This week I was disappointed to hear of yet another Natural England advisor leaving their role as a Conservation Officer, the second one I have seen move on in the last few months.
Both these young men joined the organisation about 18 months before, full of enthusiasm and proud to be working for the Government’s nature watchdog. They were both talented and likeable and the local farming community had begun to invest in them. Now they have gone; the latest one leaving to work for an organisation which helps developers destroy wildlife rich habitat by pretending that if you create completely different habitat somewhere else in the country then all will be fine and there will be no loss of biodiversity. It is a sham. It is greenwashing destruction.
My immediate reaction was to think, How can he sell out in this way? Sure the pay will be better but is it worth selling your soul for more cash when you are sending nature and people’s connection to the nature on their doorsteps down the plughole? Have young people coming into wildlife conservation changed so much that they are no longer prepared to spend years scraping by on low wages for a job that they love and find fulfilling like previous generations of wardens and countryside workers did? Probably not, people’s expectations have changed and it is hard, I know from experience, to the be the only one among your friends who can’t afford expensive holidays or gadgets.
However, at a time when Farmers are being asked to do more for nature as part of the Environmental Land Management Scheme we need good Natural England advisors to guide them through applications and give ongoing advice. As things currently stand, farmers form a good working relationship with one advisor only to find that they leave within a few months and they have to start all over again with someone new. It does not help build that vital trust between the farming community and conservation which is tentative at the best of times.
There was a time when working for Natural England was seen as the pinnacle of a career in conservation. Only the most knowledgeable naturalist could hope to get a job with them and once they did, they stuck with the organisation for life. Now there seems to be a revolving door with no sense of pride or loyalty to the organisation. Why is this?
For one, wages at Natural England are scandalously low, not enough to pay the gas bill or rent let alone buy a house or go on an expensive holiday. The organisation also seems to lack common sense or dynamism when it comes to bringing along young talent and investing in them. To progress up the pay scales it seems staff have to be prepared to move to other parts of the country. Natural England has also been ham strung by successive Tory Governments who have stripped the organisation of all its power intent on weakening its independence and ability to protect nature from rampant development. Many of its most senior and experienced staff have left due to low moral and lack of autonomy.
What can Natural England do about this? As a Government body it is impossible for it to compete with the pay of private environmental consultancies who are getting fat on taking developers money but maybe it could offer other things of value. Free accommodation used to be available to many young people working for countryside organisations and certainly helped many people by not only making it possible to live off of a low wage but allowing them to save up a deposit for a house. Heavily subsidised public transport and health care packages should be a possibility for a Government organisation and staff, I am sure, would welcome a clear route to progress to higher grades without the need to move area. I also feel that staff retention would be helped by giving people some autonomy to make decisions and build relationships in their local area, allowing them to feel they are really contributing to protecting the countryside and helping them to invest in their role and their local patch.
Whatever decisions are taken, something must be done and soon to stop this flood of young talent leaking away from the only organisation with any legal powers to stop the devastating loss of habitat and biodiversity that is still happening every day on all of our doorsteps.
