UK's Butterflies 2015
This report, the fourth on the state of the UK’s butterflies, comes at a time of particularly dramatic change. Agricultural intensification and other land-use changes have caused extensive wildlife declines in the UK, which show few signs of recovery despite the best efforts of conservation organisations and substantial government expenditure.
Now, in the age of austerity and with drastic cutbacks in government funding for the environment, the prospects of halting the decline of wildlife and achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set by the global Convention on Biological Diversity for the year 2020 look poor.
In addition, new research findings suggest more significant negative impacts of climate change and pesticides on our wildlife than had previously been realised, threats to essential ecosystem services such as pollination as a result of biodiversity decline, and an increased awareness of the importance of nature for human health and well-being.
Set against this bleak backdrop are some significant changes for the good. Participation in long-term recording and monitoring of the UK’s butterflies has never been stronger. In addition, new schemes such as the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey and Big Butterfly Count have been successfully established, enhancing knowledge of the changing fortunes of our butterflies and involving tens of thousands of new recorders.
Download the whole report here.
For a related, though rather different, read try Michael McCarthy's The Moth Snowstorm.
McCarthy warns us off ecosystem services and reminds us of the joy of nature.
The 'snowstorm' of the title refers to the masses of moths that motorist used to encounter at night 40 years ago, now but a distant memory.
Another brilliant and beautiful book of loss is Horatio Clare's Orison for a Curlew, the search for the Slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, perhaps the world's rarest bird.
More than rare in Lincolnshire, but with signs of recovery elsewhere in the British Isles, is the Pine Marten, Martes martes. The realisation that reintroduction of Pine Martens could tip the balance against grey squirrels in favour of reds is encouraging to those who look to a re-wilding of our land. Follow these links for the story:
- George Monbiot -How to eradicate grey squirrels without firing a shot
- Emma Sheehy - Pine martens' return could bring a red squirrel resurgence
- Vincent Wildlife - Pine Marten Recovery Project
- Fleet Basin Pine Marten Project
Happy Christmas, Biff Vernon