help bees, butterflies, bugs, birds, bats...
turn your garden into a nature reserve
help bees, butterflies, birds, bats...
Home > Conservation > Save the Bees
Since the second world war, the UK has lost 97% of its native wildflower habitats.
These meadows used to be managed for hay-making and grazing, and were hubs of rich biodiversity, bursting with native plants, insects and animals. This once invaluable feature of our countryside is now a rarity, with wildflower abundance a fraction of what it was. Many of the UK’s wildflowers are in serious decline or endangered, and they need better protection.
The main threats to native wildflowers, other than how climate change may affect them, are loss of habitat due to housing and industrial development and the use of agricultural herbicides and insecticides. Restoring wildflower populations is not only important because they are a beautiful component of our native ecosystems, they are also essential for insect pollinators like bees and butterflies.
With a little creative thinking, there is yet hope for these important habitats. UK gardens cover about 270,000 hectares – that’s more than all the designated National Nature Reserves combined. And that’s without considering all the balconies and window boxes. All we need to do is to make better use of this available space!
learn more about our ecosystem...
What can we do to help?
- Grow wildflowers, even if the only available space you have is a tiny window box! If you have access to a larger area of land, why not plant (or encourage the owner to plant) a whole meadow, or a strip of wildflowers along field and road verges.
- Support and help promote our #nomow campaign, which encourages councils to transform mowed road-verges to un-mowed wildflower havens. For more information see our #nomow page and our #nomow blog post.
- Support organisations like River of Flowers, who are actively working to increase urban wildflower populations.
- Register to take part in national wildflower surveys, such as the Wildflowers Count, by Plantlife, an organisation working to protect native wildflowers.
