Countryside in danger as natural heritage forgotten

Britain is in danger of losing native wildlife because the younger generation do not remember what the countryside used to look like, according to a new study.

Louise Gray, The Telegraph 13 Feb 09;

While the older generation are able to name common natural sights of the past that have now become a rarity, such as flocks of starlings, they have not passed on their knowledge to their children, researchers found.

Scientists fear this "generational amnesia" could affect the country's ability to protect wildlife because younger people do not realise what has been lost.

The survey, conducted in a village in Yorkshire, also found "personal amnesia", where people fail to notice animals and plants declining even in their own life time, and therefore do not realise the importance of conservation.

There has been a wealth of anecdotal evidence about the young failing to recognise species like skylarks or elm trees that would have been a common sight for their grandparents or even parents.

However a study by Imperial College London published in Conservation Letters is the first evidence of the phenomenon.

The survey asked 50 people in Cherry Burton, Yorkshire, what they thought the three most common birds were in the village. Whereas all the generations were able to name the current most common species today – wood pigeon, blackbird and starling, only the older generation knew that 20 years ago wood pigeons are starlings dominated the skies alongside feral pigeons .

Few people from any generation were able to correctly identify the birds that have declined over the last 20 years – sparrows and starlings.

Professor E J Milner-Gulland, co-author of the paper, said she feared people will more readily accept a degraded environment, if they do not know the diversity that existed in the past. Once common plants like cornflowers or cowslips and birds like skylarks, grey partridge or chaffinches have endured a steady decline over recent decades.

She called on older generations to pass on information, in the same way the elderly have been encouraged to pass on social history about living through World War II.

"People of a new generation do not realise something is missing. It is really important because how can you get people behind conservation action if they do not know what they have lost?"

Tom Oliver, head of rural policy at the Campaign to Protect for Rural England said the research proved people are failing to notice the degradation of the countryside. He said it made it more important than ever to protect the landscape for future generations.

"You would not deprive your children of what you had and therefore you should not deprive anyone," he said.