Biodiversity
Highlighting the biodiversity of Wales and importance in the landscape
Wales has a rich biodiversity with many icon species. However, the abundance and distribution of fauna and flora has reduced overall over past decades but this is often piecemeal and therefore not evident in many cases. The environmental descriptors and land cover maps generated by Living Wales provide a valuable and expanding resource by which to understand where our biodiversity is located and how to reverse declines but also highlight successes so that we can build on these.
Although there are almost 2,000 established non-native species in Great Britain
Cultivated habitats have been a widespread component of the British landscape for some 8000 years
Meadows and pastures Permanent pasture grassland in Wales accounts for more than 75% of the utilised agricultural land
The decline in pollinator populations is an ongoing problem that could have a dramatic impact
With so much of the wider countryside agriculturally improved to deliver high productivity habitats
Winter stubbles, particularly weedy stubbles like the one shown here
The song of the Yellowhammer was a familiar sound in the Welsh countryside as recently as the 1980s
Wales supports a wide diversity of bird species and Living Wales is aiming to translate