During the past 200 years, humans had a substantial and not very positive impact on biodiversity. Our modern lifestyle, with sprawling cities and infrastructure, with our lighthearted production and consumption attitudes, pushed biodiversity to the brink.
With this, we produced substantial risks. Even our and the planets’ survival is at risk. Burning fossil fuels and spreading around millions of tonnes of chemical poisons jeopardize our existence as a species.
Global biodiversity is in decline. Apart from all the major culprits of this decline, the way we want our gardens to look is also contributing. So even when this is just a small share, why not attract wildlife to our garden to help biodiversity?
In narrow-occupied areas in the Netherlands and Spain, and probably in other countries as well, the owners tile their small stamp of a garden with ceramic tiles or even concrete slabs. There will certainly be insects and birds in such a bare area from time to time. However, they will be gone in no time.
The conservation of biodiversity appeals to many citizens. In this article, I introduce 2 examples of citizens initiatives, committed to the conservation of biodiversity: GREFA, a wildlife biodiversity initiative, and RMDS, an agricultural biodiversity initiative.
Because we live in Spain, the examples are Spanish. We’re convinced, however, that these types of citizen initiatives can be found everywhere.
GREFA is a citizens’ wildlife conservation intitiative: Grupo de Rehabilitación de la Fauna Autóctona y su Hábitat (Group for the Rehabilitation of Autochthonous Fauna and its Habitat).