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. ISSN 0952-8873

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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.