COP16 (the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity - to give it its full title!) was less than productive, largely owing to countries (parties) in attendance not having done their homework from COP15. The vast majority of countries missed a deadline to set out new plans for how they will meet their biodiversity targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework ahead of COP16.

By the summit’s end, just 44 out of 196 parties – 22% – had come up with new biodiversity plans. 

You might ask, what is the UK doing about it? Well, we do have a biodiversity target - the now famous 30% of land and sea protected for nature by 2030, as enshrined in our Environment Act, but we have no credible stepping stones to reaching this target, which is a constant criticism made by the Government's own Climate Change Committee.

Other countries agreed their national targets at the conference - to date 119 have biodiversity targets.

The UK had put forward the idea of putting in a timeframe of “as soon as possible and no later than October 2025”, but this was not welcomed with enthusiasm.

You can read the Carbon Brief Summary of COP16 here.

Shine Radio spoke to PeCAN Nature Recovery Trustee Melanie Oxley about the vital importance of our wildlife and what we can do in our gardens to help, for Our Earth Week.

The UK is in the bottom ten when it comes to protecting our nature, and only 3% of our land and sea is currently managed for nature at the moment.

It's time to think about what your garden can do for wildlife between now and the spring. Listen to the interview to find out what we are up against and, most importantly, what we can do to help.