitively, the rise of biodiversity as a preferred governing concept. Addressing these obstacles, the paper develops the concept of everyday nature, making four proposals for change: (1) improved conceptual analysis; (2) confirming current policy on Local Wildlife Sites; (3) implementing the concept of everyday nature in legislation and planning policy; and (4) implementing the Government’s target that everyone lives within a 15-minute walk from a green or blue space.

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