Sir David Attenborough, Stephen Fry, Catherine Tate, Alison Steadman, and Asim Chaudhry have backed a new campaign from The Wildlife Trusts that calls for a wilder future and a Wilder Cornwall. The conservationist and actors have starring roles in a new The Wind in the Willows film trailer which brings to life the 21st-century threats facing the much-loved characters from Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic. The animated trailer calls on everyone to help bring our wildlife back before it’s too late, so that we can all enjoy a wilder future.

Across the UK 56% of species have been lost since 1980. Cornwall is no exception and faces very real threats to our wildlife and wild places from climate change, marine plastics, pesticides, and development. Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s new campaign for a Wilder Cornwall and a Wilder Future is now live and being shared wildly www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildercornwall

Cornwall Wildlife Trust will be screening the new film trailer this evening, fittingly in The Riverbank room at The Greenbank Hotel, Falmouth where Kenneth Grahame first conceived Wind in the Willows over 100 years ago. The village of Lerryn and the Fowey Estuary are also thought to have inspired the setting of the book. The event will also include exclusive behind the scenes footage of the making of the film trailer and an in-depth background to the Wilder Cornwall campaign.

President Emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts Sir David Attenborough says,

“It is desperately sad that so much of our country’s wildlife has been lost since Kenneth Grahame wrote his wonderful book The Wind in the Willows. Of all the characters in the book, it is hard to know whose descendants have suffered the most. Water Voles, Toads and Badger’s friends in the book, Hedgehogs, have all seen catastrophic declines.

“Every space in Britain must be used to help wildlife”

The film trailer shows how the lives of Badger, Ratty, Mole, and Toad are disrupted by roads, river pollution and intensive agriculture – many habitats have been destroyed and others have been broken up. Toad hangs a picture of a puffin entangled in plastic on the wall in Toad Hall. “Farewell old frien,d” he says.

Since Kenneth Graham wrote The Wind in the Willows many of the UK’s wild places and the plants and animals that depend on them have been lost. For example 97% of lowland meadows and the beautiful wildflowers, insects, mammals and birds that they supported have disappeared; 80% of our beautiful purple heathlands have vanished – with their blaeberries, sand lizards and the stunning nocturnal birds, nightjars. Rivers are in deep trouble too: only 20% are considered as healthy and 13% of freshwater and wetland species in Great Britain are threatened with extinction.

Kenneth Grahame’s Ratty – the water vole – is the UK’s most rapidly declining mammal and has been lost from 94% of places where it was once prevalent, and its range is continuing to contract. Toad is also finding that times are very tough: he has lost nearly 70% of his own kind in the last 30 years alone – and much more than that in the last century.

These losses have led to the UK becoming one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Over the past ten years, there have been numerous reports and studies documenting wildlife declines in the UK. The main problems for wildlife are:
• Habitat loss – mostly caused by intensive farming, inappropriate development and lack of strategic planning, with the few remaining wild places being broken up by roads.
• Climate change – which is making a bad situation worse by causing extreme weather. This disrupts breeding patterns, threatens life cycles and creates food shortages. Wildlife cannot always keep up with changes to the seasons.

Stephen Warman, Chair of Cornwall Wildlife Trust says,

“Cornwall is full of nature-lovers, yet our wildlife and wild places are being lost at an alarming rate. If we want to bring back nature we have to create a mass movement of people calling for change. The film is a tragic version of The Wind in the Willows – showing how Ratty and Toad have hit rock bottom – but it ends with a message of real hope. It’s not too late to create strong laws which will help our wildlife make a comeback. We encourage local council and developers to walk in the pawprints of others and imagine what wildlife needs to survive.”

Cornwall Wildlife Trust wants people to help by nature by:
• Sharing the Wind in the Willows film trailer – to call for strong environmental laws which help nature recover.
• Sign up to support a Wilder Cornwall – get updates and support the campaign at www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildercornwall
• Speak to your MP – to call for strong environmental laws to bring nature back. Get advice about how to make an appointment at www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/SpeakToYourMP

Stephen Fry, President of the Great Fen, Wildlife Trust Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire, says:

“I’ve acted in and narrated Wind in the Willows in the past but this version is different – it really, really matters. I adore what’s left of Britain’s wild and precious places and I’m a passionate supporter of my local Wildlife Trust which is restoring a huge part of the fens for nature. We all need to get behind The Wildlife Trusts, rise up and call for a wilder future – otherwise, it’ll be too late to save Toad, Ratty and all the residents of the riverbank and beyond.”

President Emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts, Sir David Attenborough says,

“Ratty was a Water Vole and these animals can’t burrow into river banks covered with sheets of metal. Toads need ponds and wet areas to lay their eggs. Hedgehogs must roam miles to feed at night but often hit barriers and struggle to find the messy piles of leaves they need for shelter. None of these creatures can cope with road traffic because they did not evolve to recognise a car as dangerous.

“We have damaged our rivers, built too many roads and lost too many ponds and meadows. All of this has happened because our systems and laws that should be keeping nature healthy are failing, and we are losing touch with wildlife. Everything is becoming disconnected.

“The Wildlife Trusts have worked tirelessly to slow wildlife’s decline and to save our remaining wild places. Without The Wildlife Trusts our country would be the poorer. But there is much more to be done. This country of nature lovers needs to give its wildlife every chance to survive, thrive and expand its range.

“I am backing The Wildlife Trusts’ campaign to rally people to secure a ‘wilder future’ by restoring large areas of wildlife habitat, in city and country. What we create may not look exactly like the countryside that Kenneth Grahame drew such inspiration from, but our wildlife won’t mind just so long as it has the places it needs to live and thrive.

“As a society, we know how to put meanders back into straightened rivers and how to build bridges for wildlife. We know which wild places we should be protecting and expanding. But we need ambitious new laws to ensure we do this, laws that ensure we map out nature’s recovery.

“Meanwhile we can all make a practical difference. If you have a window sill or balcony you can put up bird feeders or plant pots of wildflowers. If you have a garden it is easy to dig a small pond or make holes in your fence for hedgehogs to wander through. It is not too difficult to take up paving slabs to let plants grow to feed our bees.

“Together we can make the next chapter for wildlife a happier one. Join us to put nature into
recovery.”