Campaigners in Britain have called on the government to “make the right choices” to help the countryside, preserve habitats and save wildlife from extinction.
The RSPB is launching a campaign to end the threat to wildlife in the UK and the world, in the face of tumbling bird populations, butterflies, bats and eels struggling to survive and disappearing wildflower meadows and heathlands.
More than 335,000 people have signed a petition urging ministers – who have signed up for new targets to protect global wildlife by 2020 – not to cut funding for nature in the economic crisis.
The RSPB, which is presenting the Letter to the Future petition to Number 10, Downing Street also said that businesses and individuals had a part to play in looking after nature.
Last year, the world missed targets to halt the declines being suffered by wildlife and habitats, and new goals were set by the EU for 2020.
The wildlife charity is warning that UK farmland bird populations have fallen by half and species such as cuckoos and house sparrows are declining sharply.
Others including corncrakes and turtle doves are clinging on, while butterflies such as the high brown fritillary has been reduced to a few pockets and one in five wildflowers is under threat of extinction.
The RSPB remarked that four-fifths of lowland heathland has disappeared, 100 hectares of saltmarsh are being lost each year and 95 per cent of wildflower meadows have vanished in the past 60 years.
Worldwide, rainforest is being destroyed and marine species are under threat from overfishing.
As part of its Stepping Up For Nature campaign, the RSPB is calling for reform of Europe’s agricultural subsidy system, the Common Agricultural Policy, which pays farmers for production and managing the land, to prevent declines in farmland wildlife.
The charity also wants to see the creation of protected areas in the UK’s seas, and planning legislation that will protect areas important for wildlife.
Mike Clarke, RSPB chief executive, said: “Over the next decade we have the opportunity to fix the problems that are causing the loss of wildlife in the UK and across the world.
“We have a choice here, and if our politicians make the right choices then we can create a space for nature in our countryside, ensure vital habitats are not lost and bring back those species on the brink.”