MP champions designating chalk streams as UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site

(by Karma Loveday)

Lib Dem MP Pippa Heylings has introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill that would require the secretary of state to nominate the UK’s chalk streams as a serial UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.

Speaking in Parliament, Heylings said England has custody of 85% of the world’s globally rare chalk streams. And yet: “Today, our chalk streams are in a perilous state. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our nature and wildlife. Extreme droughts are exacerbating the damage already being done. We are letting our streams be drained dry because of untrammelled growth and allowing water companies and agricultural run-off to create a chemical cocktail of sewage and slurry. Wildlife is suffering. The chalk stream Atlantic salmon is close to extinction in some rivers and rising temperatures threaten the survival of trout. That is why this House should make a clear commitment to restoring and conserving these rivers.”

The Bill would require the Government to place chalk streams on the UK Tentative List, beginning the process towards world heritage status. Heylings said: “My Bill would ensure that we finally give chalk streams the same reverence and protections that we give to our greatest cathedrals or monuments. Our streams and rivers are just as much a part of our national identity and international significance.”

In practical terms, UNESCO designation would help to galvanise protection in planning law; increase public engagement; prioritise chalk streams within water resource planning; and increase investment in their recovery. On the latter, Heylings championed ring-fenced funding, including from the Water Restoration Fund.

There are 32 world heritage sites in the UK, yet only four are natural.