Despite their pretty appearance, the UK’s woodlands, wetlands and wildflower meadows are in a poor ecological state.
The countryside. For me – in the rain-soaked, semi-industrial corner of the north of England I call home – this term brings to mind rolling green hills peppered with sheep, zig-zagged by hedgerows and a delightfully chaotic maze of drystone walls.
But this idealised scene has been recently rocked by a difficult truth: despite appearances, the UK countryside is an ecosystem that’s in trouble. Serious trouble.
Our natural spaces, and the wildlife that depends on them, are in decline, according to the recent State of Nature report, a major review of plant and animal life across the UK. In fact, almost 1,500 native species are now threatened with extinction. Worst still, just 11 per cent of UK land is within protected areas, some of which are not adequately managed for wildlife.
The government has signed up to a target of improving on that last figure, setting a goal of protecting 30 per cent of land for nature by 2030, the so-called ’30×30′ target. But sadly, nature does not respond to targets alone.
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The hidden problem with the UK’s protected countryside
Quite simply, many ‘protected’ areas in the UK are not up to ecological scratch, according to the British Ecological Society.
Pollution, the spread of non-native species and unsustainable farming practices – including large amounts of pesticide use and overgrazing – within protected areas are continuing to drive the loss of biodiversity, they say.
With around 70 per cent of land in England being farmed, the link between agriculture and ongoing biodiversity loss is strong. Farmland birds in the UK are being hit the hardest: a study carried out in 2022 found that since 1970, 26 per cent of species have seen a strong decline.
One study of biodiversity in the British Uplands and highlands even referred to sheep as “woolly maggots” that were eating the heart out of the landscape. The research revealed that sheep grazing reduced the number of plant species, with such grasslands taking up to 60 years to recover.
So, what steps can be taken to revive our countryside? According to the British Ecological Society, designating more areas as ‘protected’ isn’t a solution if these regions don’t show signs of long-term recovery. Instead, they argue we need to make a concerted effort to monitor and understand the land’s ecological value.
Doing so will require adequate money and resources. RSPB conservation-science head Prof Richard Gregory told me that to really tackle the drivers of nature’s decline the figure will be “billions, not millions of pounds”. But the future societal cost of continuing to allow the environment to degrade would be much greater.
How UK wildlife can recover
One of the biggest drivers of nature loss in the UK is unsustainable farming. This raises a fundamental quandary: we need land to produce food, but we also need it to sustain the plants that clean our air, the peatlands that lock away planet-warming carbon and the insects that enrich our soils and pollinate our crops.
The job for UK farmers, in a changing climate with a growing demand for food, is unenviable. But the ongoing biodiversity loss shows that agricultural methods need to change.
There are networks of farmers called the Nature Friendly Farming Network, all over the country working together to make more space for wildlife. But some scientists argue that we need to take much more ambitious approaches. These include:
Land sparing
Andrew Balmford from the University of Cambridge has spent 20 years studying how to reconcile food production with biodiversity. He says a concept called ‘land sparing’ could be the answer.
This basically involves restoring or creating woodland or grassland habitats within existing agricultural landscapes, while adopting sustainable ways to boost food production in the areas that continue to be farmed.
New rewilding projects
So-called ‘rewilding’ projects undertaken across the country have had some dramatic effects.
More than 600km² (150,000 acres) of the Cairngorms, in the Scottish Highlands, had been restored for woodland-dependent wildlife. Since 2019, the project has overseen the plantation of native Scots pine trees and other native woodland, plus the restoration of peatland and floodplains, which all encourage the environment to return to a more ecologically viable state.
And in the Knepp estate in West Sussex, rewilding efforts over the last several years have seen a huge uptick in the numbers of critically endangered birds such as nightingales and turtle doves, along with peregrine falcons, ravens, red kites, sparrowhawks and lesser-spotted woodpeckers.
Supporting green spaces in cities
Rethinking our towns and cities can also play a crucial role, with seemingly small changes making a significant difference.
For example, according to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, missions to make gardens more ‘hedgehog friendly’, primarily by punching holes in fences to connect gardens to a network of habitats, have helped stabilise and even boost numbers of the native mammals in urban areas.
Another study, carried out by researchers at the University of Bristol, has shown that city gardens and allotments can become hotspots for pollinating insects.
But there is much more to be done. Sadly, when it comes to our countryside, beautiful doesn’t mean biodiverse. If nature is going to thrive, and we need it to, we’ll have to start looking more closely.
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