Yesterday’s report compiles information on the status of species and groups of wildlife in the UK, and shows that 56 per cent of land and freshwater wildlife species have declined, while 44 per cent have increased. Nearly 8,000 of the UK’s estimated 70,200 species have been assessed by thousands of surveyors working in a voluntary or professional capacity.

The extensive work put into this leads to a sad conclusion. It’s clear - we are getting no better at managing the loss of nature in this country. In fact the UK has lost significantly more wildlife than the global average, and is now one of the most depleted in the world.

The loss of species at 0.4% each year is chronic, not dramatic, so is not that visible - but the cumulative loss is extensive. Since 1970 our terrestrial and freshwater wildlife has declined overall by 16%.

Of course this is not the only story – many species have actually increased their number. But the danger of carrying on with our current trends is that common species such as the wood pigeon will become more abundant, while more of the waning species such as the turtle dove, which has declined by 97%, will get rarer, or disappear entirely.

It’s not just Wildlife Trusts providing this stark warning – the report is published by a coalition of groups monitoring the natural environment. And the Government mirrors the findings of this report in its own England Natural Environmental Indicators published in August. They find the same problems – agricultural practices are a major contributor to the loss of species and the decline in species across most habitats has continued its downward trend since the 1970s.

This shouldn’t really surprise us. Even before the Industrial Revolution, the UK’s extensive agriculture had dramatically changed the nature of our countryside. Increasingly efficient farming has resulted in only a tiny proportion of our land still being wildlife friendly. In Oxfordshire only 2% of our land is deemed wildlife-rich enough to warrant protection under national legislation.

Does it matter if wildlife declines or even disappears from our countryside forever?

Part of the answer to this is aesthetic, the other is practical. In the USA they spend millions of dollars transporting bees to pollinate crops because of loss of natural pollinators and in places such as India the loss of the previously common vulture has been assessed to have a cost of $3 billion. These are just two examples of what can happen when we disturb the natural balance without taking notice of what it does for us. The aesthetic benefits also have a value – when there is increased exposure to nature people are proven to be happier and healthier.

The threat to wildlife is complicated by climate change. Our countryside is more robust when linked networks of wildlife-rich habitats support native species. In the future we will need the diversity in our countryside not only for people but for a productive ecosystem which supports long lasting food production.

How can we work together?

Everyone can play a small part. Even a window box with nectar-rich plants in, or a “bug hotel” in the back yard, can help, and if enough of us do our bit it can have a surprisingly big effect.

The biggest change, however, relies on political decisions, and our individual actions arguably have an even bigger role to play there. As the UK prepares to leave the EU, decisions about how we protect our wildlife and what incentives farmers and land managers are given to promote biodiversity could have hugely positive, or negative, effects. In our continuing times of austerity, political decisions reflect public priorities.

We can turn a blind eye to more than one in 10 of our native species being endangered, or we can tell our politicians that it really matters – if we don’t tell them it’s a priority, they will carry on assuming there are no votes in wildlife!