Nature needs government help to save species from the brink

Ben Barnett

Government action is desperately needed if dramatic declines of native wildlife species are to be reversed and some even saved from extinction, a group of some of the country’s leading conservationists has warned.

The new State of Nature report published today claims that more than half of UK species have suffered declines in recent years and more than one in ten species are under threat of extinction. 

Conservationists in Yorkshire have highlighted how species that rely on the region’s uplands and coastal areas for vital habitats are at particular risk.

Nationally, huge losses of bird species have been recorded over the past few decades, including seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes and other birds found in-land such as curlews, lapwings and hen harriers that should be thriving in Yorkshire.

Nationally, 33 per cent fewer curlews and 26 per cent fewer lapwings were recorded between 1995 and 2014.

In Yorkshire, there have been no reports of breeding hen harriers for around a decade, according to the RSPB.

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