When we talk about investing in our planet, one of the first things that might come to mind is the act of restoring and protecting our environment. 

If you’ve been keeping up with BBC One’s Wild Isles hosted by Sir David Attenborough, you’ll already be aware of the UK’s natural beauty as well as the great risks it’s currently facing. So, what can we do to help? How do we overcome these ongoing challenges?

Here are just some of the different actions we can take:

Planting a tree is as easy as 1-2-3. You can either get out there and do it yourself or through companies like Ecologi and the Future Forest Company, which allow individuals and businesses to make investments to fund reforestation efforts and climate projects. We’ve seen some amazing reforestation efforts of our own through our Ecologi subscription, with over 12,000 trees planted so far! 

Investment on our Doorstep

In case you don’t already know where we’re based, Avery & Brown come from Surrey, one of the most densely wooded counties in the UK (it might even be the most densely wooded in England). Being so densely wooded means the county provides a botanically rich habitat for a vast array of species from bats to woodland butterflies to even Atlantic bryophytes (a bunch of mosses, liverworts, and hornworts that do us a whole lot of good). 

Despite Surrey having around 55% of England’s vascular plant flora, many of the rarer wild plants are in an extremely fragile state. For example, lowland heath, a home to smooth snakes and nightjars is now one of the rarest habitats in the UK, which is pretty bleak considering it would have covered the majority of western Surrey only 200 years ago.

Our habitats like the lowland heath of Thames Basin or parts of the North Downs that trail from Farnham all the way to the white cliffs of Dover have already been labelled by Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) as ‘biodiversity opportunity areas’ (BOAs), with SWT paying particular attention to these areas over the last 5 years. Despite the amazing efforts displayed by SWT, most BOAs will concentrate on areas that end at the outskirts of urban environments. 

That’s not to say that action for biodiversity within urban environments receives little attention, Farnham’s Town Council outlined the desire to protect and boost biodiversity throughout the town in the next 22 years within the Neighbourhood Plan and its biodiversity policies. However, not a great deal of detail was given on the methods needed to achieve it. 

Farnham Biodiversity Partnership was established in 2019 to put Farnham’s biodiversity action plan into practice and to show what conservation best practice looks like in an urban environment. It might seem like a big job, but their efforts are benefiting the local wildlife through different methods like wildlife study, data collection, and garden survey. It’s action like this that shows how vital community involvement is to conservation. Why not check out local communities like Farnham Biodiversity Partnership in your area?

Pollination Stations

The UK is home to many precious pollinators such as bees, moths, butterflies, and even beetles, though it’s sad to say that many species are in severe decline, with three species of bumblebee having already gone extinct in the last few decades. 

It’s not a huge shocker that the main factor contributing to this decline is general loss of habitat. Wildflower meadows are one of the biggest safe havens of pollinators, with bird's-foot trefoil, cornflower, viper's bugloss, and many more pollen-rich flowers providing food and shelter to the little critters that pollinate our crops. 97% of our wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s, with most being destroyed due to changes in agriculture methods and an increase in land developments. Despite the shocking statistics, investing in our pollinators is something we can all do in different ways.

Plant those flowers - You can get wildflower seeds from almost anywhere and get planting in your own garden or even in neglected public areas like empty lots or roadside patches. Bee bombs are particularly good for doing drive-by style wildflower deployment. If a wildflower garden isn’t your thing, Wildlife Watch has some great resources on other pollinator friendly flowers you can plant at different times of the year.

Hotel for bees - Flower bees, mining bees… Sweat bees? Did you know that many of our bee species don’t actually live in hives? About 250 of our 270 bee species are solitary and instead look for nesting places in a variety of areas from under the ground to bramble stems. You can make a little home for the nomad bees through creating a bee hotel by putting together hollow bramble, reed, or bamboo stems. 

Join a campaign - There are some great campaigns out there looking to keep our pollinators happy. An example is Grow Wild from Kew Gardens, which has been getting communities to come together and reintroduce native wildflowers back into neglected local areas.

Make Your Voice Heard

Stuck inside on a rainy day? The good news is, you can still invest in our planet from the comfort of your armchair. Most campaigns and petitions to safeguard our environment take no time at all to sign, and adding your name can make all the difference.

One of the biggest ongoing campaigns in the UK is Zero Hour, the campaign for the proposed and much needed Climate and Ecology Bill, the plan for a new UK law that actually addresses the climate and nature crisis without any smoke and mirrors. On top of the CE Bill making sure the UK does everything possible to cut carbon emissions to keep the global temperature below 1.5C, it also commits to reverse the destruction of our biodiversity by 2030.

You can join the many thousands who support it by backing the CE Bill today (it’ll only take you a couple of minutes!).