Country 'must value nature's free benefits'

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman will today give everyone from "bird watchers to big business" the chance to contribute their views to a White Paper on the natural environment in England which will be published next year.

Mrs Spelman said there was an opportunity to stop the "piecemeal degradation" of countryside and improve it so it supported the economy and people's quality of life.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates that the value of natural resources extracted for use in the economy in 2007 was 15bn, while simply increasing people's access to the natural world could save the NHS 2.1bn a year through improvements in mental and physical health.

But without real action to protect the natural environment, wildlife will not be able to cope with the changes brought on by global warming. Vital resources such as food and clean water will be at risk, a coalition of influential conservation organisations warned.

The RSPB, National Trust, Woodland Trust, Wildlife Trusts, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Institute for European Environmental Policy said the Government should take steps to reconnect people with nature as part of education and health policy and to involve communities in their local environment.

The groups also want the White Paper to work towards protecting existing wildlife, restoring habitats and species so nature makes "net gains" instead of losses and developing large-scale and long-term approaches to looking after our natural world.

The coalition said the natural environment had been low on the political agenda in recent years in the face of the need to tackle climate change.

Helen Meech, assistant director of external affairs at the National Trust, said: "We've lost sight of the benefits the natural world provides because they are not accountable within markets and everyone takes them for granted."

According to Defra, it is estimated that globally the degradation of ecosystems is costing 50bn euros (42bn) a year.

The cost of soil erosion in Britain alone is more than 30m a year, while declining numbers of bees and other pollinators could have a financial impact on crops.