Fellows Network Second Quarterly Call: DEFRA's 30by30 Delivery Plan
Updated: Sep 29
On 17th August, we held the second Quarterly Call of our Fellows Network, this time turning to England's 30by30 Delivery Plan. The call came a little over a month after DEFRA published the plan itself on 13th July, and brought together five Associates for a frank discussion of what 30by30 actually means, and how far England really is from it.
The conversation was chaired by Mark Chadwick, who opened with a short explainer on the numbers at stake: DEFRA's own criteria put England at 7.1% effectively protected, while Wildlife and Countryside Link, applying a stricter test, puts the figure at 2.83%. From there, the panel worked through where the missing percentage points might come from, who is meant to pay for closing the gap, whether private capital can be trusted to help, and whether progress could even be verified once made.
Listen to the audio below:
Associates who joined the discussion:
Professor Monique Simmonds OBE spent nearly four decades at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, becoming the first woman to serve as Deputy Director of Science and heading Kew's Innovation Unit. Her research spans the commercial and medicinal uses of plants and fungi, and she has co-authored patents in fields ranging from malaria to cosmetics. She is now an Honorary Fellow of Kew.
Dr Stephanie Hime FISEP is CEO of Little Blue Research and project lead for ISO TC207 WG14, developing the international standard ISO 14054 on natural capital accounting. She helped develop the Capitals Coalition's Natural Capital Protocol and has worked extensively on the implementation of TNFD recommendations across business.
Dr Stephanie Wray is Managing Director of Nature Positive, part of the RSK Group, and a director of RSK Wilding and RSK Biocensus. A Chartered Ecologist with over 25 years assessing biodiversity impacts, she is a past President of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and chairs The Mammal Society.
Rachael Nutter has spent the last ten years in the carbon markets as Director of Project Development at Climate Impact Partners, and before that at Shell, leading the development of nature-based solutions projects across the global south. Earlier in her career she invested in low-carbon technologies at the Carbon Trust and in solar energy in Asia.
Donna Lyndsay is a strategic leader and spatial data expert with over 35 years of experience across geospatial, Earth observation and environmental innovation. She has worked with Ordnance Survey on generative AI and digital MRV systems and now drives market development in environment, energy and adaptation through her own consultancy, The True Position.
Thank you to all our Associates for such an insightful and thought-provoking discussion.
If you would like to join the Kew Reach Fellows Network as an Associate, we'd love to hear from you: visit our Careers page to get in touch.
Comments