ANIMALS AT RISK
THE UK’S BIODIVERSITY IS UNDER THREAT AS ANIMAL POPULATIONS CONTINUE TO FALL
CONSERVATIONISTS have warned British nature is being lost at a rapid rate as numbers of threatened animals drop to their lowest recorded levels. The abundance – or number of individual animals – of “priority” species fell by nearly two thirds (61%) between 1970 and 2019, according to new figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Priority species are those considered most under threat of dying out.
The list includes familiar British animals such as otters, pine martens, red squirrels, cuckoos, wood larks and the white admiral butterfly.
Of the 224 priority species tracked in the figures, two-fifths (41%) saw a “strong” decline in population over the past fifty years.
Almost a third (27%) dropped sharply in numbers in the five years between 2014 and 2019 alone.
Moths and butterflies are the worst-hit of the animal groups studied, while endangered bird numbers have remained mostly stable.
The abundance of nonendangered species has also fallen over the same period.
Separate research from the RSPB and other conservation groups found on average, British species have reduced in population by 13% since 1970.
Overall, 41% of all animal species in the country are declining, according to the 2019 report.
Just 26% – including badgers and ravens – have increased in numbers.
Several factors are to blame for the drop in animal populations.
These include climate change, pollution, expanding urban areas and more intensive farming methods, which all impact on the areas where animals live.
The Defra figures show just 6% of threatened habitats – including grassland, forests and coasts – in England are considered to be in good condition.
A quarter (23%) were found to be not just “unfavourable” for animals to live in, but also to be getting worse.
Invasive species like the grey squirrel are also squeezing out native fauna.
Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB said: “Nature is still being lost across the UK at a deeply concerning rate. Many of the pressures and threats driving these declines - like nature itself – do not respect national boundaries.
“Whilst governments across the UK have recognised the climate and environment crises threatening our natural world - and that restoring the natural world can provide some of the solutions we need - there desperately needs to be more immediate action and cooperation on the protection of nature between the four countries.
“We need ambitious legislation with binding targets to not only halt nature’s decline but secure its recovery. And we need that legislation now.”
Government spending on conservation has decreased in recent years.
In 2019/20, £360m of public money was spent on protecting biodiversity, down nearly a third from its peak in 2013.
Nida Al-Fulaij, conservation research manager at People’s Trust for Endangered Species, said: “Our biodiversity is already impoverished compared with most other countries, and yet populations continue to plummet.
"Hedgehogs, once common and also voted the nation’s favourite mammal, have declined by a staggering 50% in the countryside since 2000.
"At this time of biodiversity crisis, government needs to increase spending and tighten legal protection so we don’t risk this crisis spiralling out of control."