Biodiversity in the UK
The UK has a rich variety of individual species and a wide range of ecosystems that support them.
The the UK Biodiversity Partnership, which consists of the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, together with varios non-Governmental Organisations (NGO)
The partnership agreed on eighteen indicators which highlighted some of the key priorities for biodiversity in the UK.
These indicators cover the following: (BIO IND)
- population status of key species
- plant diversity
- the status of priority species, habitats and ecosystems
- genetic diversity of rare breeds of sheep and cattle
- protected sites
- management of woodland agricultural land and fisheries
- impacts of air pollution and invasive species
- expenditure on biodiversity
- the time given by volunteers to nature conservation activities
Summary of changes since 2000
In assessing change since 2000, 7 measures have shown deterioration, 15 have shown improvement, 9 have shown little or no overall change, 2 had insufficient data for an assessment, and 1 is provided for contextual information and is therefore not assessed. (BIO IND)
click here to download pdf version of the full report
References
UK Biodiversity Action Plan
National Biodiversity Network
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Natural England
Virtual Field-Guide to UK Biodiversity
(BIO IND) UK Biodiversity indicators