The 5^th June is World Environment Day It’s time #ForNature

Colombia is the host nation

This year, the global host is Colombia.  The country is home to 51,000 species with the largest variety of birds and orchids in the world.  It ranks second in diversity of plants, butterflies, freshwater fish and amphibians and they flourish in over 300 types of ecosystems, some of which are in protected areas.   Find out more about Colombia here. 

We need nature

As the website points out, our food, air and water all come from nature.   And clearly we are living in times when nature is sending us a very strong message:

To care for ourselves, we must care for nature.  Or, as I like to put it, look after earth, and she will look after us.

We need to build back better for People and Planet.

Visit the website – there’s a lot to get involved with including a biodiversity quiz,

There’s a practical guide for individuals, faith groups, businesses, cities, governments, schools, universities, youth groups and civil society.  You can access it here.

Download the guide

Please at the very least, take time to read this tool kit.  Amongst other things, it explains that the five main drivers for biodiversity loss are:

Land-use change – our demand for food and resoruces are driving deforestation and destroying natural habitats world-wide. 

Over-explotation of plants and animals, from the large to the tiny, with fishing, logging and poaching threatening many speicies from the pangolin to the beluga sturgeon

Climate Emergency – our warming seas are melting sea ice, so affecting polar bears, seals and fishing birds.  Our coral reefs are in trouble.  One in six speices could be threatened with extinction by 2050 if warming trends continue.

How to help World Environment Day

• Learn – this is a great chance to find out about the wild species nad habitats we share the planet with.
• Share – why is it time #ForNature?  Share why you love our natural world. 
• Act – Act on what you’ve learn to help end biodiversity loss and th climate crisis.  Then we can give nature the chance to heal and ensure a better and healthier future for everyone.

There are plenty of ways we can all act as indivdiuals to save nature, from chainging our diet to travelling less, from leaving wild green spaces in our gardens so that pollinators and ground dwelling insects can thrive. We can stop using single-use plastics, and recycle as much as we can.  Grow your own (herbs on a window sill for instance, fruit bushes on a patio) and buy locally produced products and foods.

This report has steps groups can take to make a difference and they are worth exploring to see what you can do as a group.

There’s lots of help for schools as well.

Let's all stand up for nature

Some people will may drag their feet and complain.  Let them.  We cannot afford passengers now on this drive to look after nature.  We need to have the courage of our convictions and really start making a difference #ForNature.

Go wild this June!

Wildlife Trusts around the UK are encouraging us all to go wild every day this June, and they have plenty of ideas as to how you can do it.

The idea is that we all do one  Random Act of Wildness each day, and connect with nature and the natural world around you, or do something small to help nature. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the wildlife local to you and appreciate the wonders of the natural world.  

Each Random Act of Wildness doesn’t have to be particularly energetic, either.  Sitting under a tree listening to birdsong constitutes a wild act - which I did yesterday and I have to confess to having fallen asleep. Reading a nature book could be another.  Working out which bird is sitting on your fence could be another.  And of course helping nature could be another – putting a bird feeder up in your garden, creating a log pile, allocating an area where you’re going to let the weeds grow with abandon, or sow wildflowers. 

Go Wild for 30 days this June

Over 91,000 people have signed up so far to Go Wild in June.  

People of all ages can sign up so you can join in as a family, as a care home, as a business or as a school or group.   And it’s a chance to discover all about the wildlife your local Wildlife Trust is working to protect – and find out how you can help.   

There are 46 Wildlife Trusts in the UK, and they all have a range of activities you can get involved in, and lots of ways in which you can Go Wild this June.  You can sign up as yourself and family, or your class/school or your workplace.  

Click here to sign up. 

Click here for the Wildlife Trust's Covid-19 Statement

Find your local Wildlife Trust here

#Wildlife Trust  #wildlife  #endangeredspecies

The Marine Conservation Society wants to help vital seagrass around the south coast of England to recover. 

