The response to a lost decade of wildlife cannot be more of the same

For millions of us trapped at home earlier this year, nature probably never sounded louder: blackbirds singing with no cars to drown them out, blue tits busying themselves about their nests, and the gentle hum of bees in the garden. It kept us going when we needed it most.  

The reality, of course, is that nature is facing a crisis of its own and our springs are falling silent. Over 40 million birds have vanished from UK skies in the last 50 years, and just last week the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reported that global wildlife populations have fallen by two-thirds since 1970.    

Phrases like “wake-up call” have little meaning any more. Australia, the Amazon, the Arctic and California have all been ablaze; temperatures are rising and glaciers are melting. Closer to home, populations of turtle doves, nightingales and swifts are all in freefall.  

A decade ago, the world signed up to something called the Aichi Targets – 20 targets to save our natural world. This week we’ll get the final report, and unsurprisingly we expect it to show that we've collectively failed to make any real progress. Yet again.  

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) believes that the UK may have met as few as three of the 20 targets it agreed to a decade ago, and our analysis shows that in six areas, including protection of sites and species, the UK has gone backwards.    

How our government responds and whether it truly grasps the scale of the challenge to revive our world over the coming years is going to be crucial, not just for wildlife and for people in the UK, but around the world.  

Scientists agree that the destruction of natural habitats and the trade in wild animals have increased the risk of disease outbreaks like Covid-19. They have also made it clear that without action to protect and restore nature, we have no chance of controlling climate change or adapting to its impacts.    

The UK government, as host of the UN climate summit in Glasgow next year, has already expressed its ambition to be a global leader in the fight to save nature and to drive forward what are known as nature-based solutions to climate change, such as creating native woodlands and restoring peat bogs to store carbon, or creating wetlands to protect communities from flooding.  

These are the all-too-rare success stories from around the world, that if scaled up rapidly over the next decade could address the climate crisis, halt the crisis facing nature and put it – and us – on a path to recovery by 2030. There are suggestions that the prime minister himself is expected to repeat these pledges at a UN summit later this month.  

As world leaders plan to agree a new set of what are, quite frankly, last-chance-saloon targets for nature in 2021, the UK government’s level of commitment towards its own wildlife is going to be crucial. Without action at home, there is no chance of inspiring a credible global effort.    

Does the fate of our climate and our natural world therefore rest with Boris Johnson, his cabinet and the collective leadership of the four countries of the UK? In no small part, it does.  

We need to spur the government on towards real leadership at home and on the international stage, and ensure that the next decade is not again lost to inaction.  

We believe that there are some simple steps that need to happen now if we are going to make the next 10 years count. We should back the call for protecting 30 per cent of our land and sea for nature by 2030, and we should enshrine this in law with other targets to restore populations of wild species. To achieve these goals, we also need to act now on scandals such as the continued burning of heather on our precious peat bogs.    

Above all, the governments of the world, and particularly those of the UK, need to demonstrate how a new set of global targets will genuinely make a difference this time. This includes transforming the way we farm and fish, the way we generate electricity, and the way we plan the built environment. It also means providing the funding to deliver for nature at a meaningful scale in the upcoming comprehensive spending review.  

Now is the time to turn promises about global environmental leadership into action. The response to a lost decade for nature cannot be more of the same. We have to grasp the opportunity to revive our world and it has to be now.    

Beccy Speight is chief executive at the RSPB

RSPB’s Revive Our World campaign is pushing for legally binding targets to restore nature and a green recovery across all governments of the UK. Go to RSPB.org.uk/ReviveOurWorld to join the call for action