RSPB: Additional Funds Should be Well Targeted (UK)

Many people across the UK, including within the Somerset Levels, have been affected by this winter’s floods.

David Cameron’s commitment to extra funding is welcome, but the RSPB urges that this money will need to be incredibly well targeted to bring the greatest benefit to communities who have been impacted.

Refocus

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s Conservation Director, said: “We welcome this additional funding which will need to stretch to repair the damage to coastal communities as well as inland ones. It’s vital the additional funding is spent wisely to relieve immediate distress, but also to lay the foundation for a more resilient future. The Government has been warned by the Committee on Climate Change that it needs to refocus the flooding debate on prevention rather than cure. The agreed dredging may be a part of the package on the Somerset Levels, but it won’t be top of the list elsewhere, where deploying other methods will create longer-lasting benefits.

“On the Somerset Levels, the funding provides a key opportunity to make the agreed action plan happen, and give the area a safe and sustainable future, where the impact of extreme weather events is reduced by land and water management.”

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Press Release, February 13, 2014