21 Aug 2024

About 90kg (200lbs) of dead fish have been removed from a canal after a sodium cyanide leak in Walsall that experts fear could have “devastated the aquatic ecosystem” in the area. A 1km stretch of the waterway remains closed to the public after the chemical spill from a metal finishing company, Anochrome. The spill was declared a major […]

19 Jun 2024

Interesting piece published in The Conservation Freshwater ecosystems are the lifeblood of the natural world, yet they are facing a silent crisis. A 2022 report by the World Wildlife Fund revealed a staggering 83% decline in global freshwater vertebrate populations since 1970, a rate far exceeding that of any other habitat. The level of degradation to nature […]

22 May 2024

Migratory fish populations have crashed by more than 80% since 1970, new findings show. Populations are declining in all regions of the world, but it is happening fastest in South America and the Caribbean, where abundance of these species has dropped by 91% over the past 50 years. This region has the world’s largest freshwater […]

18 Oct 2023

Water, the world’s most precious yet undervalued resource, lies at the heart of a mounting global crisis that threatens both human and planetary health, warns a new report, published this week by WWF. Released on World Food Day (16 October), The High Cost of Cheap Water uncovers a stark reality: the annual economic value of […]

08 Aug 2023

The State of the South West Seas in 2022 report has been prepared by a group of specialists working within the umbrella of the South-West Marine Ecosystems (SWME) programme. It reflects the work of both hundreds of volunteer citizen scientists and professionals working in the south-west. The SWME programme brings the marine and coastal community […]

10 May 2023

European nature is not in a good state and it has shown few signs of improvement over the past years. According to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, restoration efforts and better ongoing management of ecosystems are needed to safeguard a range of benefits delivered by a healthy nature — to people’s health, food […]

08 Feb 2023

This Factsheet explores common water-related challenges, such as water availability, quality, and management, their associated risks, and relevant policies, while proposing nature-based solutions as a paradigm shift. By outlining key benefits of using nature for an integrated and ecosystem-based water management approach, and best practices in different contexts and ecosystems, the factsheet demonstrates the potential […]

19 Oct 2021

Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors increasingly contaminate the world’s freshwaters. New research provides direct evidence of their transfer from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems via the consumption of aquatic insects by terrestrial predators such as spiders, birds and bats. This exposure may have negative impacts on the physiology and population dynamics of predators, suggesting a need for […]