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Bold new plans to mobilise communities to save UK nature

The Wildlife Trusts announce new strategy to put nature in recovery by 2030

New plans announced today will mean that people will be able to experience nature in a way that they may never have done before – with large, populated areas butting up against large rewilded landscapes, say The Wildlife Trusts. The charities’ new Strategy 2030, launched today, shows how people will be at the heart of vast nature restoration projects that will do more than just halt the decline of nature – they will reverse it instead.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and, with 41% of species in decline since the 1970s plus 15% of species at risk of extinction, urgent action is required to stop hedgehogs, water voles, and red squirrels disappearing forever. The Wildlife Trusts plan to empower people to reverse the trend.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“The situation is dire and nature needs to be put in special measures – we must ramp up action as never before by triggering a decade of nature restoration. Conservation of the wildlife and habitats that remain is no longer enough because what we’ve got left is so fragmented and diminished. In the past we’ve focused on preserving habitats and species – now we need to restore the abundance of nature, and with it, the ecosystem processes that’ll get nature working again.

“Despite the huge loss of wild places and wildlife that depends on them, there is hope. The UK has committed to protecting and managing 30% of land for nature by 2030 and we’re going to be working with all national governments and local authorities to make sure this happens.”

A hedgehog in the grass

Vaughn Matthews

Ash Green Meadows

 (c) Jon Hawkins

Chantelle Lindsay, Bobbi Benjamin-Wand, Cel Spellman building bird boxes.

© Broni Lloyd-Edwards

The Wildlife Trusts have three new goals:

  • To put nature in recovery by making more space for it, connecting habitats on a large scale, restoring the abundance of nature and enabling ecosystems to function again
  • To inspire one in four people to take action for nature by working with communities, especially young people, to rewild their neighbourhoods
  • To enable nature to help humanity so that wild places store carbon, prevent flooding, reduce soil erosion, aid pollinators and support people’s wellbeing

The Wildlife Trusts are working in every county of the UK empowering people to drive change. Gloucestershire provides one of very many examples of how to increase the land that benefits nature to 30%:

Gloucestershire has just 13% of natural land and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust recognises that working in partnership with the people of the county is crucial to achieving an increase of at least 17%. The Trust plans to achieve this in a variety of ways from creating exciting new wetlands to huge treescapes using the natural catchment of the River Severn as the backbone for recovery. Projects include:

  • Severn Treescapes – a 60 mile, north-south woodland nature recovery corridor across Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire covering 1,728km2.
  • Severn Wildbelt – to encourage communities to allow land that is currently of low biodiversity value to be enhanced for nature with a series of connected wetlands on the floodplain to aid flood management, carbon capture and recreational space
  • Putting 69,000 hectares of the county into Nature Recovery Zones around existing good habitat; increasing the size of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s estate by 50%, and creating 5,000 hectares of new habitat by working with farmers and partners
  • Integrating nature into new building developments with beautiful green infrastructure – from parks to sustainable urban drainage systems that collect water
  • Exploring a beaver reintroduction – because bringing back this keystone species is our best ally in the fight against flooding
Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“Nature needs people to act now before it’s too late and we can all be part of the effort to restore our natural world at the scale so desperately needed. We’ve found that people want to get involved, and The Wildlife Trusts – with staff in every part of the UK – are well placed to enable this to happen. It’s up to us all – businesses, landowners, schools, governments, and individuals – to heal our natural world.”

Liz Bonnin, President of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“We can succeed at putting nature into recovery if we all work together as one interconnected community. Our precious ecosystems – all interconnected and interdependent themselves – need to be able to do their job in maintaining the health of our planet. The Wildlife Trusts’ Strategy is harnessing the tremendous amount of expertise from all 46 Trusts to restore our wild places, putting people at the heart of it all. It’s time to fall in love with our planet again, and become the responsible custodians it deserves.” 

Read The Wildlife Trusts’ Strategy 2030 here.

Beaver amongst vegetation

David Parkyn

Bee on a white flower

Paul Hobson

Children gardening

 (c) Paul Harris 2020Vision 

young people making dens

Helena Dolby

Bringing nature back

Read our 2030 strategy

Notes to editors

Wildlife decline and loss statistics

Wildlife losses also include the disappearance of 97% of lowland meadows that support wildflowers, insects, mammals, and birds (State of Nature (SoN), 2013, page 14); 80% of purple heathlands which are home to bilberries, sand lizards and curlew (SoN 2013, page 24). Rivers are in deep trouble too: in England, only 14% of rivers meet standards for good ecological status, much of this is due to agricultural pollution, causing 13% of freshwater and wetland species in to be threatened with extinction. Butterflies and moths have been particularly hard hit with numbers down by 17% and 25% respectively. Mammals also fare badly with more than 26% of species at risk of disappearing altogether. UK wildlife declines are documented in State of Nature reports 2013, 2016 and 2019.

30% of land and sea for nature by 2030

  • The Government’s announcement is here.
  • The Wildlife Trust’s commitment to 30 by 30 is here.
  • Our 30 by 30 work takes its lead from The UN  Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This is an agreement between countries based on natural and biological resources, with 3 main goals: to protect biodiversity; to use biodiversity without destroying it; and, to share any benefits from genetic diversity equally. The CBD has proposed that at least 30% of the world’s land and seas should be protected in the next decade to prevent the destruction of the planet’s biodiversity, as part of a global framework to protect the Earth’s plants and wildlife.

The 30% threshold of wildlife habitat in a landscape has been worked out by looking at a range of different species and their requirements. At less than 30% cover, habitat patches are too small and isolated, and species richness (the number of species in any one area), abundance and survival rates decline. This is what has led to the UK becoming one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth.  Where habitat cover is greater than 30% habitat patches will, on average, be larger and the distance between patches will typically be less, resulting in greater connectivity.  This means that if local extinctions do occur, other populations of the same species can move into the area easily.

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that is nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 850,000 members and 38,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting, and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. 

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