Whichever way you look at it, 2021 has been a busy year for environmental campaigning. With COP26, the Environment and Agriculture Acts, Marine Protection Areas, announcements on badger culling, neonics usage, the OxCam Arc and many more, it's been a non-stop parade of vitally important issues from the local to the national scale.

We are extremely grateful to all of our supporters who have engaged with this, on any level. Whether you have responded to a consultation on your Local Plan or the government's plans for wider development, lent your name to a petition, campaign or movement like #StateofNature or #RethinktheArc, mapped your local green space, written a letter to your MP or helped to spread the word about what we do - it all helps to make a difference.

If you haven't already, do sign up to our campaign e-news to be kept in the loop with what we're doing on a national and local scale, and how you can get involved.

2021 Highlights

So much has happened, but there have been some highlights worth celebrating.

Cancellation of OxCam Expressway

In March this year, Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps MP, cancelled the OxCam Expressway. We, along with the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), the RSPB and Woodland Trust, had long opposed the proposed Expressway because of the environmental damage that would have been caused. We supported BBOWT's High Court legal proceedings against the plans.

News of the cancellation will mean ancient woodland and other precious habitats that fell within the proposed route corridor are safe for now. Yet, of course, the risks to nature from road “improvements” remain, and we remain vigilant in the face of these ongoing proposals.

Read more about the OxCam Expressway 

State of Nature

We collaborated with over 70 environmental charities across the sector to work on the State of Nature campaign, spearheaded by Wildlife and Countryside Link and aimed at demonstrating support across the country for stronger protections for nature to be put into law. In the end, over 208,000 people signed our joint petition demanding improvements in the Environment Bill for nature. And, it made a difference...

Environment Act

The new, long- awaited Environment Act got its Royal Assent in October this year after a lengthy process of back-and-forth and many months of campaigning from a collaborative group of environmental charities including the Wildlife Trusts. Though there are many aspects of the Act which still need strengthening and improving for wildlife - not least how well it can be enforced - there are lots of things worth celebrating:

• It makes us the first country in the world to have a deadline for nature's recovery put into law
• The new requirement for planning applications to provide Biodiversity Net Gain will encourage developers to put nature at the heart of their work
• Local Nature Recovery Strategies will create the framework for a national system of interconnected sites for nature.

Find out more about the new Environment Act

Highly Protected Marine Areas

Supported by a petition signed by over 10,000 people, the Wildlife Trusts campaigned for a series of sea sanctuaries where all damaging activities are banned.

In 2021, after the Benyon review of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) was published in 2020, Defra announced it will begin the process for designating HPMAs by the end of 2022, setting an ambitious commitment to protect our seas. 

Read more about HPMAs

There is much more to do

Of course, the work goes on, and there are many ongoing campaigns that need us all to raise our voices for wildlife. Signing up to our regular campaign e-news will keep you in the loop with our national and local campaigns, but here are a few you can get involved with right away.