Ministers warned England set to miss wildlife and biodiversity targets

Exclusive: Natural England chair Tony Juniper says government must work quickly to reconcile farming and nature

England will not meet its biodiversity targets at current rates, the chair of Natural England has said, as he accused ministers of moving too slowly to regenerate nature.

Tony Juniper, who has been in post at the government’s nature quango since 2019, said ministers were not on track to meet species abundance targets, which have been criticised by wildlife charities as “embarrassingly poor”.