English

Native populations of the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) have been lost from the English counties of Berkshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Devon, East Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, West Sussex and Wiltshire, and this species also became extinct in Wales. Sand lizards now only occur in significant numbers on the lowland heathlands (and one dune system) of Dorset, in southern England, which now support over 90% of the UK population. Small numbers of sand lizards also survive on heathlands in Surrey, about 100 km northeast of Dorset, plus the coastal dunes of Merseyside in northwest England. There were estimated to be around 6500 adult lizards surviving in the United Kingdom in 1997, with all but a few hundred animals occurring on Dorset heathland.

In an impassioned speech to the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC), the Prince said the only way to protect Britain's rural landscape is to support the farmers responsible for maintaining fields, buildings and businesses - especially small family farms struggling to survive. “It is the people and what they do that creates the beating heart of our countryside – the vitality that comes from the busy village shop and pub, a thriving school, from the Church and W.I," he said. "This is why everything must be focused on making sure that farmers are able to keep on farming in a way that provides them with a decent living, and that they do it while working with nature and not against her.” The Prince agreed farmers need to take more account of wildlife and the environment when producing food. “For too long in the West, I am afraid, we have enjoyed something of a consumer's holiday. Food above all else has been seen as a cheap commodity to which little value is attached," he said.

Neonicotinoid insecticides were first used commercially for Colorado potato beetle control in the United States in 1995. Field populations from the northeastern and midwestern United States were tested from 1998 to 2010 for susceptibility to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam using standard topical dose assays with adults. From 1998 to 2001, imidacloprid resistance was present in only a few locations in the eastern United States. By 2003, imidacloprid resistance was common in the northeastern Unites States. In 2004, imidacloprid resistance in Colorado potato beetle was detected for the first time in the midwestern United States. In 2003, the first case of resistance to thiamethoxam was found in a population from Massachusetts. Neonicotinoid resistance in summer-generation adults was higher than in overwintered adults from the same locations. By 2009, 95% of the populations tested from the northeastern and midwestern United States had significantly higher LD50 values for imidacloprid than the susceptible population.

Bats are intriguing animals – the world’s only true flying mammals and one of the most diverse mammal groups on Earth – second only to the rodents in number of species, they occur on every continent except Antarctica. Throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland – as elsewhere in western Europe – bat populations have declined dramatically in recent years. Several species of bats are now seriously threatened, and in the last decade one species – the greater mouse-eared bat – became extinct as a UK breeding species. Even the more common bats have suffered dramatic declines. Pipistrelle numbers, for example, are estimated to have dropped by about 70% during the 15-year period 1978-1993. In the UK, bats eat only insects and changes in agricultural practices appear to be an important factor in declining bat numbers. Herbicides and insecticides can both affect the abundance of insect prey available to bats. Hedgerows and ponds, both widely used by bats, have been lost from the countryside at an alarming rate – even in recent years. For example 23% of hedgerows and 75% of ponds were lost during the period 1984 to 1990. Woodland habitats, including old trees, have declined also.

It may be hard to believe it but in the world’s most populated continent, amphibians are quickly losing their grasp and are in danger of disappearing at an incredibly accelerated rate. It is estimated that 40% of the global amphibian population is currently in danger of becoming extinct, with more than 2,000 species currently considered “threatened”, “endangered” or “vulnerable” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species. Among these animals, frog species are especially being hit hard; and nowhere is this more apparent than in Asia, where many species are drifting closer and closer towards extinction long before they are properly identified, studied and provided protection.

In what may be the greatest disease-driven loss of biodiversity in recorded history, hundreds of frog species around the world are facing extinction. Frogs in the western United States are threatened, and Australia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean have been especially hard hit. Central American countries such as Panama are suffering a catastrophic decline. The villain is a rather extraordinary fungus, an amphibian version of a case of athlete’s foot from hell, with an impossible name, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis , which scientists call “Bd,” a virulent, lethal fungus that has spread around the globe. It is like a cheesy horror movie, but real. The little victims? Their pores clog, and they die of a heart attack.

In 2012 governments turned their backs on the living planet, demonstrating that no chronic problem, however grave, will take priority over an immediate concern, however trivial. I believe there has been no worse year for the natural world in the past half-century. The melting of the Arctic's sea ice broke the previous record. Remnants of the global megafauna – such as rhinos and bluefin tuna – were shoved violently towards extinction. Novel tree diseases raged across continents. Bird and insect numbers continued to plummet, coral reefs retreated, marine life dwindled. And those charged with protecting us and the world in which we live pretended that none of it was happening.

Representatives of various non-governmental organisations have expressed grave concern on fast declining population of vultures and observed that due to absence of this species there has been a significant rise in diseases like rabies and anthrax in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India. They expressed these views in a meeting of the IUCN member organisations’ National Committee held at a local hotel the other day. The chief executive officer of the Indus Earth Shahid Sayeed Khan chaired the meeting. The representatives of different NGOs and government agencies and institutions also attended the meeting. IUCN Regional Director Asia Ms. Aban Marker Kabraji briefed the members about the population of vultures in South Asia. She mentioned that about 20 years ago the estimated population of vultures in the region was around 100 million, which has declined to approximately 20,000. It has been proposed that this may be due to residues of the veterinary drug Diclofenac in animal carcasses. The Government of India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and have banned the drug for animals.