CPRE, the Countryside charity, want to make the countryside a better place for everyone to live, work and enjoy.  They have a number of areas they are particularly passionate about:

• Nature and landscapes
• Better places to live
• Litter and recycling
• Farming
• Sustainable transport
• Climate change and energy

They have local groups in every county – so plenty of opportunities to volunteer and get involved in looking after the countryside around you.

Their current campaigns include Dark skies, Hedgerows, Climate Emergency and What gets built where.  They've currently got a petition, Tell the government to put brownfield first, which you can sign to support them.

Information about their hedgerow campaign is here and the UK government has finally announced an ambitious target to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerows by 2037, and 45,000-miles of hedgerows by 2050, under the new Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.  Find out more about the UK government's target. 

Dark Skies Campaign and Star Count 

As part of the Dark Skies campaign, they have their annual Star Count which started on 17th February and runs through to the 24^th February.

Dark, starry skies are vital for the health of us all, people and wildlife.  But light pollution is disturbing the behaviour patterns of wildlife and in 2022, only 3% of people who took part in Star Count really enjoyed “truly dark skies”.

Image © CPRE the Countryside charity

Star Count gives CPRE the countryside charity the opportunity to find out where is best and worst for seeing stars.  They can see on a map where light pollution is worst, and then work to tackle it with local councils.

CPRE the Countryside charity have five simple steps you can follow to participate in Star Count:

1. Try to pick a clear night for your star count.  Wait until after 7pm, when the sky is really dark.
2. Give yourself at least 20 minutes to let your eyes adjust.
3. Look south and find the Orion constellation with its four corners and three-star belt.
4. Count how many stars you see within the rectangle that the four corner stars make.  Leave out the corner stars from your count, but you can count the three stars in the middle.
5. Note down how many stars you see with your naked eye – not with binoculars or telescopes.  Then submit your findings on CPRE’s website.

You can share your photos and experiences on social media – tag CPRE with @cpre and use #StarCount in your posts.

Get counting!!  This is a wonderful opportunity to really look up at the stars! 

Butterfly Conservation have an urgent appeal which I wanted to share with you.  It comes following the State of the UK’s Butterflies 2022 Report, which says that 80% of butterflies have decreased since the 1970s.

And scientists have issued a stark warning:  time is running out to save the UK’s butterflies.   We can turn this situation around, but we need to act urgently.

Butterflies are an integral part of the eco-system and the good news is that the report confirms that Butterfly Conservation’s projects make real change but the charity want to do more:

• Fund more expert research
• Expand its advice services rapidly
• Keep inspiring the next generation of butterfly and moth enthusiasts

It’s crucial to ensure that butterflies and moths  have the space they need to thrive.

If you can’t donate, please spread the word about this appeal. 

Other actions you can take to help butterflies include:

Get gardening!

Creating wild spaces for butterflies and moths at home, by planting butterfly-friendly plants and flowers in your garden or on a balcony or patio, in school grounds, village greens, roadside verges, and streets.  You can register your wild space with Butterfly Conservation.  There's a list of butterfly friendly plants and flowers here 

Please don’t use insecticides and pesticides or peat compost – find out why here.

Get busy monitoring and recording butterflies and moths

Tell Butterfly Conservation about the butterflies you see – monitoring and recording butterflies is really important, as it helps build up a picture of how butterflies are doing and what action is needed where.  Be a citizen scientist for butterflies!

Join in the National Moth Recording Scheme, which is a huge resource gathered by thousands of volunteer recorders.  It’s used to conserve threatened moths and increase scientific understanding of why moths have declined and improve public awareness                                                           

Join in the Garden Butterfly Survey – tell Butterfly Conservation about the butterflies you see in your garden throughout the year.  There’s also the Big Butterfly Count from mid-July to early August

Become a member!

You could become a member of Butterfly Conservation  - you’ll receive a welcome pack with membership cards, essential advice on gardening for butterflies and leaflets to help you identify butterflies, moths and caterpillars.  It also includes Butterfly magazine three times a year, a monthly e-newsletter with the latest news, membership of your local branch with regular newsletters and invites to local guided walks, talks, conservation action days and social events.  And you’ll have the knowledge you’re helping to support Butterfly Conservation!

Donate to Butterfly Conservation

Donations can help (and I quote from the appeal information I received through the post)

• £10.00 could help buy plug plants to create the habitats anad butterflies and moths need to survive
• £25.00 could help create habitat case studies to show landowners which species can thrive on their land
• £100.00 could provide specialist training to volunteers, helping them protect vulnerable species
• £500.00 could fund research into how to mitigate the effects of climate change for endangered species.

All donations help fund vital conservation work.   Butterfly Conservation says that targeted conservation action works, and that the recording and monitoring of UK butterflies is key. 

