It’s not too late to save UK nature but we must act now - that is the conclusion from a coalition of more than 50 leading wildlife and research organisations, including Cornwall Wildlife Trust, behind the State of Nature 2016 report issued today.

Following on from the ground-breaking State of Nature report in 2013, leading professionals from 53 wildlife organisations have pooled expertise and knowledge to present the clearest picture to date of the status of our native species across land and sea.

The report reveals that over half (56%) of UK species studied have declined since 1970, while more than one in ten (1,199 species) of the nearly 8,000 species assessed in the UK are under threat of disappearing from our shores altogether. 

In Cornwall, partnership working between conservation organisations and farmers has achieved improvements of river and wetland habitats and created farm ponds and new wet woodland for the benefit of wildlife and to improve water quality .  

Progress has been made in our understanding of Cornwall’s marine environment thanks to intensive survey and mapping work. 

Prof Jan Pentreath, the Cornwall Wildlife Trust President, who was previously the Chief Scientist of the Environment Agency and the Government’s independent zoological advisor to the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee said: ’This Report again stresses the essential role of the local county wildlife trusts in halting and reversing the continuing decline in the variety and quantity of wildlife across the UK.

’We in Cornwall are on the front line with regard to protecting many of the critical areas highlighted in the report – from dolphins and basking sharks to maerl beds and sea grass communities. On land we continue to expand our own set of nature reserves to act as vital havens in threatened areas, acquiring critical tracts of land as funds become available.

’We also work continually to create more habitats across Cornwall generally.  And, just as importantly, the Cornwall Wildlife Trust enables large numbers of volunteers to work alongside professionals in recording both common and rare species, as well as labouring hard to restore their habitats.’