Hoghome at Botanic gardens. image by Carl Stringer
Homes for wildlife have been put up at 5 iconic sites across Wales to promote Wales RSPB Cymru’s Giving Nature a Home campaign, aimed to inspire more people in Wales to create new homes for nature.
In June, RSPB Cymru launched the campaign to help tackle the housing crisis facing Wales’s threatened wildlife, and urging the people of Wales to provide a place for wildlife in their own gardens and outside spaces. As part of the campaign bird boxes have been up in iconic buildings across Wales. Portmeirion, Powis Castle, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and St David’s Cathedral have all put up nest boxes to try and attract more wildlife. Menai Bridge has been given a bug hotel, while the National Botanic Gardens have been given a hedgehog house. The Hedgehog has seen a 50% decline in the last 25 years.
The launch of the campaign came a month after 25 wildlife organisations, including RSPB Cymru, released the groundbreaking State of Nature[i] report revealing 60 per cent of the wildlife species studied have declined over recent decades. Many garden favourites were among the creatures shown to be in serious trouble including starlings, hedgehogs, some butterflies and ladybirds. All are in danger of further declines unless more is done to provide better habitats.
Getting everyone in Wales to act for nature in their own gardens is the first part of a package of actions that RSPB Cymru is launching in response to the State of Nature. Over the course of the next few months, the charity will be outlining what businesses, communities and politicians can do, as well as detailing RSPB Cymru's own plans for saving nature.If you want to join us and give nature a home, go to our website www.rspb.org.uk/homes. By visiting this website you can get your free Giving Nature a Home starter guide and share pictures, tips and ideas with others. You can also find out more about what the RSPB is doing to give nature a home in the wider countryside.