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This year on National Meadows Day, we are campaigning for the protection of irreplaceable meadows – and we need your help!
Our wildflower meadows are a powerful ally in the fight against climate change – but they are in trouble!
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Our meadows have been part of our natural heritage for centuries and cared for by people for generations – but they are now more at risk than ever before.
We’re in the height of summer, with sun and ice cream on the mind, which must mean one thing – National Meadows Day is here! What better time to shine a light on these incredible habitats and take action to protect them.
Did you know that meadows have been part of our natural heritage for centuries? They have been cared for by people for generations and we cannot let them disappear.
How would you feel if someone knocked down an historical building like the Houses of Parliament, just to build it somewhere else? Or reduced Edinburgh Castle to rubble and created a lacklustre replica. It wouldn’t be the same, right?
The same applies to meadows, which are now more at risk than ever.
Without proper protections, the destruction of meadows is continuing across Britain. That’s why we’re calling for irreplaceable meadows to be added to the Irreplaceable Habitats list.
Meadows support a whole array of valuable wildlife. The unique interplay of geology, weather, and grazing animals have favoured particular communities of plants, which form relationships with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.
Layers and layers of soil have built over time in meadows, and are home to wiggling earthworms, busy insects, and a whole planet-worth of microbes.
The complex relationships between wildlife in meadows are finely balanced. For example, the Adonis Blue butterfly only feeds on Horseshoe Vetch. If this plant disappeared in a local area, so too would the butterfly.
This would then impact ants which have a reciprocal relationship with the butterfly, thus reducing food sources for birds – and so on.
These meadows are magnificent crucibles of life and cannot be recreated within a meaningful timeframe.
National Meadows Day, the first Saturday in July is the perfect time to celebrate the sweet-smelling, colourful cacophony of meadows. From the white froth of Meadowsweet, to purple pom-pom heads of Devil’s-bit Scabious straining to be seen.
While National Meadows Day is a celebration of the meadows that we have, it’s also a time to highlight all the meadows that have been lost.
The past century has seen them ploughed, over-fertilised, bulldozed for buildings, and destroyed by misplaced tree planting.
An estimated 97% of all of our meadows have been lost, many of these meadows are historic, irreplaceable meadows. Meadows that have been in our society and communities for centuries, unique habitats that has well-established ecosystems that we and nature relies on.
The remaining meadows that have clung on through the decades or centuries are the last bastions of our farming and cultural heritage. These meadows are truly irreplaceable and we want to protect them for the future.
To protect meadows, we’re calling for irreplaceable meadows to be added to the Irreplaceable Habitats List. But, what does this mean?
The UK Government has classed some habitats, like ancient woodlands and blanket bogs, as irreplaceable habitats. This means that they should have more protection in planning policy, where they can’t be harmed by development unless in exceptional circumstances.
In England, the UK Government is proposing sweeping changes to planning policy with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which puts our most beloved habitats and wildlife at risk of inappropriate development.
That’s why it’s more important than ever for these meadows to be recognised as irreplaceable habitats and get the protections they both deserve and need.
Governments must take action now. We’re calling for the UK Government to add irreplaceable meadows and grasslands to the list of irreplaceable habitats,
We also want to see the Scottish Government take this important step. While the Welsh Government has explicitly listed species-rich grasslands as a type of irreplaceable habitat, there’s still work to get Government to understand their value.
Help us make sure that irreplaceable meadows are not just a memory. Take action by:
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As the UK’s new government ministers settle into their new departments, we are calling for action to preserve and restore nature for wildlife, people and the climate.
What the government does in its first 100 days can pave the way for five years of new policy. By acting now to protect and restore nature, the government could transform the fortunes of wild plants and fungi.
We’ve sent a letter to the Secretary of State calling on the government to commit to a Grassland Action plan, establish a National Rainforest Fund, legislate to end peat sales and show global leadership in species recovery.
With 2 in 5 plant species at risk of extinction, biodiversity loss is now the fastest it’s ever been. This means our work has never been more vital.
We would like the new government to:
The ultimate multi-taskers, grasslands rich in wild plants and fungi can sequester and store carbon, clean our air and water, and produce sustainable food.
From farmland pastures to urban road verges – grasslands cover more than 40% of England’s land. Unlocking their economic and environmental benefits, as part of a circular economy, will support communities, local authorities and national agencies.
But the majority of our wildlife-rich grasslands have been destroyed and the losses are continuing.
We need the government to take a strategic approach, starting with the establishment of a Defra-led Grassland Taskforce to understand the social, economic & environmental potential of this national asset for people, the economy, nature and climate.
England’s temperate rainforests are of global importance, with the greatest concentration of oceanic lichens and mosses in Europe. These lower plants are ancient and pre-date humans, flowers and even dinosaurs.
But these habitats are rare, highly fragmented and facing multiple threats.
Whereas previous government plans to recover England’s temperate rainforests lacked ambition and commitment, we need a more far-reaching and detailed approach to help these precious habitats thrive.
Creating a National Rainforest Fund, to attract both private and public investment, will support long-term landscape-scale restoration, reduce external pressures and engage landowner and local communities in practical action.
