Extra protection for UK's countryside announced by Prime Minister but is it enough?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promising to protect more of the UK's countryside by the year 2030.

He wants an extra 400,000 hectares of English countryside - that's about the size of the Lake District and South Downs national parks combined - to be protected to help nature recover.

He'll make the promise, along with similar commitments by more than 60 leaders of world countries, in a joint effort to try and help make up for the natural areas that are being lost around the world, and have a green recovery from coronavirus pandemic.

The Lake District in the north of England is a national park - a large area of protected countryside

At the moment national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and other protected areas of the countryside make up just over a quarter of the land (26%) in England - Boris Johnson wants this number to go up to 30% across the whole of the UK.

Each of the four nations of the UK make up their own rules on the environment so the Prime Minister has said he will work with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to increase the amount of protected land across the UK.

Is it enough?

Lots of environmental charities and organisations have welcomed the Prime Minister's plans but say that making a promise isn't enough - action needs to be taken and the promise made into law.

And they say areas that are officially protected in the UK already need more care too.

Martin Harper from animal charity RSPB said these plans could be a "huge step towards addressing the crisis our wildlife is facing".

But the promise "must now be put into domestic law, as part of a suite of goals to restore the abundance and diversity of our wildlife, in every country in the UK."