Sheffield City Council

DECLARING A BIODIVERSITY AND ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCYRESOLVED: That this Council:-(a) notes with alarm that:-(i) according to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity andEcosystems Services (IPBES), species extinction is running at between10 and 100 times faster than historical averages;(ii) the State of Nature 2019 UK report, published by a consortium of 70nature organisations, finds that as little as 5% of land in the UK is beingeffectively looked after for nature, that 41% of species are in decline and10% are threatened with extinction;(iii) the UK only has half its biodiversity remaining, and is in the bottom 10%of countries on this measure; and(iv) the RSPB reports that there are 40 million fewer birds in the UK than in1970;(b) further notes that the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline nationally are climatechange, habitat loss and intensive farming, and believes that, locally,mismanagement of moorland to the west of the city can be added;(c) believes that the health and well-being of the people of Sheffield depends cruciallyon maintaining a thriving and biodiverse natural environment;(d) commits to reviewing the findings of Sheffield Wildlife Trust’s map of biodiversitycorridors and to continue to review habitat management techniques, including theuse of alternative approaches to pesticides;(e) commits to addressing this crucial issue but rejects a top-down prescriptiveapproach, as this issue is simply too important to rush through ill-thought-out andthat, rather than as being solely prescribed by political parties, there is a need fora truly a collaborative approach – with real action - to ensure that everythingpossible is being done to protect the city’s biodiversity, ecology and wildlife;(f) believes that it should not be for the Council alone to decide the terms of what anecological and biodiversity emergency looks like, and how this should be dealtwith and instead a collaborative approach needs to be developed which listens towider views including key anchors and partners, including Sheffield andRotherham Wildlife Trust, Sheffield Climate Alliance, Wildscapes CIC andShefFood Partnership and that, crucially, Sheffield citizens must be part of thisconversation;(g) commits, therefore, to the development of a Sheffield Citizens Pledge, coproduced throughout the city, and that work on this should start from May, withwide consultation when safe to do so;(h) believes that we must work on a shared strategy to protecting Sheffield’s ecology,including those who have previously petitioned on this issue, to deliver somethingreally meaningful, that the whole city can get behind;(i) commits to negotiating with private landowners to initiate restoration of peat landand utilising natural flood management techniques to greatly reduce Sheffieldresidents and businesses exposure to flooding.(j) commits to working with landowners to adopt methods that encouragestabilisations and expansion of a biodiverse environment;(k) directs officers, in consultation with organisations such as Sheffield andRotherham Wildlife Trust, Wildscapes CIC and ShefFood Partnership, to draw upplans to reverse declines in species and habitats in Sheffield, reporting back inJuly 2021, paying particular attention to the opportunities for:-(i) supporting education to make Sheffield gardens ‘wildlife friendly’, suchas hedgehog tunnels in solid fence boundaries and cutting lawns later inthe year so wildflowers can set seed;(ii) encouraging planting green roofs and fences in urban areas to supportinvertebrates and pollinators and to reduce air pollution; and;(iii) introducing a programme to install bird and/or bat boxes on Councilowned properties;(l) believes that rewilding is often best practice for supporting wildlife recovery;(m) believes that all residents should have local access to high value naturalenvironments and that this is an important consideration for reducing inequalitiesin the city;(n) requests that local Household Waste Recycling Centres be kept open andaccessible for as long as possible to help reduce the prevalence of fly-tipping andplastic pollution in sensitive habitats;(o) notes that the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill currently passing throughParliament gives greater powers to take strong, urgent action on bothemergencies than the current Climate Change Act;(p) further notes that more than one hundred MPs have already pledged to supportthe Bill;(q) supports, therefore, the passing of the Bill;(r) requests officers to write to all Sheffield’s MPs urging them to pledge to supportthe Bill; and(s) requests officers to write to the Environment Minister, the Rt. Hon. George EusticeMP, the President of the COP26 Climate Conference, the Rt. Hon. Alok SharmaMP, and the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP, informing them ofthis Council's support for the Bill and urging them to support it through Parliament.

— Full Council (Source)