Help us create a Wilder Future

Wind in the willows

Join the campaign for a Wilder Future

Sign up today

Wildlife needs your help

Thousands of birds, insects and other animals across Leicestershire, Rutland and the country are finding it harder and harder to survive. Plants and trees are under pressure too.

The Wildlife Trusts and friends have convinced Westminster Government of the need for a new law – an Environment Act - to improve protection for our country’s wildlife. 

We are calling for a Nature Recovery Network to be set in law, where wildlife and wild places are not only protected, they are restored and connected.

David Attenborough explains a Nature Recovery Network

What do we need an Environment Act to do?

  1. Nature Targets: legal targets for nature's recovery that politicians must ultimately achieve and regularly report on progress towards e.g. safer air to breathe in our cities

  2. A Nature Recovery Network: a joined-up network of habitats that provide enough space for wildlife to recover and for people to thrive.

  3. Nature Watchdog: an independent body to help people challenge bad decisions made by Government and councils, which have a negative impact on wildlife and our natural environment.

Read the report

How would an Environment Act help Leicestershire and Rutland?

The Environment Act could help turn nature's recovery in Leicestershire and Rutland from an aspiration into a reality, in some of the following ways:

  • Create new wild areas and wildlife corridors across the county
  • Keep our existing wildlife sites safe from harm 
  • Improve air quality
  • Stop poisoning our rivers and streams with chemicals 
  • Reduce emissions that are contributing to climate change
  • Protect people’s rights to a healthy natural environment 
  • Avoid the loss of environmental protection laws after Brexit

Why is an Environment Act needed in Leicestershire and Rutland?

Our natural world is valuable in its own right and is the foundation of our wellbeing - we depend on it and it depends on us. Without a healthy natural world the survival of humanity is at stake. By creating more space for nature, we can create a better world for people and wildlife.

From rivers and woodlands, to birds and flowers, our natural world is struggling. Over half the species assessed in the State of Nature report have suffered since the 1970s, with many of our much-loved animals struggling. Just some of the declines we have seen in recent years include:

  • 66% decline in the number of barn owls since the 1930s
  • 90% decline in the number of common frogs since the 1980s
  • 90% decline in the number of water voles since the 1990s

We can make a difference! A new and ambitious Environment Act can help reverse the trend of missing wildlife, setting out a plan for nature's recovery and creating a healthier natural world for us all.

It's not too late to bring wildlife back

Since the story of Badger, Ratty, and friends was written in 1908, the UK has become one of the most nature-depleted nations in the world. The newly released State of Nature 2019 report shows that one in seven UK species are at risk of extinction today. 

We’ve imagined what The Wind in the Willows would look like in 2019 in our animated The Wind in the Willows trailer, and it’s not a happy story. But this doesn't have to have an unhappy ending.

Since Kenneth Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows, just over a hundred years ago, too many of the UK’s wild places have been lost forever - and the animals that depend on them. The water vole, as depicted in Kenneth Grahame's 'Ratty', is the UK’s most rapidly declining mammal, lost from 94% of places where they were once prevalent, and their situation is worsening. Even Mister Toad is finding that times are very tough: nearly 70% of toads have vanished since the 1980s alone. 

Help us make the next chapter for wildlife a safer, healthier and happier one, where nature is in recovery, not in danger.

A bit more about the Wilder Future Campaign

Our fantastic new animated The Wind in the Willows trailer aims to inspire more and more people to get involved in creating a #WilderFuture. 

Nature needs new laws that will not only protect but will also help to restore green spaces and wild places. 

Nature Recovery Networks will protect existing wildlife sites and map out where wildlife ought to be, joining up important places for wildlife, while ensuring more people can to live closer to nature.

We want a Nature Recovery Network enshrined in law to:

  • Set targets for environmental improvement and nature’s recovery;
  • Make sure we map where wild places and wildlife are, and where they should be;
  • Require plans to be produced to integrate national and local regulation, spending, investment and action.

 

Brown Hare David Tipling

Brown Hare Lepus europaeus in Ox-eye Daisies Norfolk summer - David Tipling/2020VISION

Talk to your MP

He have some helpful advice for when speaking to your MP

Find out more
Marbled White Butterfly

Guy Edwardes/2020VISION

Action for Insects

Today 41% of insects face extinction. But it's not too late to save them.

Take action now

Donate to help us build a Wilder Future

£