What is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you’ll find in one area—animals, plants, vegetation, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Each of these work together in ecosystems, to maintain balance and support life.
Biodiversity supports everything in nature that we need to survive, food, shelter, clean water, and medicine. As we humans put increasing pressure on the planet in our use and consumption of resources, we risk upsetting the balance of ecosystems and losing biodiversity. In fact, since 1970, there has been an almost 70% decline in the global populations of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians since 1970.
It’s estimated that over one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction—the highest number in human history.
Nature responds quickly when land is managed in a way that is more favourable to biodiversity. Everyone who manages land, whether is be a small garden, a large farm or public spaces, can greatly improve the landscape for biodiversity, by making small changes.
Here are 10 easy ways that our local environment can be improved to make space for biodiversity:
- Limit the use of pesticides
- Create a wetland
- Leave grassland unfertilised
- Plant native trees and scrubs
- Don’t cut raised bogs
- Let dandelions grow
- Maintain winter stubble
- Introduce biodiversity friendly mowing
- Retain hedgerows
- Don’t drain fields
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