Despite repeated commitments by the previous government, legislation to end peat sales is still not in place. Meanwhile, the harvesting of peat continues to destroy peatlands and their wildlife – releasing carbon and increasing flood risk.
There have been great strides in reducing peat use. Yet two-thirds of bagged compost sold in 2022 still contained some peat and total peat use for the year was 950,000m3.
With a fair, well-managed and supported transition, there is a bright, successful future ahead for a peat-free, sustainable horticultural industry. But legislation is required if this future is to be realised. To end the uncertainty that has plagued British horticulture for well over a decade and to protect our peatlands, we need to see this as a priority for the government’s legislative programme.
Fast forward to October when governments from across the world will gather at the UN CBD COP16 in Columbia, with the aim of driving global action for biodiversity forward.
This includes leading by example. We are calling on the UK government to set out its national plan, by October, for how it will meet the legally-binding targets in the Environment Act 2021 and the global biodiversity targets to 2030.
At COP 16, we need senior ministers attending and actively engaging in international collaboration for nature. By offering to host COP17 in the UK, the government will have an unmissable opportunity to show true global leadership on species recovery.
These are the critical first steps to building a healthy and prosperous society underpinned by a thriving and resilient natural environment. And as time begins to run out, we are using our position to bring lasting and positive change to our natural world – for everyone’s sake.
We hope the government will commit to protecting and restoring nature, which will help the future of wild plants and fungi, in England and across the world.
As environment policy is a devolved matter, UK government action relating to grasslands, rainforest and peat sales applies to England only.
Join Senior Ecologist Sarah Shuttleworth for a deadwood date, as she takes a deep dive into the wood wide web.
It's been a wild year in an even more wild landscape, from floods and collapsed waterways to peatland restoration and hope for the future – join us to learn more about this incredible habitat.
As COP28 draws to a close, one thing is crystal clear – we are at a pivotal moment.
Our CEO Ian Dunn reflects on the results of the climate conference and why there is reason to hope.
The 28th UN Climate Conference of Parties has just drawn to a close in Dubai, during which there had been fierce negotiations over the future of fossil fuels.
In the early hours of this morning the gavel went down and 198 governments agreed to “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner… so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”. This wording is not as strong as we had hoped, but it is the first time fossil fuels have ever been explicitly mentioned in a final agreement (in almost 30 years of climate COPs) and as the UN Climate Chief Simon Stiell said, it is the ‘beginning of the end’ for fossil fuels.
This issue is at the heart of climate action and this agreement was long overdue.
There are other key outcomes from this COP which give us reasons for hope:
More specifically focused on the intertwined climate and nature crises, we welcome two new initiatives coming out of this COP.
1.COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action
The acknowledgement and recognition of the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture and food systems, and on billions of people including smallholders that are dependent on their resilience for food and livelihoods, is a great step in the right direction. Just two years ago, there was little or no mention of this issue, yet 158 governments endorsed the Declaration at COP28.
2. COP28 Joint Statement on Climate, Nature and People
This was an absolutely vital step in ensuring the climate and biodiversity crises are no longer considered as separate issues. We have known for a long time that they are fundamentally and intrinsically linked, and this is the first step in connecting the outcomes of the UNFCCC COP28 and the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
This announcement was made: ‘At COP28 during Nature, Land Use and Ocean Day, we affirm that there is no path to fully achieve the near- and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement or the 2030 goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework without urgently addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation together in a coherent, synergetic and holistic manner, in accordance with the best available science.’
Eighteen governments have endorsed this declaration so far and we need to see many more signing up to this joined-up approach in the weeks ahead.
At Plantlife, we work tirelessly to bring the value of grasslands to the forefront of conversations around farming, nature, biodiversity and climate, both in the UK and internationally. Covering more than half the Earth’s land surface and with the livelihoods of around 800 million people depending on them, the importance of grasslands and savannahs cannot be underestimated.
More generally, this COP marked a turning point for the role of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition of their contribution in not only safeguarding 80% of the world’s biodiversity, but their knowledge in living in true harmony with nature. Adopting this way of thinking will be a pivotal step in combating the climate crisis. Plantlife is aware of the importance of Indigenous knowledge particularly when it comes to Important Plant Areas (IPAs), with one of the criteria for identification being related to cultural significance.
You can read more about IPAs here specifically the Chiquitano people of Bolivia who identified 18 IPA sites to protect the Chiquitano dry forest which many of the community depend on for their food and livelihoods.
It is safe to say there was a healthy dose of concern and scepticism about this COP. What would come out of it? Would this be ambitious enough to secure a safe future for generations to come – from large cities in the Global North to the Small Island Developing States on the frontline of the climate crisis? The reference to fossil fuels and the language in the final text can be considered a win, but now we look to parties to solidify the ‘how’ and the ‘when’ of implementing the measures to ensure we stay at or below 1.5 degrees of warming.
One thing is crystal clear: we are at a pivotal moment, for the stability of our planet and all life on Earth, and Plantlife will keep working to show how wild plants and fungi can be at the heart of the solution.
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