Can nature save the British economy?

Tony Juniper has done the sums and says whichever way you look at it, the numbers don’t add up.

On February 11 last year in the wake of devastating floods which had left much of Somerset under water, Prime Minister David Cameron made a very public promise. “Money,” he said would be “no object” when it came to the relief effort, adding, “whatever money is needed, we will spend it.”

Those same pledges have been made countless times before, but Juniper not only insists that throwing money at cleaning up the mess after a natural disaster is the “least rational and most expensive way to go”, but that every year we are wasting millions of pounds on flood defences, water supplies and farming methods which cost the country dear in the long-term.

“Government policy always seems to focus on short-term economic growth,” says Juniper, who “Somehow anything which is labelled as environmentally friendly is automatically seen as a costly luxury and is the first to be axed when budgets need to be cut.

“It’s madness. There is a mounting body of evidence to show you can save money, protect property and promote wellbeing through looking after nature, but too few people are listening to it.”

In his latest book What Nature Does for Britain, Juniper takes a tour around some of the best conservation projects in the country which have not only proved to be good for the soul, but also economically sound. By the final page, he has also written a ‘natural manifesto’ which he would like the main political parties to adopt in the run up to May’s General Election.

“It might be wishful thinking, but if people just stopped for a second and looked at the figures then they would see the way we are going at the moment is madness,” he says. “I’m not saying we need to spend more money, there is a lot of cash in the system, but it needs to be better invested and what we really need is some joined up thinking.”

One of the places, Juniper highlights is Potteric Carr near Doncaster. In November 2007, heavy rainfall across the Pennines saw the River Don burst its banks flooding much of Sheffield and surging on towards Doncaster. The area was described by Rob Stoneman, director of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as “a bathtub without a plug hole”, but while the north of Doncaster was inundated, the south of the town escaped the worst and one reason for that was Potteric Carr, which was designed with floodwater storage in mind.

“Potteric Carr has a whole system of drains and dykes, and if any area floods it can store a heck of a lot of surface water,” says Stoneman. “We had to shut the site for two weeks, but it gradually subsided. How much did that save south Doncaster? That was never assessed. But if you put it into context, the South Yorkshire flood cost about £1bn, so not having those people’s shops, houses and offices flooding, must have represented millions if not tens or hundreds of millions.”

Juniper says there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other examples how nature, probably cared for and maintained, makes financial sense, but all too often the natural systems which exist, from peat bods to ancient woodlands, have been damaged sometimes beyond repair.

“We need a much clearer understanding of our natural assets, which is why it is so important that we get a new Nature and Wellbeing Act passed by parliament. It is not about putting a price on nature, but it is about understanding the value of what we have. Nature has a real economic worth and it is time that we invest in its recovery, not only because nature is beautiful and must be saved for its own sake, but also because its protection is essential for our health, wealth and security.”

What Nature Does For Britain by Tony Juniper is published by Profile Books priced £9.99.