A seasonal roundup from John Nightingale...
On account of it being the end of the year I've let myself dip back into some of the many environmental successes that have happened over the last 12 months and here is a random selection:
Britain’s first electric car forecourt just opened, selling electricity from their own panels and from a solar array in Bedfordshire. It is enormously encouraging that we’re now seeing the beginning of the end of the era of the internal combustion engine that has so damaged our environment.
Beavers have been released at Knepp in Sussex, joining other beaver populations appearing all over the country. Our own Devon beavers won the right to stay on the River Otter in August and across Europe beaver numbers have gone from a low of 1,200 in 1900 up to 1.2 million today, with their activities bringing huge benefits to so many other species.
Britain’s woodland cover has this year returned to medieval levels thanks to 20th-century forestry and rewilding, at around 13% of the country, and researchers say that that area could be doubled without encroaching on important habitats, arable farmland or peat bogs. Woodland had got down to just 5% of the country a hundred years ago.
For the first time we’re starting to see proper protection for at least parts of our oceans. Tristan da Cunha has just created the fourth largest completely protected marine area in the world, an enormous 687,000 km² of no-take zone, Belize has added another 1,115 km² to its marine reserves, the Seychelles has now protected 1/3rd of its waters, a huge 410,000 km² of ocean, and Samoa has committed to create 36,000 km² of marine protected areas by 2025.
In November 14 countries, responsible for 40% of the world’s coastlines, signed a new pledge to end over-fishing, restore fish populations and stop the flow of ocean plastic in the next 10 years and committed to making sure all oceans within their national jurisdictions, a combined area roughly the size of Africa, are managed sustainably by 2025.
For the second year in a row Iceland, one of the last three whaling nations, decided not to hunt any whales and the signs are that their hunts will now end for good. Blue whale sightings have increased significantly in the Antarctic and Bowhead whale numbers, hunted down to the last few thousand, have risen to nearly 17,000 this year.
One of the good things resulting from Covid 19 has been a huge change in attitude towards the eating of wild animals in China, with nearly 90% of the public now supporting strict bans on the trade and consumption of wildlife. Over 15,000 people were prosecuted for wildlife crimes this year, a 66% increase from last year.
Vietnam banned the sale of protected wildlife at wildlife markets as well as all imports of wildlife dead or alive, including eggs and larvae, with tough penalties for crimes involving the wildlife trade.
Kenya’s elephant population has more than doubled from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,000 today. The number of elephants poached is also down significantly from previous years with just seven in 2020. Kenyan Lions have also seen a 25% increase, going from 2,000 in 2010 to 2,489 in 2020.
And yes, they’re on their way here - there are now 894 Iberian lynx in the wild in Spain, nearly a 10 fold increase from the last 92 that were left in 2002. The EU has promised a further €18 million to keep the project running, significantly increasing the chances of them achieving a stable, genetically diverse lynx population.
Lots of positive environmental actions have happened worldwide in 2020 and our look see at what we'd all been up to in 2020 showed that there had also been a lot of great stuff happening in our own backyards. And that is just the beginning. Next year we're going to be building on the knowledge and experience we've gained so far to extend our actions even wider.
And on that note can I thank you all for helping to put so many positives into what has been rather a difficult year for many and may I wish everyone a Very Happy Christmas and a Great New Year.
With my best wishes,
John