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Invertebrates make up 73% of all organisms on this planet and so are enormously important for the well-being of us all.
This campaign is aiming to highlight the importance of connecting habitats for species movement across the Surrey Hills. We conservation organisations, farmers and other land users are linking together to make an impact on a landscape scale, but we hope to inspire everyone to join in with this endeavour.
What is the planet’s species community made up of?
If we protect invertebrates, most other things, by default, will be protected too. Let’s look with wonderous and grateful eyes at minibeasts and tread more carefully through our lives.
98% of animals on earth are invertebrates. In Surrey 34% of invertebrates are already extinct or are on their way to becoming extinct.
Habitat fragmentation and habitat decline are the main causes for this loss.
Connectivity of habitats is essential for the strength, survival and successful reproduction of invertebrates. They need to move across the landscape to different spaces at different times to fulfil their life cycles and secure the next generation. This is called heterogeneity.
Other causes of decline:
A landscape wide collaboration of Surrey Hills farmers, landowners and conservation organisations are working together to link habitats, improving heterogeneity across our landscapes.
We’re doing this by:
1/3 of every mouthful of food you eat relies on insect pollination! Without them, you can kiss goodbye to strawberries, chocolate, coffee, apples, cooking oils.
Some of the ecosystem services that invertebrates provide are…
This project is a landscape-scale collaboration between farmers, landowners and conservation organisations across the Surrey Hills National Landscape. With thanks to funding from DEFRA’s Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund.