Name: Wiltshire politicians given five challenges to help wildlife in county
Brand: swindonadvertiser.co.uk
SKU: swindonadvertiser-co-uk-7
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Wiltshire politicians given five challenges to help wildlife in county

preview

EnvironmentLocal governmentNational governmentSwindonShareNational and local politicians have been challenged by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to do more to restore the county, and the country’s, natural habitats to reverse an alarming drop in the number of wild creatures.The State of Nature report, published by wildlife organisations including the wildlife trust, shows one in six species is now at risk of being lost from Great Britain, that the wildlife studied has, on average, declined by 19 per cent since monitoring began in 1970 and that most important habitats are in poor condition.And the Wiltshire and Swindon Biological Records Centre, which is hosted by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, recently identified 133 species as ‘critically important’ in Wiltshire.These ranged from still common, but much declined species, such as hedgehogs and toads, to much scarcer species such as curlew and the Duke of Burgundy butterfly.Joanna Lewis, the chief executive of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust,&nbsp;said: “Wiltshire is famous for its sweeping chalk grasslands and globally rare chalk streams."Our precious chalk streams are a lifeline for threatened wildlife like water voles, which have suffered a 47 per cent decline in abundance in England between 1998 and 2016.“Wiltshire’s wild places and wildlife are under threat from pollution, habitat loss and our changing climate. However, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is working with nature-friendly farmers, to save our chalk streams and rescue iconic Wiltshire species like corn buntings and stone curlew.“We have the opportunity to achieve a Wilder Wiltshire, clean up our rivers and bring abundant nature back into our farmed landscape.“Unlocking the huge opportunities for nature-friendly farming and finance relies on strong and sustained Government leadership.“Nature recovery is crucial for our health and wellbeing, as well as the resilience of our farming system and the stability of our climate, and it’s up to our elected representatives to ensure that is reflected in policies ahead of the next election.”The trust has set politicians five objectives: bring back the UK’s lost wildlife by restoring at least 30 per cent of land and sea for nature by 2030; end river pollution and water scarcity, by halving nutrient pollution from farming, sewage and development by 2030; fund wildlife-friendly farming -&nbsp;the trust says the budget for nature-friendly farming should increase to at least £4.4 billion a year; enable healthy communities by supporting the creation of more green space in neighbourhoods, and fund and integrate green prescribing into community-based health services and enable all children to access outdoor learning opportunities; and tackle the climate emergency by protecting and restoring natural habitats, because peatlands, woodlands, and other wild places store carbon.EnvironmentLocal governmentNational governmentSwindonShareWe want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.Please report any comments that break our rules.Read the rules herePlease sign in or register to comment.Send your news &amp; photosLoading...Loading...Automatically injected HTML goes herePiano meter debuggerData returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event.As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.

EnvironmentLocal governmentNational governmentSwindonShareNational and local politicians have been challenged by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to do more to restore the county, and the country’s, natural habitats to reverse an alarming drop in the number of wild creatures.The State of Nature report, published by wildlife organisations including the wildlife trust, shows one in six species is now at risk of being lost from Great Britain, that the wildlife studied has, on average, declined by 19 per cent since monitoring began in 1970 and that most important habitats are in poor condition.And the...

Wiltshire politicians given five challenges to help wildlife in county

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS