Biodiversité

The UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, has revealed. The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery Gove said had shocked him.

En soutenant la rénovation énergétique des logements, le véhicule électrique, l’efficacité énergétique de l’industriel, le Royaume-Uni s’engage résolument dans la voie du ‘low carbon’. Une opportunité pour l’environnement et pour l’économie, souligne le gouvernement de Theresa May.

Sur une partie de plus en plus importante de la surface terrestre, la croissance explosive de l'éclairage électrique altère l'environnement naturel nocturne. Même si on observe une prise de conscience croissante des effets négatifs de la pollution lumineuse sur le comportement de certains animaux nocturnes, on connaît encore mal ces effets.

Planet Earth is a free magazine aimed at non-specialists - policymakers, businesspeople and members of the public - with an interest in environmental science. The latest edition of the magazine is available to view below, along with an archive of older editions.

The National Biodiversity Data Centre is a national organisation that collates, manages and analyses and disseminates data on Ireland’s biodiversity. Biodiversity data are a key requirement for understanding our natural surroundings, for tracking change in our environment and for gaining a greater insight to how we benefit from, and impact upon, the ecosystem goods and services provided by biological diversity; a national asset which contributes at least €2.6 billion to the Irish economy each year.

The NBN Atlas is a collaborative project that aggregates biodiversity data from multiple sources and makes it available and usable online. It is the UK’s largest collection of freely available biodiversity data.

There are 60,065 species of trees in the world, according to a comprehensive study of the world's plants. Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) compiled the tree list by using data gathered from its network of 500 member organisations.

Our results show that several species (55 of the 124 considered in our study) are likely to benefit from future climate change and, freed from other constraints, we can expect their populations to increase by 2080. In contrast, fewer species (11 of 124) are likely to suffer from climate change.

What's new in biodiversity in Scotland?

A Pollinator Strategy for Scotland 2017 - 2027 was launched on 26 July 2017 by Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, at The Hidden Gardens, Tramway, Glasgow.

The big butterfly count is a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world's biggest survey of butterflies. Over 36,000 people took part in 2016, counting almost 400,000 individual butterflies and day-flying moths across the UK (see the 2016 results). big butterfly count 2017 will take place from Friday 14 July to Sunday 6 August.

Some of Britain’s most beautiful butterflies are being killed off by mild winters, conservations have said. The colourful insects suffered ‘one of their worst years on record’ in 2016 with 40 of the 57 species assessed in the annual UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme declining compared to the previous 12 months.

The Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee is carrying out this inquiry in order to: assess the management of Welsh marine protected areas with a view to identifying opportunities to maximise the economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits that can be derived from them. understand what the implications of leaving the European Union will be for marine protected areas and to identify any issues that will need to be addressed during the exit process.