RSPB calls for action to save wildlife

THE face of Britain’s countryside could be altered forever if work is not done now to arrest the decline of UK wildlife, it is claimed today.

The RSPB is calling on the whole country to help protect the nation’s birds, plant and animal populations in what it describes as the most ambitious campaign in its 122-year history.

The campaign has been backed by Defra Secretary Caroline Spelman who will speak at its launch today and is launched following the failure of world Governments to meet a global target to tackle wildlife decline.

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RSPB bosses claim that nearly three-quarters of the country’s rivers are failing European standards and in 60 years we have lost 95 per cent of our wild-flower meadows

Some of the country’s native birds including cuckoos, house sparrows and nightingales are in sharp decline while the society claims that one in five wild flowers are threatened with extinction.

RSPB chief executive Mike Clarke said: “When we missed the 2010 biodiversity target we failed nature. We can’t let that happen again.

“Over the next decade we have the opportunity to fix the problems that are causing the loss of wildlife in the UK and across the world. We have a choice here, and if our politicians make the right choices then we can create a space for nature in our countryside, ensure vital habitats are not lost and bring back those species on the brink.”

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The campaign will urge the EU to introduce measures to halt decline of farmland wildlife, as well as call for the creation of marine protected areas in our seas, and press for legislation which protects places of ecological value.

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