National Trust stops cleaning rivers and may have to pause planting trees after losing £200million in lockdown
- The charity has called for ‘renewal over mere recovery’ and urges ministers to prioritise the climate after the pandemic crisis
- Conservation charities like the National Trust could face collapse as income has decreased significantly during the coronavirus lockdown
- The trust is struggling financially due to a massive loss of income and has been forced to pause its environmental programmes
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
The National Trust has had to stop cleaning rivers and may have to pause planting trees after losing £200million during the lockdown.
The charity has called for ‘renewal over mere recovery’ and urges ministers to prioritise the climate after the pandemic crisis.
Hilary McGrady, the trust’s director-general, has run the organisation since 2018 and wrote in an article for the Telegraph: ‘The nation’s attention is rightly on dealing with the immediate and profound shock of Covid-19 to health, social fabric and livelihoods.
‘But governments around the world are turning their thoughts to recovery. We must learn from the last financial crisis and opt for renewal over mere recovery.
‘Anything else would fail a nation whose citizens have shown that their collaboration and collective action can defeat individualism on a colossal scale.’
The orchard at Lytes Cary Manor and estate in Somerset, where the endangered shrill carder bee is making a comeback following work to create wildflower-rich meadows
She warned conservation charities like the National Trust could face collapse as income has decreased significantly during the coronavirus lockdown.
The trust is struggling with a £200million shortfall and has been forced to pause its environmental programmes.
The organisation looks after 985 square miles of countryside – almost 1.5 per cent of the total land mass of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
She added: ‘A sharp drop in income is now threatening the very existence of many of those that look after nature sites and create natural solutions to climate change around the country.
‘They are in need of urgent, practical support. In the face of what could amount to around £200million of lost income this year for the National Trust alone, we’ve had to make some incredibly difficult decisions to pause important conservation programmes to clean rivers, prevent upland flooding and improve soil. Our tree-planting schemes must not go the same way.’