The new State of Nature report says:
“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. The main causes of these declines are clear, as are many ways in which we can reduce impacts and help struggling species. The evidence from the last 50 years shows that on land and in freshwater, significant and ongoing changes in the way we manage our land for agriculture, and the effects of climate change, are having the biggest impacts on our wildlife. At sea, and around our coasts, the main pressures on nature are unsustainable fishing, climate change and marine development. More broadly there has been growing recognition of the value of nature, including its role in tackling climate change, and the need for its conservation among the public and policymakers alike. With each report our monitoring of change improves and we have never had a better understanding of the state of nature. Yet, despite progress in ecosystem restoration, conserving species, and moving towards nature-friendly land and sea use, the UK’s nature and wider environment continues, overall, to decline and degrade. The UK has set ambitious targets to address nature loss through the Global Biodiversity Framework, and although our knowledge of how to do this is excellent, the size of the response and investment remains far from what is needed given the scale and pace of the crisis. We have never had a better understanding of the State of Nature and what is needed to fix it.”
Its key findings section says:
‘In the UK we have a wealth of data on which to assess the state of nature. This primarily comes from volunteer- based species monitoring and recording schemes. Our species’ status metrics use two data types: Abundance data from structured monitoring schemes in the UK, including those that monitor birds, mammals, butterflies, moths and marine fish. Our abundance metrics report the average change in abundance across species. Distribution data from biological recording datasets can now be used to generate trends for thousands of species across a wide variety of taxonomic groups (including vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes and a number of invertebrate groups). These trends measure the change in the proportion of occupied sites, so our metrics report the average change in distribution for these species. Unless otherwise stated, figures were produced for this report.
For many species, distribution is the most appropriate way to measure status: for instance, it would be impractical to count the number of individual moss plants but looking at changes in where they can be found tells us a lot about both the mosses themselves and the pressures on their habitats. Change in distribution does not tell us whether a species’ range is shifting. For example a species may be found in a similar proportion of sites but those sites are found farther north in the country than previously. Our metrics focus on species native to the UK as well as those introduced at least 500 years ago. Many of the same monitoring and recording datasets used in this report also underpin official UK and UK country biodiversity indicators, which are published annually for groups including birds, butterflies and mammals, as well as other measures of biodiversity status. We feature some of these indicators in State of Nature 2023.
Change in abundance and change in distribution are different measures of the state of nature. Changes in these two measures are often related, although changes in abundance are likely to be detected sooner and be of greater magnitude than changes in distribution. Additionally, in some cases, abundance and distribution trends move in opposite directions. The term ‘wildlife’ is used throughout this report to include all living organisms in their many forms, from mammals
to lichens, plants to birds, fungi to invertebrates.”
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Schools do not get a mention in the report, and the only reference to education is in the context of St Helena. The word learn gets three mentions. This must come as something of a disappointment to the DfE and those running the National Education Nature Park initiative given that this is encouraging the whole of the education estate to work with them to improve the biodiversity of their grounds as a direct response to our nature-deprived plight. More evidence, then, that the education of the young is not seen as important in this existential quest.
NB, BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today devoted its September 30th programme to the state of nature with a focus on ‘nature-friendly farming’.