1. Environment Dr Gary Mantle MBE Chair Wiltshire Environmental Alliance
Director, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust
9th July 2010

2. How Important?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is the environment?
On a list of priorities to receive funding, where would you place environmental issues?

3. Correct Answer: Very, very important
We depend upon healthy, fully functioning ecosystems to provide us with a wide range of essential goods and services
Provisions – food, fuel, fibre, water
Regulation – disease & pest control, flood prevention, climate control
Cultural – spiritual, education, tourism, inspiration, mental well being
Supporting –soil formation, nutrient cycling, water cycle, primary production ( photosynthesis)

4. Wonderful Wiltshire - the land of ‘chalk and cheese’
Let’s not forget how wonderful or how important our environment is…
Video clip removed

5. A Strategic Assessment of the Environment
What is the current state of our environment?
What are the key environmental issues we face?
What are our top priorities for action for the next 3-5 years?

6. Wiltshire’s natural environment is our greatest asset.
15% of the total land area is wildlife rich habitat
Sites of Special Scientific Interest cover 29,000ha
1522 County Wildlife Sites

7. Wiltshire’s natural environment is our greatest asset.
Abundant supplies of groundwater
Good reserves of aggregates
High grade (productive) agricultural land
Much of county is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Low population density

8. A Strategic Assessment of the Environment
What is the current state of our environment?
What are the key environmental issues we face?
What are our top priorities for action for the next 3-5 years?

9. Biodiversity Issues: Biodiversity continues to decline
Land management changes
Pollution
Population pressure
Invasive species
Fragmentation of habitats
Leading to ‘islands’

10. UK habitats - losses 50% ancient lowland woodland
150,000 miles hedgerows
98% traditional hay meadows
80% chalk downland
80% wetland fens & mires 10

11. Farmland birds in decline
Farmland Indicators
Farmland birds in decline 11

12. Living beyond our environmental limits
Supplies of fresh water
Local food production
Consumption of fossil fuels
Energy consumption and security of energy supplies
Population growth

13. Availability of fresh water

14. Ecological Footprint:
A sustainable level is 1.9 gha/person
Global average is about 2.4 gha/person

15. Create Living Landscapes

16. Pollution and waste CO2 emissions of 12.5t/person
Higher than SW & UK averages
1.3t of rubbish produced by each household/year
Proportion diverted from landfill increasing (now 40%)
Air quality is generally good
Light pollution increasing
Eutrophication of water bodies
Endocrine disruptors in rivers and elsewhere?

18. Health and wellbeing Increasing urbanisation
Loss of regular contact with nature
Rural skills lost
Diminished levels of physical activity
Reduced opportunity for environmental education
Over 60,000 people in Wiltshire with mental illness

19. Environmental information and intelligence
Unknowns
We know that we don’t know about these things
We don’t know that we don’t know about these things
Knowns
These are the things we know we know
We don’t know everything that we do know
Known
Unknown

20. Environmental information and intelligence
Unknowns
Work to fill in the gaps
We won’t know until a need arises or something happens
Knowns
Keep up to date and move from information to intelligence
Some things will be revealed as analysis and evaluation is carried out
Known
Unknown

21. A Strategic Assessment of the Environment
What is the current state of our environment?
What are the key environmental issues we face?
What are our top priorities for action for the next 3-5 years?

22. Priorities for Action:
Protect, maintain & enhance ecosystem functions
Prepare for climate change
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Create Living Landscapes
Increase food security
Increase energy security
Minimise waste
Lead and support behaviour change

23. Watching a species become extinct or a habitat be destroyed or degraded is like playing a game of Kerplunk
But, its not marbles we are playing for
– its our lives and our future!