Seagrass exists in the shallow, sheltered waters around the UK’s coast.  It forms marine meadows and these are very productive ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots, with marine life such as the spiny seahorse and the short snouted seahorse.  And cuttlefish and sharks breed here.  They are also nurseries for Pollock, cod and plaice.

Support the Marine Conservation Society's Marine Meadow Appeal
Image copyright Marine Conservation Society

The climate is changing fast, and the impact is clear to see - bushfires, floods, storms, temperatures which are soring, melting ice sheets.  

Seagrass can help tackle the changing climate.  It is a flowering plant, and it lives underwater around the UK's coast in shallow, sheltered waters.  Crucially, it absorbs 10% of the carbon buried in ocean sediment every year - so it's a great weapon in tackling global warming.  The MCS says that it's estimated that seagrass around the UK shores can absorb and store at least as much carbon per hectare as trees in UK woodlands!

The problem is that a major threat to seagrass comes from traditional moorring methods - anchors and chais drag along the seabed.

If these traditional moorings can be repaced with advanced systems, where chains are raised off the seabed, it will be possible to regenerate marine meadows.  

The MCS has trialled these and discovered that they work!  So they want to expand it to five marine protected areas.  This will enable them to better lock in carbon and be a safe protected habitat for seahorses, cuttlefish and juvenile fish.

The Marine Conservation Society  needs to install advanced moorings to help replace damaging anchoring methods and let seagrass recover.   And they are asking for donations to help them do just that.

How appeal donations will help seagrass and seahorses

• £10 could help them replant 1 square meter of seagrass; 
• £20 could help divers monitor the recovery of seagrass beds where advanced mooring systems are installed.
• £30 could help them to cultivate 10,000 seagrass plants.
• £35 could help advise boaters, walkers and abait collectors on how to protect seagrass beds and other sensitive habits.
• £200 could help get old, damaging moorings in seagrass beds removed, ready for the new eco-friendly ones.

The Goal of the Appeal:

The goal is to raise £105,000 to install over 75 advanced moorings that will replace traditional, damaging anchoring methods and enable seagreass to recover.

Find out more and donate here.

WWT protects wetlands and wildlife.  They have a number of centres around the UK which in non-Covid-19 times you can visit.  As WWT says, if rainforest are the lungs of the planet, then wetlands are the lifeblood.  We all need wetlands to keep our water clean and to help protect against flooding, drought and pollution.  They are home to many different species and in the UK, they are home to 10% of all our species.  So they matter to people and animals.

EMERGENCY APPEAL:  WWT have launched an urgent appeal to help them continue their conservation work - like so many charities, their income has been badly affected by Covid-19.   You can donate here.

Among the UK's WWT centres, one is based in London. And a very Happy Anniversary to WWT London who celebrated 20 years on 26 May 2020!

The WWT has brought the countryside to London and the London Wetland Centre gives amazing peace and quiet to both wildlife and people.

The centre records 180 species of bird each year, including stunning kingfishers,  sand martins, wading birds, though the times of the year vary, of course. 

The centre is currently closed due to the coronavirus, but please take a few minutes to watch this film and enjoy.

You can visit the WWT London online here  

Why not become a member to give your support, or adopt an animal? 

Koalas Will Go Extinct If We Don't Stop Rampant Deforestation -

Please sign this petition to help them 

This petition is to the Government of Queensland, and Care2.com's The Petition Site is running it.

The koala could go extinct within our lifetime, according to researchers.   This is mainly because state governments have been much too lenient when it comes to clear-cutting in the koala's last remaining habitats.

For instance, between 2012 and 2016, five thousand koalas died becuase of habitat lost, and 94% of them died because of rural deforetation.   Koalas in Queensland are losing ground to huge stores and skyscapers thanks to the threat of new developments.  

Unfortunately, the previous premier rolled back tree-clearing laws. 

The new premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk is thinking about introducing new measures which would put an end to endless destruction of the koalas habitat.

This petition is about speaking up for koalas, being their voice, and asking the Palaszcuk government to pass new tree-clearing restrictions today.  The koalas can't speak up for themeslves - they have no voice.  We need to be their voice instead.

Please sign here to help koalas.