National park boards are bloated and lack expertise

Management boards that oversee England’s 10 national parks are accused of having too many members and lacking in conservational expertise. Furthermore, 30% of England’s national park boards include no conservation experts at all. 

A report by the Guardian found the number of board members for each park varies between 15 and 30 people. A total of 225 members oversee a combined £54m annual budget provided by the Government. By comparison, Natural England has a budget of about £200m and a board of 15. 

Only 15 conservation or ecology experts sit on park boards, six of whom sit on the board of a single park, the Norfolk Broads. The Guardian also reported that the boards of Dartmoor, Northumberland and Yorkshire Dales National Parks feature no conservation experts at all. 

Dr Rose O’Neill, the chief executive of Campaign for National Parks, said: “The boards must represent the public that they serve.” She added that an overhaul of the boards was “fundamental” to ensure that nature could recover. “The state of nature in national parks is an embarrassment in many ways on a world stage,” said Dr O’Neill. 

The UK is currently in the bottom 10% of countries for biodiversity.