The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.
According to the WWF, one in seven native species in the UK face extinction, while half of all species in the UK are in decline. Further to that, 30% of our birds are threatened with extinction.
The State of Nature report in 2019 also highlighted the declined in the UK's nature, as more than a quarter of UK mammals were found to be facing extinction.
The two mammals most at risk of extinction are the Scottish Wildcat and the Greater Mouse-Eared Bat; both the Scottish Wildcat and Greater Mouse-Eared Bat are critically endangered today.
The Mammal Society published a red list for Britain's native mammals, which documents how Britain's mammals are fairing today.
The State of Nature Report in 2019 also found that wildlife in Scotland was declining faster than in any other part of the UK.
Half of Scotland's species were found to be declining. One of the animals particularly hit hardest in Scotland has been Moths, where the report found that 25% of all Moths have disappeared from Scotland. The main reason for the decline seems to be the destruction of habitats, particularly the destruction of habitats for development reasons and even for wind farms.
Wind farms have been causing deforestation.
Deforestation in Scotland is not only destroying beautiful forests, it is also a huge threat to the existence of the Scottish Wildcat, in 2018, it was said that wind farm expansion could 'wipe out a third of wildcats'. It's the destruction of the natural world like this that threatens our wildlife and could push them towards extinction.
The decline in our wildlife is happening across the UK.
Hedgehogs have seen a massive decline across the UK in the last few decades.
In 2018, it was reported that the Hedgehog population had declined by half in rural areas of Britain since 2000. This has lead to Hedgehogs in the UK being classed as vulnerable to extinction. If this decline continues to happen in rural areas, it could result in Hedgehogs possibly becoming extinct in rural areas within 20 years.
But, hope is not lost, a petition to help save Hedgehogs from extinction in the UK has been signed by over 100,000 people recently.
There are also other efforts to save Britain's wildlife, as a petition to save the Scottish Wildcats forest has also had almost 1 million people sign it.
The decline in wildlife has also resulted in the RSPB starting a petition. The petition is called 'Call For Nature's Recovery By 2030'. This petition calls on the UK government to help wildlife by turning around nature's decline. The petition calls on the UK government to reverse the decline in nature within England by 2030 - the environment and nature are devolved issues in the UK, meaning the the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and Northern Irish assembly are in charge of nature and environmental legislation.
The RSPB's petition is doing great so far; almost 85,000 people have signed the petition to call for nature's recovery by 2030. Please help the RSPB get it to 100,000 signatures, you can do this by signing the petition - here!
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