The EU referendum and wildlife

The EU referendum and wildlife

With the EU Referendum over, the challenges faced by Lincolnshire's wildlife are as great as they have ever been. Wildlife is under real pressure from intensive land use and sometimes insensitive development on land and at sea. Our lives are becoming more remote from the natural world.

It is time to focus on the future of our natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife, to concentrate on what a healthy natural environment can do for us and what we must do for it.

We need to unite behind a vision for a brighter future for our wonderful wildlife and future generations. We all depend on a healthy natural environment and have a role to play in making it a reality.

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is working to create a Living Landscape and to secure Living Seas. Our vision paints a positive and optimistic picture of what can be achieved in partnership, and it is more important than ever that we work together to make it a reality.

The EU has left a legacy of strong legislation and invested in many practical projects. Together, these have reduced the rate of wildlife losses and begun to reverse the fortunes of some of our wildlife. But there is growing pressure for deregulation both in the UK and across the rest of Europe. In our new political world there is a very real risk that the pressure for deregulation and reduced environmental standards will grow. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that the benefits for wildlife that we have seen inside the EU are not lost through deregulation or a lack of international cooperation.

As we are now responsible for our own, independent future, it is up to all of us to make sure that it is a good one for the natural world.