In the film, which The Wildlife Trusts created in partnership with Campaign Film, Sir David calls for powerful new laws to ensure the UK’s wild places can thrive once more and for a Nature Recovery Network.

Sir David Attenborough says in the film:

“A wildlife-rich natural world is vital for our wellbeing and survival. We need wild places to thrive. Yet many of our systems and laws have failed the natural world. We now live in one of the most nature depleted places on the planet. Nature urgently needs our help to recover – and it can be done. By joining up wild places and creating more across the UK we would improve our lives and help nature to flourish - because everything works better when it’s connected.

“Now is the time to tell our politicians that we need a Nature Recovery Network set in law. A legally binding network for nature would mean that wildlife is prioritised when managing our land and planning our towns. Powerful new environmental laws can ensure habitats are expanded and reconnected meaning all life will thrive once more.

“It’s time to turn things around. Nature is capable of extraordinary recovery but we must act now!  Tell your politicians now is the time to put nature into recovery. Everything works better when it’s connected.”

The film urges people to take action for a wilder future. It follows on from an earlier film created by The Wildlife Trusts, also narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which retold the children’s tale The Wind in the Willows to highlight the problems faced by UK wildlife. This new film goes one step further by providing a tangible solution.

Nikki Williams, Director of Campaigns and Policy at The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“Nature is in big trouble but we know how to bring it back. Local action is already making a real difference and now the government needs to play its part. We need a Nature Recovery Network established in law – one that is locally developed and nationally connected – this would help join up our last remaining wild places by creating vital new habitats. It’s time to make nature a normal part of childhood again and restore wildlife so it can recover and thrive across urban jungles and the countryside once more – where it can be part of people’s daily lives.”

Stephen Warman, Chair of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, says:

“I have lived in the same house in Cornwall for over 30 years. In that time I’ve noticed the local disappearance of yellowhammers, stonechats, hedgehogs, slow worms, noctule bats and nuthatches. Curlews no longer visit the neighbouring fields to roost in winter and I don’t hear snipe flying over the garden on dark winter nights.

Between half and two-thirds of our native animals and plants are in decline and many are at risk of extinction unless we can provide a network of places across land, rivers, and seas where our wildlife isn’t threatened by development, drainage, pollution, and pesticides. Such a network could also provide flexibility across Cornwall and allow wildlife to move in response to climate change.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust has a central role in this and we are working harder than ever with local government, communities, fishermen, and landowners to restore our damaged natural systems and to build on the havens of hope provided by our nature reserves.”