Public losing touch with nature, poll suggests

People are so out of touch with nature and cut off from the countryside that more than a third of parents admit they could not teach their own children about British wildlife, a survey published today (MON) claims.

Research has found that seven-out-of-10 people also feel they are losing touch with nature.

The findings appear to describe a nation significantly removed from its land and natural habitats, where people have little knowledge of the country’s wildlife.

Large proportions of people could not identify an oak tree or a barn owl, while a significant number said they had never set eyes on a hedgehog.

An estimated 13 per cent of people said they had not even been to the countryside for more than two years.

The research for a farm partnership backed by organisations including the The Wildlife Trusts and the Prince’s Countryside Fund looked at how connected the public is with British wildlife and the natural world.

The study for the Jordans Farm Partnership found 69 per cent of those questioned felt they were losing touch with nature, while 37 per cent of parents confessed their knowledge was not enough to teach their children.

Janel Fone, director of marketing and development at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of wildlife and wild places in their daily lives.

She said the research “provides an interesting insight into how connected people feel towards the natural world”.

The survey is the latest to highlight the lack of wildlife knowledge among the public.

Another recent poll found that more than half of the public could not identify a sparrow.

That research in April backed by the RSPB found that of 2,000 adults who took part, more than a quarter could not say for sure they had ever seen a blue tit, and a fifth did not know that a red kite was a bird.

Conservation groups fear that the public’s decreasing knowledge makes it harder to campaign for the protection of wildlife.

A major report issued in 2016 found that more than one-in-10 of the UK’s wildlife species are threatened with extinction, while the nation’s most endangered creatures have plummeted by two-thirds since 1970.

The State of Nature report compiled by more than 50 conservation groups warned that historical loss of woodland and industrialisation had left the UK “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”.

Overall, it found that 56 per cent of species declined between 1970 and 2013, and 53 per cent between 2002 and 2013.

Michael Gove, Environment Secretary, last week indicated that farmers would be paid for delivering benefits to the countryside after Brexit, instead of receiving subsidies for the amount of land they own.

The Government has pledged to continue agricultural funding up to EU levels until 2022, but Mr Gove said ministers could only go on "generously supporting farmers" if the environmental benefits were clear.

In his first major speech as Environment Secretary, Mr Gove said reform of the system was needed, with payments for woodland creation, habitat protection, caring for treasured landscapes and higher animal welfare.