Councillor Tim Hoskin, East Herts District Councillor for Hertford Heath and Brickendon and Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability, writes about taking action to tackle the biodiversity crisis.
“It was hugely encouraging recently to gain unanimous cross-party support for a motion at East Herts District Council to take action to try and halt the ecology and biodiversity crisis we’re facing.
Like most of us, we’re horrified by the state of our precious chalk rivers and worry about the drastic decline in wildlife – here in Hertfordshire we’ve seen 76 species driven to extinction in just the last 50 years.
Insect populations have plummeted and because a third of our food crops are pollinated by insects and much of our wildlife relies on insects for food we risk the collapse of the natural world if we don’t take action now.
The motion, which was proposed and seconded by myself and fellow Green Councillor Sue Nicholls, means that as a Council we commit to embedding nature’s recovery at the heart of our strategic plans (including the East Herts Local Plan), policies and in our decision-making. We also support the Wildlife Trust’s goal to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 and will take action to reverse losses to our nationally and internationally important species, habitats and ecosystems including our rare chalk streams.
There’s lots of simple, cheap things we can all do too – from leaving a patch of our garden to grow wild, to eating more veg and recycling. We need to do everything we can to reduce our impact on biodiversity and play our part in tackling the extinction crisis before it’s too late.”
This article has been published in The Flyer Magazine.