{"id":16550,"date":"2022-06-09T14:55:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T12:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=16550"},"modified":"2022-06-09T17:17:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:17:19","slug":"life-loss-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/06\/09\/life-loss-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Life, loss and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With many of the UK\u2019s plant and animal species threatened with extinction because of human actions, it\u2019s easy to feel downhearted. In his new book, Peter Marren<\/strong> explores our complex role as both predator and <\/em>protector of the natural world \u2013 and reveals that none of us are powerless <\/p>\n\n

\n\n

E<\/span>xtinction is in the air. Climate rebels have blocked roads and bridges, and glued themselves to the tarmac in extinction\u2019s name. But whose extinction exactly? The natural world\u2019s or our own? <\/strong> Extinction is, of course, a natural process. <\/p>\n\n

Without it, life on Earth would still be primordial slime. Extinction gets us all in the end; 99% of every life form that ever existed is extinct, just as every species living today will also fail, one day. You might say that, biologically speaking, death is just as important as life. For endings are also beginnings. The death of one species may be an opportunity for another. Life moves on and, on the whole, it is onwards and upwards: better, brighter, faster.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

All the same, the pace of extinction has now accelerated, and this time the cause isn\u2019t volcanoes or meteorites or continental drift. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cExtinction gets us all in the end; 99% of every life form that ever existed is extinct\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

It\u2019s us. We need the space occupied by other species for our own fast-growing numbers. <\/p>\n\n

We have also managed, inadvertently, to change the climate, and the natural cycles of the planet. In order that we may thrive, other species may have to go under. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
One of Britain\u2019s rarest wildflowers, the ghost orchid hovers on the brink of extinction, making fleeting appearances decades apart. It was last seen in 2009 after an absence of 22 years. Sightings are restricted to the Chilterns and Welsh Borders <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

But, if so, which ones? If, as they say, we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of life on <\/p>\n\n

Earth, where are the bodies? It\u2019s a good question. Britain, for instance, is said to be one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, but how many recently extinct species can you name? Our big animals, such as the wolf and wild cattle, absented themselves a long time ago. <\/p>\n\n

It was partly this absence of examples, at least in the non-specialist media, that led me to write After <\/em>They\u2019ve <\/em>Gone, <\/em>my own take on extinction here and around the world. <\/p>\n\n

Extinction is, of course, tragic, especially when it is avoidable, but you have to admit it\u2019s also fascinating. It\u2019s a kind of lottery: who will win and who will lose? Can we stop it? Can we predict future extinctions and then do something about preventing them? <\/p>\n\n

Conservation has become a powerful force in our world, and undoubtedly it has saved many species from a premature end, both locally, nationally and globally. At the very least, we have decelerated the process. Take wildflowers in Britain. The number of known extinctions of native species is around a dozen. That\u2019s faster than the natural rate of extinction, but it\u2019s still relatively trivial. We aren\u2019t protesting at the loss of the hairy spurge. We aren\u2019t petitioning to bring back the swine\u2019s succory. What is far more alarming is the much larger number of species that are threatened with extinction nationally. It amounts to almost a third of our entire flora. Some of these flowers are \u2018critically endangered\u2019, meaning that, unless action is taken, they will likely disappear for good. <\/p>\n\n

POSITIVE INTERVENTION <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Action certainly has been taken. Many of our rarest species now have action plans attached to them to try and prevent further loss and, if possible, increase their numbers to a more sustainable level. In the case of our most glamorous rare plants, the orchids, such action has included artificial pollination, laboratory based cultivation, chickenwire, plant pots and high fences. Sometimes you have to wonder whether this kind of intensive care hasn\u2019t resulted in something closer to a plant nursery than a nature reserve. <\/p>\n\n

Hence saving a species in this way might involve removing it from a purely natural state into our own world of micro-planning and management. The return of the red kite is rightly hailed as a spectacular success, but how was it achieved? By taking birds from their nests in Spain, Sweden and Germany, rearing them up like chickens, and releasing them in places carefully chosen by us. They are now effectively urban birds, dependent on roadkill and scraps. We have certainly saved the kite but, you have to ask, how \u2018wild\u2019 are they now? And does it matter?<\/span><\/p>\n\n

I think it does, because its wildness is surely a species\u2019 birthright, its \u2018otherness\u2019. Some of the solutions offered for saving species involve technology, even cutting-edge technology, which ineluctably draws an animal or plant away from its natural surroundings into our own, highly artificial world. The solution, surely, is one that has not been sufficiently emphasised in recent years. To leave enough natural habitat for a full biodiversity to function, away from us, without our help. <\/p>\n\n

At COP26 in Glasgow last year, most nations signed up to a United Nations target of protecting 30% of the land and oceans from development, by 2030. Otherwise we may face, in the UN\u2019s words, \u201ccatastrophic nature loss\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

