Nature is in crisis. We need to fix it.
We need to urgently address the skills gap in climate adaptation and nature recovery. And we need to create good green job opportunities for young people.
A National Nature Service would create thousands of well-paid nature based roles across the UK, with a particular focus on young people, people of colour and those from working class backgrounds.
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Executive summary
The UK’s nature is in crisis.
Without a skilled workforce we cannot hope to restore it. But right now the sector is struggling with a shortage of workers to do these jobs.
At the same time, getting a job in the nature conservation sector can be challenging and unattractive for young people entering the jobs market. All while people continue to suffer the health impacts of a lack of access to green space.
A National Nature Service would address all these problems: it would be a training programme for the workers to deliver green and blue infrastructure across the UK – woodlands, peatlands, wetlands, streams – including where people have least access to nature.
During the next Parliament 10,000 nature training placements for young people could be created in existing nature organisations, which would be around 2,000 placements that each last one year. This would need an investment of £300 million, based on the fact that current schemes and organisations have created entry-level nature restoration jobs for £30,000 each. Most of this would come from the Government, with around 10% of the direct cost of each placement coming from employers (see below).
More widely, it is estimated that in the UK 10,000 green jobs per year could be created in nature, net zero, and the circular economy. This would be at least 50,000 during the next Parliament.
Based on America’s historic Civilian Conservation Corps, and New Zealand’s more recent “Jobs for Nature Fund”, a National Nature Service would put ten thousand people to work restoring Britain’s countryside. In the US, President Biden has recently moved to emulate past and current schemes – in September 2023 he launched the American Climate Corps, which, through an investment of $8 billion, aims to train tens of thousands of young people in climate-focused jobs, even including a specific Forest Corps.
A National Nature Service would involve the creation of just over 10,000 entry-level year-long paid work placements over the course of the coming Parliament, in return for a £200m per year investment. These roles could be hosted at existing nature-focused organisations, administered at a regional level, and enabled through a central funding pot.
Each National Nature Service trainee will need work to do, and nature in the UK urgently needs to be restored: at least £3 billion needs to be invested in nature.
A National Nature Service would see 10,000 young people gain skills they could use in the jobs market in the future, helping to boost the economy. This would also contribute to the restoration of hundreds of hectares of nature, with green and blue spaces bringing measurable economic benefits through tourism and improved health.
