Mind the gap (between aspiration and action)

A Rocha UK CEO, Andy Atkins, examines the new government’s environment policies and the critical year ahead. 

2020 will be a key year for the environment in the UK and beyond. There are some massive questions as we start the year. But some massive opportunities too. With the UK leaving the EU on 31 January, how will Prime Minister Johnson’s government replace European environmental protections, agricultural and fisheries policy? In only 11 months’ time, the UK will host the critical ‘Paris plus 5’ international climate negotiations, ‘COP 26’, in Glasgow. Will we lead the world by example onto a new path away from climate catastrophe, or just gloss over ‘business as usual’? Public scrutiny of government action, and demand for change will play a key role in the outcome.

Many of our new government’s stated aspirations are good, but their actions don’t yet match up. In the Queens’s Speech a week after December’s election the government announced that it would be setting legally binding targets on key environmental indicators previously under EU jurisdiction, such as air quality and biodiversity.  It will also set up an independent Office of Environmental Protection which can take ... Read more...

Tribute to A Rocha International staff in fatal accident in South Africa

Many longer standing A Rocha UK supporters will by now have heard the very sad news from A Rocha International that last month Peter and Miranda Harris, co-founders of A Rocha, and Chris Naylor, A Rocha International CEO, together with his wife Susanna, were involved in a horrific car accident in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Miranda, Chris and Susanna did not survive. Peter is undergoing treatment in a local hospital and is in a stable condition.

From the work Peter and Miranda started in Portugal in the mid-1980s has come a unique network of Christian conservation organisations in 21 countries. Chris and Susanna established the extraordinary work of A Rocha Lebanon before Chris took over the helm of A Rocha International, facilitating the growth and work of the whole network.

Our thoughts and fervent prayers are with the Harris and Naylor families at this heartbreaking time, and for the recovery of Peter Harris.

Andy Atkins, CEO, A Rocha UK said, “The whole A Rocha family is grieving. Miranda, Peter and Chris have been absolute pioneers as Christians in nature conservation. They have inspired countless people to act on the environment and integrate care for ... Read more...