David Attenborough has urged the government to use Brexit to better protect the UK’s nature and wildlife.

“Like it or not Brexit has happened. All agriculture and environment treaties for nature and wildlife will have to be rethought. It’s a great opportunity to refine the legislation to match our part of the world,” he told conservationists at the launch of the 2016 State of Nature report.

The report, compiled by more than 50 conservation organisations including the RSPB, the National Trust, the Marine Conservation Society and the Natural History Museum, showed that Britain was one of the world’s most “nature-depleted countries”, with more than one in 10 wildlife species threatened with extinction.

“The report is very important. Our wonderful nature is in serious trouble and it needs our help as never before. This document produces facts and figures. We are living at a time of climate change so we need to know what is happening to wildlife. It gives us a huge opportunity. I hope we can take it,” said Attenborough.

Andrea Leadsom, in one of her first speeches as environment secretary at the same event, made no reference to nature protection after Britain leaves the EU, or the birds, habitats and other directives which have been the backbone of British conservation for 40 years.

“I want a 25-year plan for the environment, a truly long-term vision that sets the direction for future policy. We will publish a framework setting out a game-changing approach,” she said at the event.

She added: “Following our decision to leave the EU, we now have a unique opportunity to develop a set of policies tailored to the needs of the United Kingdom, our species and our habitats.”

Leadom said the report showed the scale of the challenge facing Britain’s environment but said there was much to celebrate. “We have truly ambitious plans to transform our approach to the environment,” she said.

She added that government would use big data and new technology “to tackle old problems in different ways”.

Conservationists said the report was shocking, showing that modern agricultural techniques had had a major, negative impact on wildlife.

“Increasing agricultural production has fundamentally changed the countryside. The report shows that we do not have a green and pleasant land. We have little more than green concrete yet we have come to accept it,” said Trevor Dines, a botanist with the NGO Plantlife.

“The pendulum has swung too far towards production. Big agriculture has won,” he said.

But Guy Smith, National Farmers Union vice president, denied that farming was to blame for the dramatic wildlife declines recorded in the report. “When farmers go out their front doors, and they see their farms, and they see lots of wildlife, and then they open up the newspapers and see the RSPB painting some lurid picture of a countryside with no birds, or bees, or mammals in it, they just get a bit depressed. There are many species that are not declining. All we say is, ‘just change the record, please’.

“One thing that mystifies us about this is that there has been no intensification of agriculture in the last 25 years,” he told the BBC.



Caroline Drummond, chief executive of Leaf, a pressure group linking farming with the environment, said: “Whilst this data is compelling, we do not feel it represents the whole picture. Farmers are fundamentally committed to conserving and enhancing the biodiversity on their farms.”

Dame Helen Ghosh, director of the National Trust, which is one of Britain’s biggest landowners, said farmers had to work more with government and conservationists.

“We have to see Brexit as an opportunity to think about how we can create a support system for farmers; that makes it easy for farmers to do the right thing. This is a chance to think differently about the future of farming and to work collaboratively.”