Harvest mouse on a flower stalk
Amy Lewis

A World Without Nature

This World Wildlife Day we would love to celebrate the incredible wildlife we have in Kent but we know that we're loosing more wildlife and wild spaces every day. So this year we felt it was more important to join forces with others to show what our county might look like without wildlife. Read on to learn more.

This year's World Wildlife Day theme is all about 'Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation.' And we would love to celebrate the many ways that our teams are driving action and innovation as part of our #WilderKent2030 strategy to fight the nature and climate crises.

We would usually highlight projects like Bugs Matter that now uses a a virtual ‘splatometer’ built into the free Bugs Matter app, so citizen scientists across the UK can collect essential data about insect abundance.

Or we would showcase our Actions for Nature web app that our team built to help Kent County Council to collect nature-friendly actions that contribute towards the Local Nature Recovery Strategy from community groups, businesses and organisations as part of the Making Space for Nature programme.

We would demonstrate how we're using drones to review a range of habitat attributes, produce three-dimensional models of the environment and even measure the level of chlorophyll in plant leaves to assess vegetation presence or absence, vegetation greenness, water content of leaves, water bodies, and different soil types.

Our volunteers would talk about how they're now able to complete regular surveys of our reserves using our bespoke app in the field. Set up by our amazing Geographic Information System (GIS) team this is tailored to the conservation teams specific monitoring needs.

We hope that our supporters would share how they enjoy the ways we're engaging them through our new podcast, videos and TikTok ensuring our digital communications reach new audiences and engage them in the wonderful wildlife near them.

But all of these tools and data continue to show that wildlife and wild spaces are in decline. Without nature there can be no future and all of this becomes pointless. But you can make a difference. You could join as a member, donate towards an appeal, support our campaigns or take action at home, at school, at work or in your local community. By acting for nature in whatever way you can you'll be contributing towards it's protection and restoration.

Find out more about World Wildlife Fund's #WorldWithoutNature campaign and how you can sign the petition to prove that the public want real action from the next government to stop the destruction of nature. 

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Quarry Wood showing woodland habitat
© Lucy Carden

10 must-visit Kent woodlands

Blog

Be sure to check out these 10 woods whilst exploring Kent, each offering something a little different across the county.