This blog post has been taken with approval from the Barbour Consolidated Monthly Bulletin, for more information please see here.

An investigation by the Guardian and partners has revealed that Europe is losing green space at the rate of 600 football pitches a day. This is land that once harboured wildlife, captured carbon and supplied food.

Analysis of satellite imagery across the UK and mainland Europe over a five-year period shows the speed and scale which green land is turning grey, consumed by tarmac for roads, brick and mortar for luxury golf courses and housing developments.

The loss of the Amazon rainforest has been measured for years using satellite imagery and on the ground monitoring, but until now the scale of green land in Europe has never been captured in the same way.

The Green to Grey project, working with scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Nina) to measure nature loss, reveals the scale of nature and farmland engulfed by human interventions.

The cross-border project by the Guardian, Areana for Journalism in Europe (Arena), Nina, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK and other news outlets in 11 countries found that Europe loses about 1500 sq. km a year to construction.

According to the data, about 9000 sq. km of land, an area the size of Cyprus, was turned green to grey between 2018 and 2023, equivalent to almost 30 sq. km a week, or 600 football pitches a day.

Nature accounts for the majority of the losses, at about 900 sq. km a year, but the research shows we are also building on agricultural land at a rate of about 600 sq. km a year with consequences for the continent’s food security and health.

The most common developments, accounting for a quarter of all cases, were for housing and roads, but nature and farmland is also being destroyed to accommodate luxury developments for the tourism and consumerism industries.

The analysis covered 30 countries and whilst every country examined is losing natural and agricultural areas, but some are worse than others. The 5 countries with the highest green losses between 2018 and 2023 were:

• Turkey, <1800 sq. km lost
• Poland, <1000 sq. km lost
• France, 950 sq. km lost
• Germany, 720 sq. km lost
• UK, 604 sq. km lost

More information on this project can be found on the Green to Grey Website.

The UK is in the bottom 12% of countries globally for biodiversity intactness (Source: Rewilding Britain). The most recent check of our wildlife, the 2023 State of Nature report, revealed that across the UK species studied, there has been an average decline of 19% and 16% are threatened with extinction (State of Nature Report, 2023).

Here at Loughborough, we are trying to combat the problem of biodiversity loss through developments of a new Biodiversity Action Plan, commitment to Nature Positive Universities and our currently beginning a trial of Nature Friendly Grounds.