Peat-stained streams tumbling down dark rocks. Sheep, black faces and curled horns marking them as Swaledales, huddled in the shelter of stone walls. The curlew’s “Coor-li! Coor-li!” call haunting the wet grasslands. The remains of lead mines, testament to Victorian industry. The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – now rebranded as the North Pennines National Landscape - is home to all of these and more. It’s a very special place that celebrates natural beauty and cultural heritage.
I grew up with this landscape, learning how the pieces fit together: how the rocks and climate have shaped the soils, plants, wildlife, farms and mining legacies. The landscape shaped my life, too. From walks in these hills came my love of wild things, my choice of career, my need for open spaces and solitude. For me, the North Pennines are a refuge, a place where I can focus on the here and now, far from the news of war and famine, of the extinction crisis and the climate emergency.
But these global problems will increasingly affect this place I love. The curlews whose call was the soundtrack to my childhood are now red-listed, meaning they are at risk of extinction. Hotter summers are drying up the wet patches in which they hunt for food, their sickle beaks unable to penetrate the baked soil. The arctic-alpine flora of Upper Teesdale, a relic of the last Ice Age, is increasingly under threat from warmer temperatures and changing land management. Ski runs in Weardale, struggling to recover from the Covid pandemic, desperately need snowfall that is no longer reliable.
All of this was on my mind as I watched the news from COP-28, the recently concluded climate negotiations conference in Dubai. It will, perhaps, be best remembered for finally naming the elephant in the climate room – emissions from fossil fuels – while doing little to evict it. More interesting to me was the release, earlier in the meeting, of a Joint Statement on Climate, Nature and People, which recognized the interconnections between climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation (for which you can read crop failure). More importantly, the Statement committed the signatories (which include the UK and US) to better alignment of climate, biodiversity and land restoration strategies and to increased investment in all of these.
You might wonder what this has to do with the North Pennines National Landscape.
The answer is that the Joint Statement reaffirmed commitment to an ambitious climate and nature target: protecting – and managing for nature – 30% of land and sea by 2030. Scientists tell us that 30% is the magic figure at which natural landscapes can significantly reduce climate change and biodiversity loss. In 2020, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to this target, promising to protect 30% of the UK’s land by 2030 (“30 x 30”).
Adding up National Parks, National Landscapes and assorted nature sites, the Westminster government quickly declared victory, noting that 28% of the landmass in England has some kind of protected status. That’s true - but just looking at lines on a map doesn’t tell the whole story. The scientists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) developed a set of criteria for “what counts” inside the lines for an area to count towards the 30 x 30 target. Among those criteria are that “protected areas shall have clear ecological objectives” and “be managed with nature conservation as the dominant priority”. Independent scientists were quick to do their own accounting and reported that only 3-5% of England’s landmass met the IUCN criteria. That notably excluded National Landscapes like the North Pennines, which cover 15% of the English landscape and whose primary purpose is to conserve and enhance natural beauty - not to address the climate and nature crises.
Reversing course, the government later admitted that National Landscapes did not currently count towards 30 x 30, but committed to improving management on these lands. So, what will it take to go beyond lines on a map, and drive meaningful action for climate and nature in places like the North Pennines?
The answer, not surprisingly, is power and money.
The government’s own “Landscapes Review”, published in 2018, spelled out the details. Power is needed, in the form of statutory authority, adding management for climate and nature as a primary purpose for National Landscapes. Legal language is also needed to ensure that public bodies whose actions affect National Landscapes – such as the Forestry Commission and water utilities – help implement these climate and nature purposes. And money is needed, to shift the focus of land management from the extraction of natural resources to their restoration, supporting a “nature-positive economy” - another government commitment.
Despite promising to provide all of this, in September 2023 the government again reversed itself, removing language in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act that would have made managing for climate and nature a primary purpose for National Landscapes. Instead, the Act contains vague language about National Landscapes playing a role in achieving national environmental targets, to be implemented through an Outcomes Framework that is yet to be published.
This past week, the government finally published its response to the Landscapes Review, billed as an action plan “to ensure that Protected Lands [National Parks and National Landscapes] are at the heart of our 30 x 30 commitment”. And once again, the government passed on the opportunity to make the changes needed to turn this ambition into reality.
However, the management plans for many National Landscapes - including the North Pennines - are due to be updated in 2024. These are five-year plans, so if National Landscapes are to contribute to 30 x 30, climate and nature recovery must be “at the heart” of them. Environmental groups, such as the Wildlife Trusts, and local stakeholders have a role to play in advocating for the new plans to include specific climate and nature targets, as well as a commitment to monitoring progress towards those targets.
Writing about the American West, author Wallace Stegner once wrote: “This is the native home of hope”, and talked about creating “a society to match its scenery”. Our National Landscapes deserve the same.