Why we need a Natural Health Service for conservation and the environment

This heavy reliance upon volunteering is here by design, and it is undermining conservation in the long term. But we do have a choice as a society, writes Alex Morss

Volunteering serves a positive purpose but should not replace paid work (Getty)

We pay for our NHS, but what about funding a Natural Health Service? After all, healthy ecosystems are ultimately essential for our survival.

The reality is that amid an ecological crisis, Britain depends upon thousands of volunteers to deliver vital conservation work. And after Covid-19, this practice looks set to become more entrenched in a global recession. The future of Britain’s greatly diminished wildlife is at stake if eco-literacy and other conservation work collapses even further.  

I have given my professional ecological expertise for free over two decades on all sorts of projects. Whilst it has enriched my life and that of many others in important ways, I am uncomfortable with the impacts that unpaid work has on many people.