{"id":60626,"date":"2021-11-24T05:58:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60626"},"modified":"2021-11-24T05:58:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T10:58:13","slug":"uk-will-pause-publication-of-data-showing-biodiversity-in-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60626","title":{"rendered":"UK will &#8216;pause&#8217; publication of data showing biodiversity in decline"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article-header\">\n<h3 class=\"article__title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2295285-uk-will-pause-publication-of-data-showing-biodiversity-in-decline\/\">UK will &#8216;pause&#8217; publication of data showing biodiversity in decline<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"article__strap\"><strong>Next year will see an important meeting to agree global biodiversity targets, but the UK says it won&#8217;t be publishing key data on wildlife and habitats<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article__content zephr-article-content\">\n<figure class=\"article-image-inline\" data-method=\"caption-shortcode\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=300\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1130px) 778px, (min-width: 1025px) calc(100vw - 352px), (min-width: 641px) calc(100vw - 30px), calc(100vw - 30px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=100 100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=249 249w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=778 778w\" alt=\"Lulworth skipper butterfly\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=100 100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=249 249w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/28105434\/PRI_207214086.jpg?width=778 778w\" \/><figcaption>\n<p class=\"image__caption\">A male Lulworth skipper (Thymelicus acteon) in Dorset, UK. Oliver Smart\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Conservationists and politicians have criticised the UK government for its decision to temporarily stop publishing new data on the state of the country\u2019s wildlife and habitats in 2022, the same year as a landmark UN\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/definition\/biodiversity\/\">biodiversity<\/a>\u00a0summit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/1028955\/ukbi2021-summarybooklet-r.pdf\">Figures published today<\/a>\u00a0by the Department for Food, Rural Affairs &amp; Environment (Defra) show a deteriorating picture for habitats, as well as for priority species, such as otters and red squirrels; woodland birds and butterflies that are reliant on specific habitats, such as the Lulworth skipper (<em>Thymelicus acteon)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The UK,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2254460-massive-failure-the-world-has-missed-all-its-biodiversity-targets\/\">like many other countries<\/a>, has failed to arrest declines in biodiversity in recent years despite signing up to global targets to protect nature. In April 2022, nations are expected to renew their commitment to act by agreeing new biodiversity targets for 2030 at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbd.int\/article\/new-dates-cop15-virtual-2021-facetoface-2022\">COP15 summit in Kunming, China<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, Defra said that it will \u201cpause\u201d publishing new data on the state of UK biodiversity in 2022 to enable a \u201cthorough review\u201d of the indicators, such as the pressures from invasive species or the health of bird populations and other animals. Publication will not resume until 2023.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/markavery.info\/\">Mark Avery<\/a>, a conservationist and former conservation director of the UK\u2019s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says: \u201cIt seems like Defra\u2019s response to a biodiversity crisis is to stop publishing the data that show it\u2019s happening. That\u2019s not very good, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK will &#8216;pause&#8217; publication of data showing biodiversity in decline Next year will see an important meeting to agree global biodiversity targets, but the UK says it won&#8217;t be publishing key data on wildlife and habitats A male Lulworth skipper (Thymelicus acteon) in Dorset, UK. Oliver Smart\/Alamy Conservationists and politicians have criticised the UK government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[32211,72,14545,18136,820,2080],"class_list":["post-60626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-adam-vaughan","tag-biodiversity","tag-narrative-control","tag-new-scientist","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60627,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626\/revisions\/60627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}