CREATING A BETTER FUTURE <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Granted that our record on achieving biodiversity targets has had a near 100% failure rate, saving a third portion of the Earth for wildlife in the face of climate change and human development is a mighty ask. To achieve it, I think we would need to become a different kind of animal. Bear in mind that we aren\u2019t the good guys here. We might be individually lovable, but in ecological terms, as a species, Homo <\/em>sapiens <\/em>is a super-predator, an outbreak, a wrecker of ecosystems. We change the world. We might be the solution but we are also the cause. <\/p>\n\n

Hope lies in the way that we are indeed, in some ways, a changed species. We are better informed and more engaged and, above all, conscious of the fact that the future of life on Earth is also our future. Extinction has come to matter to us, even though, at the scale of a lifetime, we may hardly be aware of it happening. <\/p>\n\n

We aren\u2019t powerless. The UN target was accepted by the world because enough people care, and make their views known. By doing something about our own lives, reducing our carbon footprints and supporting the greenest policies, we are exercising our right to shape the future. We can turn hope into a belief. <\/p>\n\n

Dum spiro spero <\/em>\u2013 the Romans always get the best lines \u2013 \u2018while I breathe, I hope\u2019. Extinction is final \u2013 the most final thing of all. Avoiding it is a vote for life, for continuity and for a better, greener future. <\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Peter Marren is a naturalist living in Wiltshire. His new book, <\/span>After <\/em>They\u2019ve <\/em>Gone: <\/em>Extinctions <\/em>Past, <\/em>Present <\/em>and <\/em>Future, <\/em>is published by Hodder, \u00a314.99 (HB).<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

SAVED FROM EXTINCTION <\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Without action, all these species would probably be extinct in the UK <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HIGH BROWN FRITILLARY <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our most endangered butterfly was once widespread but is now confined to a handful of areas in the west. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIM <\/strong>To build up numbers to a more sustainable level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPS <\/strong>Site management, including mowing and coppicing, works to produce a mosaic of scrub, bracken and grass, plus a profusion of violets on which the caterpillars feed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESULT <\/strong>Increased numbers have been observed on a limited number of protected sites. Other species benefit, including the similarly endangered pearl-bordered fritillary. The results are promising, but it is not yet out of danger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

VENDACE <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone from both former sites in Scotland, our rarest freshwater fish is now confined to two cold, deep lakes in Cumbria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIM <\/strong>To improve water quality in the lakes and provide safe refuges elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPS <\/strong>Phosphates are stripped from the lakes\u2019 waters, state-of-the-art acoustic monitoring tracks the fish and the species has been translocated into five secure sites in Northern England and Scotland in an effort to expand its range. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESULT <\/strong>There has been partial success at refuge sites and a rise in numbers at one of its native sites. Although population numbers have increased, it is still threatened by climate change and competition from introduced fish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CIRL BUNTING <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once widespread in southern England and Wales, this perky relative of the yellowhammer is now confined to South Devon. By 1989, it was down to 120 pairs and critically endangered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIM <\/strong>To restore bunting-friendly landscapes in Devon and then translocate colonies elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPS <\/strong>Working through agri-environment scheme and with local landowners, conservationists are restoring traditional hedgerows, tussocky field margins and spring-sown cereals. Populations are monitored in spring and autumn by volunteers, and there has been a successful translocation to Cornwall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESULT <\/strong>At the last full survey there were nearly 1,000 pairs in Devon, a tenfold increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LADY\u2019S SLIPPER <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibly our most glamorous wildflower, and certainly one of the rarest. By the 1980s, it was down to just two plants, both in northern England. Until then, its sole protection had been secrecy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIM <\/strong>To ensure self-sustaining colonies on protected land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPS <\/strong>Garden plants of wild origin have been identified by state-of-the-art genetic markers. The artificial cross-pollination of these plants increases genetic diversity, followed by in situ raising of the plants in the lab for planting out in secure locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESULT <\/strong>Many of the transplants have succeeded and several sites (though not the original locations) are now open to the public. It is not out of danger yet, but its survival chances are much improved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POOL FROG <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much confused with the introduced edible frog, the loud-croaking pool frog was no sooner recognised as a native species than it disobligingly died out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AIM <\/strong>To reintroduce the species within its historic range. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPS <\/strong>Genetically similar frogs have been identified in Sweden, with \u2018head-started\u2019 tadpoles reared and froglets released into two prepared UK ponds, including the original site. Monitoring and health surveillance includes post-mortems of dead frogs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESULT <\/strong>The population target has been surpassed on the two sites. Further expansion should secure its survival. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photos: Alamy, Getty, Naturepl.com <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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