Britain’s on brink of an ecological apocalypse
...but now YOU can help halt it
THREAT Our story on wildlife at risk
The UK’s wildlife is in big trouble. Swathes of the countryside are absolutely bereft of any kind of creatures, empty like deserts.
We’ll all go out to nature reserves for a day trip – treating them like museums and art galleries. We see lots of life there, but on the way home we drive through the wider countryside where there is nothing left.
We’re close to an ecological apocalypse and in some places it’s already happened.
Yesterday, we read how at least one in five mammals in Britain could become extinct due to threats such as disease and loss of habitat.
They’re at risk because of diseases introduced by humans or other animals, or losing habitats such as ancient woodlands, again because of humans.
Many British species are in critical, precipitous decline. We are in danger of losing some of our best-known birds and animals, even facing the extinction of turtle doves and cuckoos.
A couple of weekends ago I was in my garden – I’ve got a wild flower garden and I’m lucky to live in the countryside, but all that day I didn’t see a single butterfly.
Nor have I heard a cuckoo around my home in a very long time and I live in the middle of the New Forest, a national park. One day, I just thought to myself, “Hold on, this isn’t right.”
These are creatures that are not only of conservation importance, but of cultural importance. Cuckoos are the symbol of spring, turtle doves are in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas.
What will it be like when kids are singing, “On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree,” at school and there aren’t any left?
It’s not just about me and my birdie mates getting upset about rare birds – we’re talking about our national heritage.
For years, I’ve been reciting the statistics such as a 95 per cent decline in turtle doves and 56 per cent decline in yellowhammers, having conversations about the loss of our natural habitats and the loss of species.
I can trot these figures out all day, and people have got used to hearing them – but we seem to have forgotten what they actually mean. They mean our countryside is a green and unpleasant land. Aside from grass and crops, there’s not much living there.
When I was younger, I could walk out into a very tiny housing estate in Southampton where I grew up as a boy and find 25 different species of butterfly.
That was in the 1970s. Now, I go out into a national park even, age 56, and there is nothing there. This is for a multitude of reasons. Climate change, agricultural intensification, building development, road expansion schemes, housing. They are all playing a role.
But we can build roads and houses, we can farm the land, and still have wildlife.
We still have the ability to fix it. The most important thing is to realise every one of us can make a difference.
We can help by feeding our birds, making gardens a better place for wildlife or by gettting involved in campaigns to promote the care of our countryside.
Caring alone is not enough any more – we’ve got to take action.
That’s why I am going on a “Bioblitz” of the UK to conduct an audit of the countryside’s health.
This will help measure the rise and fall in numbers of different species in the future. With a team of experts, people who know their area and know the reserve or site we’re visiting, we will cover five sites a day across Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales over 10 days to see how many types of livings things – plants as well as animals – we can clock up as we travel around.
It won’t necessarily be the glamorous ones like butterflies, birds and mammals, but all the little creatures too, the flies, spiders, all the stuff that gets overlooked.
On the way we will be visiting and taking a look at road verges, farmland, parks, allotments and community nature reserves.
We are doing this because there is a tragedy taking place in our countryside and it’s time we said, “We want our wildlife back!”
If our ecosystems become nonfunctional, the soil won’t produce food, the trees won’t grow and we’ll all be in trouble.
Nature reserves are simply not enough. We should all be saying, “This isn’t good enough.”
We want young people to be inspired, to get out into nature and connect with it.
The most frustrating thing is we have the ability to repair, restore and reinstate these animals.
Wildlife should be everywhere, not only in nature reserves.
We need to act now, before it is too late.
For more information on how you can join Chris on his Bioblitz, visit: www.chrispackham.co.uk/ chris-packhams-uk-bioblitz-2018