The State of Nature in the UK: A Call to Action

The UK, like many other countries worldwide, has faced a significant loss of biodiversity.

While the trends in nature presented here cover at most the past 50 years, these changes build on major shifts in the UK's natural landscape over previous centuries.

Consequently, the UK is now considered one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth.

Summary of Key Issues

The main causes of biodiversity declines in the UK are well understood, as are many methods to reduce impacts and aid struggling species.

Evidence from the last 50 years shows that on land and in freshwater, significant changes in agricultural land management and climate change are having the most significant impacts on wildlife.

At sea and around our coasts, unsustainable fishing practices, climate change, and marine development are the primary pressures on nature.

Growing Recognition and Need for Action

There has been a growing recognition of the value of nature, including its role in addressing climate change, among the public and policymakers.

Despite progress in ecosystem restoration, species conservation, and moving towards nature-friendly land and sea use, the UK's nature and wider environment continue to decline and degrade.

The UK has set ambitious targets to address nature loss through the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Although our understanding of how to achieve these goals is excellent, the scale and pace of the response and investment are insufficient given the magnitude of the crisis.

Understanding the State of Nature

We have never had a better understanding of the state of nature and what is needed to fix it.

The UK's peatlands are a prime example. These peatlands are an enormous carbon store, but three-quarters are damaged or degraded, releasing the equivalent of 5% of the UK's greenhouse emissions each year.

Restoring peatlands and other systems to protect their existing carbon stores will improve our resilience to current climate change, help mitigate future changes, and boost nature.

Protecting and Restoring Natural Systems

Protecting and restoring healthy, functioning natural systems is essential, not only for nature's sake but for people as well.

The good news is that there are decades of successful conservation practices to draw upon, and for many habitats and species, there is detailed evidence of what actions work.

Research suggests that urgent action can reverse some of the biodiversity loss and damage of recent decades.

To halt and reverse biodiversity decline, we need not only to increase our efforts towards conservation and restoration but also to tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss, especially in relation to our food system.

This means making our food production more sustainable and nature-friendly and adjusting our consumption to reduce demand for products that drive the loss of nature.

The Role of Society

All of society needs to be involved in efforts to halt biodiversity loss.

Encouragingly, as the recently launched People's Plan for Nature shows, many people in the UK are deeply committed to protecting and restoring nature.

The Case for Nature

Pollinating insects, for instance, are worth millions of pounds to UK agriculture.

In the UK, we have a wealth of data to assess the state of nature, primarily from volunteer-based species monitoring and recording schemes.

These data include abundance metrics from structured monitoring schemes for birds, mammals, butterflies, moths, and marine fish, and distribution data from biological recording datasets for a variety of taxonomic groups.

Measuring the State of Nature

For many species, distribution is the most appropriate way to measure status.

Changes in distribution can tell us a lot about the species and the pressures on their habitats. While change in distribution does not indicate a shift in a species' range, it provides valuable information on the proportion of occupied sites.

Many of the same monitoring and recording datasets used in this report also underpin official UK and UK country biodiversity indicators, which are published annually for groups including birds, butterflies, and mammals.

Conclusion

Change in abundance and change in distribution are different measures of the state of nature.

Changes in these two measures are often related, though changes in abundance are likely to be detected sooner and be of greater magnitude than changes in distribution.

The term 'wildlife' in this report encompasses all living organisms in their many forms, from mammals to lichens, plants to birds, fungi to invertebrates.

As we continue to improve our monitoring of change, our understanding of the state of nature in the UK grows.

Now is the time to act on this knowledge and invest in the future of our natural environment for the benefit of all.

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