Garden Wildlife Direct supports the People’s Manifesto for Wildlife

Earlier this week, Chris Packham announced the publication of a People’s Manifesto for Wildlife; a stark warning of how the UK is allowing its natural environment to fall into barren ruin and, more importantly, a comprehensive and compelling breakdown of what is needed to reverse this sleepwalking into “ecological apocalypse”.

There is a great deal of information in the manifesto - and much of it is directed at national bodies such as the government. However, two small sections particularly chimed with us here at Garden Wildlife Direct.

Connections

The first section I share just to remind us all how easy it is to take pleasure from our surroundings and the impact that pleasure can have - to emphasise what it is we stand to lose, essentially:

Visit a green space you’ve never been to before. Look around, listen, breathe deeply. Feel a connection with nature. Share its beauty with others. Know its real value in your life.

Small Steps

And the second one shows how every one of us can make an impact, simply and relatively easily:

If you live in a house or flat, install swift, sparrow or bat boxes by the eaves.

If you have a garden, stop using pesticides – weedkillers, ant sprays, slug pellets.

Liberate your lawn, let some grass grow long, leave piles of sticks in corners for invertebrates, sow native wild flowers for pollinators, feed garden birds, erect bee and bird boxes.

Dig a pond – even a washing-up bowl-sized pond will boost biodiversity.

There is much to consider in the whole document and I’d urge you to read it, debate it and, hopefully, be inspired by it. Nevertheless, the scale of the challenges can feel overwhelming and, at a personal level, it can seem like no single, individual actions can make any difference.

But that is not true.

As the old adage goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step...