What is in the State of Nature Report for us?

The recently published UK State of Nature Report 2023 tells us ‘The UK, like most other countries worldwide, has experienced a significant loss of biodiversity. The trends in nature presented here cover, at most, 50 years, but these follow on from major changes to the UK’s nature over previous centuries. As a result, the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth.’ Chilling words.

Some headlines from the report:

·       The abundance of 753 terrestrial and freshwater species has on average fallen by 19% across the UK since 1970.

·       The UK distributions of 4,979 invertebrate species have on average decreased by 13% since 1970.

·       Since 1970, the distributions of 54% of flowering plant species and 59% of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) have decreased across Great Britain.

·       10,008 species were assessed using Red List criteria. 2% (151 species) are extinct in Great Britain and a further 16% (almost 1,500 species) are now threatened with extinction here

·       The abundance of 13 species of seabird has fallen by an average of 24% since 1986.

The report points a finger at how we manage land for agriculture, at unsustainable fishing and at climate change as being the dominant reasons for our continuing nature losses.  It acknowledges the ambitious targets set by the Global Biodiversity Framework but concludes ‘the size of the response and investment remains far from what is needed given the scale and pace of the crisis.’

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): the Global Biodiversity Framework has led to multiple targets to address the issue:

·       Improving species status with the report acknowledging that ‘targeted conservation action has set some species on the path to recovery’

·       Increasing nature-friendly farming, forestry and fisheries: ‘“ nature-friendly farming needs to be implemented at a much wider scale to halt and reverse the decline in farmland nature.’

·       Expanding and managing protected areas. '30 by 30’ – that we will achieve having ‘30% of land and sea under effectively managed protected areas’ by 2030, as opposed to the 11% of UK land currently designated as protected areas (not all of which is currently effectively managed).

·       Increasing ecosystem restoration, such as peatlands, urban forests, seagrass beds. ‘Restoration and creation of carbon-rich habitats have clear co-benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as biodiversity, but realising these will require a step-change in the rate and scale of restoration.’

‘All of society needs to be involved in efforts to halt biodiversity loss.’ So, what does that mean for us, what can we do to help this dire situation? Here are some suggestions from me, but I would be very interested in hearing more ideas from you.

At a recent ERA talk James Baird introduced us to the Weald2Waves project involving many farmers adopting nature friendly practices along a 100 mile tract, a nature recovery corridor. Nearer to hand we have the Selborne Landscape Partnership of 37 farms endeavouring to do something similar from Noar Hill to Holybourne.  And from the report, ‘The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) is a farmer-led independent organisation, established in November 2017, uniting more than 1,600 farmers across the UK who are committed to managing their land for wildlife and public good, at the same time as growing and providing safe, healthy and nutritious food. Ongoing work has had multiple benefits for species and farmers.’ As we creep closer to a general election we need to scrutinise what the different political parties say about how they are going to incentivise more farmers to move in that direction, and how they plan to regulate to control the more destructive farming practises.

At our September talk Melanie Oxley gave us many tips as to how to develop our gardens so that they too can provide an increasing opportunity for nature to thrive. One key idea of Melanie’s being to ensure there is always something in bloom to provide nectar for insects 12 months of the year. With non-seasonal warm spells increasingly occurring, dormant insect life can wake up when they should not and will need to be able to find nourishment in order to survive. ERA has always supported Plantlife’s No Mow May and I know some of our members continue the ‘no mow thing’ in parts of their garden all the way through to early autumn – can we draw even more people in to doing that next year? Let us all try not to over tidy our gardens this autumn, that pile of dead leaves, or those hollow dead plant stems are all valuable habitat to our insect life and they in turn underpin so much more of our natural world. To quote from ERA’s book club’s current book (The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer), ‘embrace the mess’!

The State of Nature Report also says ‘There is good evidence that conservation is effective for individual species when it can be applied to a high proportion of the population, and targeted conservation action has set some species on the path to recovery.’ So let us provide support for those organisations spearheading such conservation work such as Plantlife, our local Wildlife Trusts, National Trust and many more. Some of you may be in a position to support them financially, others may be able to join volunteer work parties organised by them. Or perhaps going out and helping to collect the kind of data a report like this depends on is more your thing? I myself have been a reptile surveyor, trained by Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group for some 7 years now and love getting out onto our precious lowland heaths to search out our lizards and snakes.

I see the climate and biodiversity crises as two sides of the same coin and our responses to both need to be similar – educate ourselves; use our purchasing power to support that which is helpful and not that which is not; use our voices both to spread the word and to engage with those in power (councillors at all levels and politicians) so that they in turn develop their understanding of the gravity of the situation and start actually taking it seriously; and, get out and do what you can in practical ways, such as pulling out Himalayan Balsam, carrying out river surveys, collecting batteries and taking them for recycling to name but three that spring to mind! (Just let me know which area of ERA’s work you would like to become more involved with.)

One last quote from the report: ‘nearly one in six of the 10,000-plus species surveyed risk being lost from Great Britain.’ That statistic is quite staggering. Lets make sure that each and every one of us is doing what we can to try to make sure those national extinctions do NOT happen.