The Environment Agency (EA), a body under the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has published a study showing that since 1970, 41% of England's native species have significantly declined, with 15% now at serious risk of extinction.
The report warns that this biodiversity loss could severely impact global ecosystems, affecting other species in the food chain, and could ultimately threaten human survival.
EA chief warns of human impact
In a speech unveiling the report, EA chief executive Sir James Bevan emphasised the link between a flourishing natural environment and the provision of clean water, high-quality soil and essential carbon storage that humans depend on.
Addressing the Green Alliance think tank in London, he said: "The biodiversity crisis is a crisis because it won't just kill the plants and animals, it will kill us too. That's because nature is indivisible and interdependent - nature provides us with a host of things we depend upon, such as clean water, clean air and food."
Alarming decline in key species
According to the EA's study, titled Working with Nature - Chief Scientists Group Report, a quarter of mammals in England are at risk of extinction. Meanwhile, populations of priority mammal, bird, butterfly and moth species, previously identified as the most endangered and in need of conservation action, have decreased by 61%.
In his address, Sir Bevan referenced the 1962 publication Silent Spring by American author Rachel Carson, which is credited with sparking the modern environmental movement and ultimately leading to a nationwide US ban on the pesticide DDT.
Closer to a 'silent spring'
Sir Bevan's address said: "On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh. Sixty years on we are closer than ever to that silent spring happening."
He added: "Since we humans and everything we cherish depends on nature, we have the strongest possible interest in avoiding that outcome."
Hope for restoration
Sir Bevan stressed that hope remains for restoring natural environments, highlighting Government schemes to rewild large areas of countryside across the UK.
The EA chief pointed to Steart Marshes on the Severn Estuary, a significant working wetland that protects 100,000 properties from flooding while providing habitat for hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species. In total, the EA rejuvenated 1,100 hectares of natural habitat during 2021-22.
