As the BBC comes under fire for censoring David Attenborough’s new series ‘Wild Isles’ which documents the destruction of nature across the UK we thought it about time we produced a short summary of the state of biodiversity in both the UK and Europe. This mini report will provide an overview of how our presence is impacting on the natural world and present three regional cases studies; the UK, Germany and Ukraine to better illustrate biodiversity in a national context.

Change. There is nothing more intrinsic to the existence of humanity and the planet we live on as change. Yet, such a short word conveys not only that strange and unsettling mixture of emotions one feels when hearing it but is also used to translate into language the way time interacts with human society and the natural world. Today, we face change on an unprecedented scale, but this change is not one we can afford to be fearful of, nor can we afford ourselves the time to become accustomed to such rapid changes. Instead, we must be bold, we must take action and we must embrace changes in every facet of our lives, from the food on our plates, to the way that we travel, and to the items we pick off the shelves. In governance and policy, the changes will need to be yet more extensive with restructuring required at every level and in every sector to ensure that our planet has a future.