County scale challenge, within the global picture


Somerset is a county blessed with a variety of stunning landscapes home to an enormous variety of wildlife. We are lucky to have five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty wholly, or in part in Somerset, and of course the wild landscapes of Exmoor National Park. We have recently completed a biotope (habitat) survey of Somerset’s Brilliant Coast and have found a huge range of amazing wildlife from Strawberry Anemones to Small-spotted Catsharks. The internationally renowned wetlands of the Somerset Levels and Moors provides habitats for a diverse array of breeding waders, Water Voles, eels, a carnivorous sundew plant and many thousands of invertebrate species. These amazing natural spaces however are surrounded by wildlife-poor areas where wildlife is struggling.


Globally nature is in trouble. Biodiversity is declining rapidly across the world with a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services highlighting 1 million species at risk of extinction. In the UK 56% of all species (plants, invertebrates, mammals, fungi, birds, trees) are in decline.


Despite huge efforts by ourselves and other statutory and NGO partners, biodiversity and, more critically bioabundance (the number of species) continues to decline across Somerset in all but a few protected sites, and even wildlife in protected sites is threatened by the loss of species in the wider landscape. There are fewer wild places, and those that exist are smaller, less wild and


more polluted, making it harder for wildlife to survive.


Climate breakdown is exacerbating these pressures, further threatening the survival of many species. We’re living in a warming world which is triggering extreme weather events, sea level rise, slow but sure changes in life-cycle timings and altered species distribution and migration patterns. We simply need to do more. And faster.


Somerset Wildlife Trust – What kind of organisation do we need to be?


Somerset Wildlife Trust is the only organisation in the county focused solely on protecting and improving habitats to benefit wildlife and people. We believe people are a part of nature; everything we value ultimately comes from it and everything we do has an impact on it. The natural world is valuable in its own right, and is the foundation of our wellbeing and prosperity; we depend on it and it depends on us.


Somerset Wildlife Trust is one of 46 independent charities working together as a movement to achieve our collective vision of people close to nature, with land and seas rich in wildlife. We are a science-led movement focused on restoring habitats to support a wide range of wildlife and restore natural processes that are essential for healthy landscapes, and provide vital services such as clean air and water, food, carbon absorption and flood alleviation.


Somerset Wildlife Trust hosts the Somerset Environmental Records Centre and we use the data collected by a wide


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