New Resilient Nature report reveals habitats stretched to breaking point by climate extremes and human pressures.
Byline
By Eleanor Grey, Environment Correspondent
Main Article — Page 1
LONDON, 27 September 2025 — A stark new report published today by The Wildlife Trusts lays bare the perilous condition of the United Kingdom’s wild species and habitats under accelerating climate stress. Resilient Nature, the Trusts’ adaptation assessment for 2024/25, draws on data from their 2,600 nature reserves and warns of a “nature breaking point” as extreme weather becomes ever more unpredictable. The Wildlife Trusts+1
The report identifies drought, heatwaves, wildfires, and volatile rainfall as the greatest pressures faced by ecosystems. Over the past 12 months, peat bogs, heathlands and wetlands have desiccated; ponds and streams failed to sustain amphibians and dragonflies; and reserve managers documented charred nests at sites such as Upton Heath in Dorset. The Wildlife Trusts+1
“We are now witnessing climate extremes not as distant threats but as daily realities for wildlife,” says Dr. Sinead Walker, lead author of Resilient Nature. “Ecosystems once able to absorb shock are losing resilience.”
Even in less acute circumstances, the report highlights chronic declines: species abundance on studied taxa has fallen by an average 19 % since 1970, and almost one in six species assessed in Great Britain faces risk of extinction. National Trust+1
The Trusts caution that government mitigation and adaptation efforts remain dangerously underfunded. Without urgent intervention on land management, emissions, habitat connectivity and legal protection, the report warns, losses may become irreversible.
By Question The Times Environment Correspondent
The British public is being asked to lend a hand in one of the most unusual – and important – conservation efforts of the summer: tracking wasps. Far from being mere picnic pests, wasps play a crucial role in pollination and natural pest control, and scientists are now eager to understand more about their habits, distribution and population health across the UK.
The government’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), alongside university research teams, has launched a nationwide survey, encouraging people to log sightings of wasps through dedicated apps and websites. Volunteers are asked to submit photographs, nest locations and behavioural observations. The data will help ecologists build a detailed map of how wasp species are responding to climate change, urbanisation and agricultural practices.
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