Helen Phillips: Nature is a necessity, not a luxury

The richness and diversity of England's natural environment is under threat. Wildlife is being squeezed into ever-diminishing spaces as we seek land for housing, for roads, for agriculture, for energy and for recreation. Our population continues to grow. The impacts of changing climate exacerbate the problems.

For too long the natural world has been treated as a luxury, a nice-to-have, optional extra. The vital public services that it provides for everyone in this country have been taken for granted. Not only does it give us the basic necessities of life – clean air, clean water and productive soils – but it provides the raw materials for sustainable energy production and construction. It is our natural health service, with the potential to make a major contribution to the health and wellbeing of the nation, free for everyone to use. And our natural environment provides the foundations of our cultural identity, brings pleasure to millions and underpins our tourism and recreation industries. And as climate change begins to bite, it becomes even more important in its capacity to store carbon, soak up excess water and channel run-off naturally away from our towns and cities.

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Natural England's State of the Natural Environment 2008 report, published today, shows that wildlife inside protected areas such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest is, for the time being, on sound footing. But outside nature's gated communities the diversity and local distinctiveness of our wildlife and landscapes is in long-term decline.

We have also today published a Manifesto for the Natural Environment, calling for policy makers to value the services provided by nature and to hard-wire concern for the natural environment into all aspects of public policy – health, transport, energy, planning, education and economic. For example, we are calling for a national flood management strategy that works with nature, not against it, using our wetlands to store floodwater. We think that there is an urgent need for a strategic assessment of the options for energy generation, rather than the current piecemeal approach. How, for example, can an informed decision be made about whether to threaten one of Europe's most important wildlife sites – the Severn estuary – for a tidal barrage, when we don't have a clear view of the opportunities for renewable energy in other parts of the country? The time is right to set a new course – one that considers the impact of any decision on the natural environment and values the unpriced public services that it provides.

Helen Phillips is chief executive of Natural England