England's national parks run by 'bloated' male boards - analysis

The boards that oversee England’s national parks are bloated, dominated by men and are severely lacking in diversity, a Guardian analysis has found.

- Damian Carrrington

The analysis also found that farmers outnumber conservation experts by two to one, nature is rarely on the agenda at board meetings and only one national park can account for the ownership of all the land it covers.

Campaigners said a major overhaul of how national parks were governed was “fundamental” to the recovery of nature in the parks and to serving the public, for whom they were set up.

England’s 10 national parks cover 10% of the country and should be key to addressing the nature and climate crisis. However, the state of nature inside the parks, which are largely privately owned, is often worse than outside.

The Guardian analysis found that 70% of the 225 members of the parks’ boards were men, with the proportion of women varying from 11% on the board of the Broads national park to 42% for the South Downs.

Seven of the 10 parks have no non-white minority ethnic board members, with just four among the 225 members (1.7%). Across England 18% of the population belong to a minority ethnic group.

There are also 30 farmers on the boards, twice as many as the number of conservation or ecology experts, and six of the conservation experts sit on the board of a single national park, the Broads. Three national parks have no conservation experts – Dartmoor, Northumberland, and Yorkshire Dales – but all have at least one farmer.

National park board members decide the strategic direction of the organisation and three-quarters are appointed by local councils. The other quarter are appointed by the secretary of state for environment, with the intention of representing the national interest. The parks were set up for the nation 75 years ago by the postwar Labour government.