Making Space for Invertebrates

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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.

 

Discover the interactive map of project collaborators

Events

Tread Carefully - Leith Hill Place (free entry)

7, 8, 14, 15 Sept

Surrey Hills Wood Fair

7 & 8 Sept

Why Make Space for Invertebrates?

What is the planet’s species community made up of?

  • 73% of organisms on this planet are invertebrates (creatures without backbones – including all insects and spiders)
  • 0.4% of organisms on this planet are vertebrates (creatures with backbones) within this category sits mammals, within which sits human beings. Our impact on the planet is not proportionate to our size!

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:

  • Widespread use of pesticides
  • Light pollution
  • Climate change
  • Competition with domestic honeybees and invasive species.

 

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:

  • Tree clearance for woodland management, allowing light through to encourage new growth and a diversity of plant ages
  • Tree popping to restore flower rich chalk grassland
  • Creation of new ponds and pond restoration
  • Natural England’s Heathland Connections project across South West Surrey Hills
  • Hedgerow planting with a variety of farmers and landowners across the Surrey Hills
  • Traditional practices such as pollarding and coppicing of trees and hedgerows for maximising species diversity
  • Burford Spur, Box Hill Nature Recovery Strategy

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…

  • Regulating soil quality – Darwin estimated that earthworms move 15 tonnes of soil per acre to the surface each year – a process called bioturbation
  • Medicinal benefits – leeches, horseshoe crabs, maggots and snail slime contribute to medicines
  • Ecosystem functions – food for animals such as bats and insectivores
  • Decomposition – processing of waste, efficient disposal of organic waste
  • Aesthetic functions – beautiful and varied countryside, flower richness, gardens, and hedgerows. Enabling animals such as birds, butterflies, small mammals and owls to thrive, contributing to tourism and wellbeing
  • Pollination of crops – worth over £1 billion per year to UK farming industry
  • Pest control – savings in pesticides
  • Regulation of water quality

  • Plant nectar rich flowers in your gardens, window sills or courtyards – particularly honeysuckle. Dandelions and brambles are such good nature conservation value, why not leave a few?
  • Volunteer for conservation organisations near you
  • Let some areas in your garden be messy, leave some deadwood, old stems and leaves to create micro habitats throughout the year
  • Try using natural pest management, such as companion planting which avoids using insecticides
  • Train your cat to use a litter tray, pick up after your dog and dispose in bins, not into nature
  • Better to gravel your small patch – species can exist between the stones, rather than fake grass which is sterile and has no value to nature.
  • Keep insecticide treated pets out of waterways
  • Get involved – support campaigns, like No Mow May
  • Download the Buglife Splatter test App to join in the scientific monitoring community
  • Be a campaigner – lobby government for nature

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.