The rainforests are being systematically destroyed, Sumatran tigers are being hunted to extinction and the oceans are being overfished into oblivion – but at least we’re looking after the wildlife in our little corner of the planet.
Or are we?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that destruction of species and habitats only happens ‘out there’. But a new study suggests that we’ve got problems on our own doorstep that we can’t ignore.
It’s the most comprehensive study of wildlife protection that has ever been carried out in Europe and it makes for grim reading. The European Commission report released this week assesses the state of more than 1,000 threatened species and hundreds of vital habitats across the 25 member states of the European Union.
The report concludes that wildlife in North West Europe – northern Portugal to western Denmark, via the UK - is in a perilous position. In fact in Britain alone only six per cent of threatened habitats and just 23 per cent of threatened species are deemed to be in ‘favourable condition’.
An example of is the fact that the UK has lost three quarters of its lowland heathland – home to nightjars, natterjack toads and smooth snakes. We’re left with an area a third the size of Dorset – and this makes up 20 per cent of all the world’s lowland heathland.
As well as the same threats conservationists have been concerned about for decades – agriculture, pollution and development – there’s also the new spectre of climate change which is emerging as a growing danger to wildlife.
We can read this report as a big fat ‘could do better’ scrawled in red ink across our countryside – and perhaps it will make us realise that if we ant to save the world we can start right here in our own backyard.