Royal Society for the Protection of Birds  

The UK Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is launching a new Centre for Conservation Science on 26 Feb 2014 with a Report that provides a useful overview of RSPB science over the past decade, including case studies, scientist profiles and other information.
 

A consortium of UK biodiversity and conservation organizations have produced State of Nature, an assessment of biodiversity trends and status in the UK.  There are depressing downward trends for many key species of conservation interest with some success stories.  Key messages are:.../

• 60% of the 3,148 species assessed have declined over the last 50 years, 31% have declined strongly.  
• A new Watchlist Indicator for conservation priority species shows that their overall numbers have declined by 77% in the last 40 years, with little sign of recovery.
• The UK Overseas Territories hold a wealth of wildlife of huge international importance and over 90 of these species are at high risk of global extinction.
• There is a lack of knowledge on the trends of most of the UK’s species - quantitative trends can be assessed for only 5% of the 59,000 or so terrestrial and freshwater species in the UK, and for very few of the 8,500 marine species.
• Available data depend heavily on thousands of volunteers in monitoring schemes.
• Habitat loss and degradation are the most severe risks, with climate change having an increasing impact on nature in the UK

Consortium partners are:

• Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
• Association of British Fungus Groups (ABFG)
• British Lichen Society
• British Mycological Society
• British Trust for Ornithology
• Buglife
• Butterfly Conservation
• Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• Marine Conservation Society
• National Biodiversity Network
• People's Trust for Endangered Species
• Plantlife
• Pond Conservation
• Rothamsted Research
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• The Bat Conservation Trust
• The Biological Records Centre/Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
• The Botanical Society of the British Isles
• The British Bryological Society
• The Bumblebee Conservation Trust
• The Mammal Society
• The Marine Biological Association
• The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
• The Wildlife Trusts
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds