Anita Prabhakar, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Leicester South is supporting Nature by backing Bob

A number of constituents have asked me to support nature by backing Bob. I am committed to protecting wildlife and the environment and I am glad that nature and wildlife means so much to people in this Leicester.

I am proud that the Liberal Democrats are creating a stronger, greener economy that values wildlife and protect green spaces. In 2011, the Coalition Government published the first White Paper on the natural environment for over 20 years. Successive Labour and Tory governments had neglected this area, and I am pleased that the Lib Dems have put nature back on the political agenda.

The Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) that we set up in government in 2012 have benefitted wildlife and boosted rural tourism. Around 19,000 hectares of threatened habitat - about the same area as 23,000 football pitches - have already been created or restored since these NIAs were set up. Our ambitious Biodiversity 2020 strategy sets out how we were meeting our EU and international commitments too.

We have also helped to tackle wildlife crime by extending funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit up to 2016. And last year, the UK hosted an international conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade that brought together leaders and representatives from over 40 different countries. The conference agreed important steps that will help to save endangered species throughout the world.

Liberal Democrats are leading the fight against climate change and since 2010 we have more than doubled the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources. We want to go further in the next parliament and introduce a Nature Act which will set legally binding targets for clean air, clean water, and which will protect access to green space.

It is important that we do more to protect our woodland, which is why Liberal Democrats want to see our forests placed in a protected trust to prevent them being sold off. We also want to plant up to 750,000 new trees each year, roughly one new tree for every child born in England and Wales over that period.