Natalie Bennett: Urgent action is needed to halt the decline of Britain’s hedgehogs and to protect the natural environment

2 March 2014

THE alarming decline of hedgehog numbers in Britain should act as a stark reminder of how industrial agriculture, housing sprawl and traffic growth are combining to ravage our natural environment, said Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett at the Greens’ Spring Conference.

The population of hedgehogs in Britain has fallen by 37% in the last ten years; a decline faster than that faced by tigers in the wild.

Bennett said:

"Hedgehogs are an iconic species. The collapse of their population is a symbol and sign of how much damage has been done by industrial agriculture that has removed hedgerows and other natural refuges and blanketed our countryside in pesticides. Industrial agriculture combined with housing sprawl and traffic growth is ravaging our natural environment.”

"We've also heard from George Monbiot at Conference about how what he calls 'shifting baseline' syndrome' means we've failed to grasp how much natural richness we've lost. And that natural wealth is what all of our economy and society finally depend on."

Hugh Warwick, author and hedgehog expert, who spoke alongside Bennett at Conference, said:

“I am often asked what we can do to help the hedgehog – and if I am honest, there is only one definitive cure, and that is the dismantling of industrial capitalism!”

Warwick added:

“I believe that we humans flourish when we get a real connection with nature, and there is no wild animal as good at allowing us to get close to it as the hedgehog – we can (and I do) get nose-to-nose with this gorgeous and charismatic animal – look in to those wild eyes and possibly, just possibly, start to fall in love with the wonderful natural world.”

Bennett and the Green Party supports Hedgehog Street (1), a joint enterprise between the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, which encourages people to make their own garden’s as hedgehog-friendly as possible. Over 30,000 households have already signed up. 

Notes

1. http://www.hedgehogstreet.org

 

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