Flutter off to Butterfly Conservation here

In case you didn't know, January is Veganuary Month - a chance to try your hand at going Vegan, if you aren't already.  And according to a Vegan Society survey, that’s what a lot of British people are planning on doing!

The survey of 2,000 British people found that about half of them were planning to make an environmental resolution in 2023 - over a third of non-vegans are planning to reduce meat and dairy consumption!  Some pledged to go vegan entirely, whilst others were planning on reducing their meat and dairy intake. 

The most popular environmental friendly actions people were planning to take were:

1. Reducing energy use (67%0
2. Minimising waste by recycling and reusing (65%)
3. Reducing their consumption of animal products (56%)

The Vegan Society is encouraging us all to make #OneLittleSwitch to help protect our planet with its Plate Up for the Planet, and its eBook is full of classic recipes, blogs and tips to help you (you do need to sign up to receive it but it’s free).  It also has a World Vegan Month in November, but why wait to give it a go?  It’s never too late to start! They've got lots of recipes on their website, too

For instance, why not use a plant based milk instead of a dairy one?  Or replace minced meat with lentils?

So why go Vegan?

The Vegan Society gives these reasons for going vegan:

• For the animals - you can work out how many animals you would save if you went vegan.
• For our health
• For the environment (for instance, a lot of forest has been cleared for agriculture including cattle ranching - all those cattle need watering and feeding, so it's a propelling cycle)
• For people, to develop a more sustainable way of living

Visit the Vegan Society here.

If you feel that becoming a vegan is a step too far, you could just introduce even one vegan meal a month or a week - or why not look at vegetarian food?  

Hive.co.uk has up to 25% off its Veganuary books this January – they could make a lovely gift for someone who wants to try different vegan recipes!  There’s vegan baking, vegan pasta and one pot cooking, for instance.  Head to Hive.co.uk here

 
There's up to 25% off Veganuary books at Hive.co.uk this January 2023

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) have an urgent appeal right now to help elephants in Vietnam.

They are urging us all to help by 20 December 2022, and they need to raise £99,819.00 for elephants.

What's the problem?

Vietnam’s elephants have been plagued by years of sprawling development, the expansion of agriculture, and the impact of war.  These things have destroyed their habitat.  Poachers have moved in on the animals who did survive.

Vietnam’s rhino have died, and Fauna and Flora suspect the tigers there have died too. 

Official numbers estimate that just 91 elephants are left.  That’s 91 elephants.  Are they beyond saving?

There's hope for the 91 elephants left

There is hope for the elephants, thanks to new camera-trap research by FFI.   They received a grant to determine whether any elephants had indeed survived in the Pu Mat National Park.  The park is a key area which was thought to be one of their four strongholds.  It lines the coast. And the research shows without doubt that the elephants are alive and probably breeding.

There is a chance – one chance – to save Vietnam’s elephants.

The plan to save Vietnam's elephants

Time is of the essence.  The elephants keep drifting off into human communities, outside of the forest.  And they can easily destroy fields full of crops and fences.  Two people have been killed.   The elephants need to be removed.

FFI have a plan to avert the most imminent threats and to raise the awareness of locals of how important these animals are.

Image © Fauna and Flora International

The plan has three parts:

1. To build an emergency warning system,
   
   The elephants’ whereabouts are unknown – they could be heading to local communities or towards deadly roads, railroads or power-lines.  FFI has secured state of the art elephant collars from a project in Myanmar that no longer needed them.  They need to create a vet team to find the elephants, tranquilise them and fit the collars.  Then they can create a warning system when the elephants are moving to areas that would be dangerous to them.  It costs £245 to tranquilise and collar an elephant. 
   
   
2. To equip local protection teams.  
   
   Once FFI have received an alert, protection teams can head to the area on motorbike to keep local people and elephants safe.  Equipment to make a noise such as speakers and fireworks will make sure the elephants give a wide berth to the area and that they head back to the forest.  This takes fuel, equipment and wages for those people doing this work.  £95 could fund one emergency response whilst £45 could buy the noise making equipment. 
   
   
3. To build natural barriers.  
   
   Fences are easily destroyed by the elephants.  They could get trapped in ditches, so FFI are looking and more innovative barriers which have been successful in other parts in the world in keeping people and elephants apart.   One possibility includes planting chillies along the fields which border the forests – these will irritate the elephants’ trunks so they will look for different food sources.  And the farmers will benefit from selling the chillies.  £23 could provide a sack of chilli seeds.

FFI is also looking at buying drones (£980 a drone) to track and monitor the elephants at a safe distance.  This could give a huge advantage to FFI in getting the animals away from crisis situations.

Strategies like this have worked well elsewhere in the world, so FFI are looking for funding fast to see if these can work in Vietnam before things get worse for the elephants. 

Visit Fauna and Flora International to find out more and donate