A "lost decade for nature"

The "Living Planet Report 2020", published by the World Wildlife Fund last week, analysed and tracked global data on 20,811 populations of 4,392 vertebrate species in habitats across the world. It concluded that the populations of mammals, birds fish, amphibians and reptiles have seen a catastrophic average decline of 68% since 1970. For more information, see my blog post here.

Now, just a few days later, it has been revealed that the UK has failed to reach 17 out of 20 UN biodiversity targets agreed on 10 years ago, according to an analysis from the RSPB that says the gap between rhetoric and reality has resulted in a “lost decade for nature” .... see here.

The UK Government’s own self-assessment said it failed 14 out of 20 targets agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan in 2010 but the RSPB analysis suggests the reality is worse. On 6 of the 20 targets the UK has actually gone backwards. The Government’s assessment published last year said it was not regressing on any target.

Significant failures include insufficient funding for nature conservation, too little land being managed for nature and declining wildlife populations. Kate Jennings, author of the report and Head of Site Conservation Policy at the RSPB has said: “It [the Government assessment] is a rose-tinted interpretation. .... What we have seen is an awful lot of positive rhetoric, what we’re not seeing is the action to back that up. The Government creates an impression of taking this stuff seriously but as soon as you dig down into the action that’s just not reflected.”

In the past decade, funding for UK wildlife and the environment has dropped by 30%, the equivalent of £250m. This means habitats are not being created, protected or monitored sufficiently, the RSPB report says. On paper, the UK is protecting 28% of land and 24% of sea but in practice a lot of protected land, such as National Parks and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), are not being properly managed. The report suggests in reality as little as 5% of land in the UK is being effectively looked after for nature.

The Government claims to be saving the country’s most threatened species but the 2019 State of Nature report found that populations of the UK’s wildlife have plummeted by an average of 60% since 1970 and that 41% of UK species are declining and 1 in 10 is threatened with extinction including a quarter of  mammals and nearly half of the birds.

The 2019 report shows no significant improvement since the last one in 2016 which said the UK was “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”.

Kate Jennings of the RSPB has said: “It could not be more clear that what we’re seeing is overall decline. .... We’re fundamentally dependent on nature, so God help the lot of us if we don’t make serious headway in the next decade … Past performance doesn’t inspire confidence.”

The RSPB is calling for legally binding targets to protect biodiversity. Beccy Speight, Chief Executive at the RSPB, has said: “We have targets enshrined in law to tackle the climate emergency, but none, yet, to reverse the crisis facing nature. We can not be in this same position in 2030 with our natural world vanishing due to inaction.”

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Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature