An Open Letter to the UK Government in advance of the 2025 Spending Review

We are the leaders of twelve UK and international conservation and development organisations, six of which represent over four million UK members. Ahead of the spending review, we urge the UK Government not to cut the relatively small but vital UK aid spent on nature.

Nature underpins the global economy. Over half of global GDP, equivalent to $58 trillion, depends directly on healthy ecosystems. From food to fashion, industries are already facing financial exposure: declining pollinator populations and deforestation have reduced cocoa yields by 15%, contributing to price spikes, and major fashion retailers have cited nature loss as a threat to cotton and leather supply chains.

Investment in nature is a strategic, cost-effective pillar of Britain’s global development agenda. It supports sustainable economic growth, safeguards national and global security, and delivers transformative benefits for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities — all while reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader on climate and biodiversity. Investing in nature is a proven pathway to improved food, water, and energy security globally. Investing in nature builds resilience to natural and climate-induced disasters, reducing the threat of population displacement and environmental migration.

UK nature programmes deliver extraordinary returns on modest investment. The Biodiversity Challenge Funds account for less than 0.05% of UK ODA yet support scalable innovative approaches with proven impacts on poverty and policy goals, as well as generating significant matching private sector philanthropic funding. The UK’s forests programmes effectively target the drivers of deforestation, tackling illegal logging, driving transparency in the global supply chain, and co-developing solutions with indigenous people and local communities. The Blue Belt initiative has created Marine Protected Areas around the UK’s Overseas Territories (home to 94% of the UK’s endemic biodiversity) for just £8 million annually; arguably among the most cost-effective conservation anywhere in the world.

We call on the Government to preserve its existing global financial commitments for climate and nature action and to explore new and additional routes to financing. It is clear that the return on investment in nature is high, while the cost of not investing is higher.

Signed
Clare Brook, CEO, Blue Marine Foundation
Jonathan Hall, Managing Director, Conservation International-UK
Kristian Teleki, CEO, Fauna & Flora
Will McCallum, co-Executive Director, Greenpeace UK
Tom Mitchell, Executive Director, IIED
Sandy Luk, CEO, Marine Conservation Society
Tom Dillon, Senior Vice President, Environment and Crosscutting Initiatives, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Beccy Speight, CEO, RSPB
Rick Scobey, Executive Director, TRAFFIC
Craig Bennett, CEO, The Wildlife Trusts
Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF-UK
Matthew Gould, CEO, ZSL