2021 is coming to an end, for many it's the time to reflect or to look forward to 2022 with some new year resolutions. I want to be looking forward to 2022, as I do believe that 2021 wasn’t really a year to remember, not much happened while at the same time a lot happened. One lesson I am taking with me to 2022 is to always listen to your heart and body and focus on positive energies, don’t stay in the negative. Although do stay negative regarding COVID.
Now new year's resolutions. For most people it’s the same every year and has mostly got to do with your own health whether its physical or mental health. But I think we should all broaden our resolutions to include our natural environment as well.
Globally the biodiversity is in decline, between 1970 and 2016 a decline of 64% of populations sizes was measured of mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds. Biodiversity is the diversity of all live that can be found on earth, whether it's animals, plants, fungi or micro-organisms. And species populations are important indicators of the overall health of the earths ecosystems. Everything is interconnected and either directly or indirectly will cause problems for us humans, unless we take care of the natural environment around us. Take insects for example, insects have a vital role in the pollination of crops and other plants. Insects disperse seeds, take care of the decomposition of animal and plant matter, which release nutrients into the soil which are once again needed for plants to grow. But the insects in term are also food for other animal species and so the cycle continues on and on. Now what can we do to improve the natural world around us?
Small things that can be done:
There are simple, and I guess pretty straight forward, things that can be done. Like the well known three R's (Reduce, reuse and recycle), use less plastics and other single use items, look into alternatives, think of ways to reuse them. Another thing is by looking after your carbon and ecological footprint, for example use a bicycle to do groceries or go on foot. I see it around me everywhere in the Netherlands, so many people take their cars to do even the smallest of groceries, but do you really need to get in the car to get that one loaf of bread? By walking or cycling you will also work on your physical health and don't underestimate the effects of being active outside on your mental health. now we are on the subject of being outside, the garden is an absolute great place to start your green new year's resolutions.
Most gardens in the Netherlands are covered in stone tiles with some small flower pots with plants. What would really help is by starting to take out some of the tiles and plant some wildflowers mixes. These wildflowers will attract insects like bees and butterflies and the wildflowers and insects will some colour to your garden! Following the insects will be birds and small mammals such as hedgehogs. Now you will have some activity in your garden, why not also create an insect hotel or a log pile where animals can take shelter. If everyone creates even a small green spot in their garden or on their balcony it really will help to improve the world's biodiversity. Also don't forget to make small bath, which all these animals can use to hydrate and wash themselves.
Citizen science / volunteer projects
Another good green new years resolution would be helping out with citizen science or volunteer projects. Data gathered through citizen science is very important for scientist to do their researches. And it can be as simple as counting garden birds in your garden for an hour or so during a garden birdwatch. These garden bird watches happen every year usually in the last weekend of January, at least that is the case in the Netherlands and the UK. In 2022 in the weekend of the 28th till the 30th count the various bird species in your garden and send this data to either the Vogelbescherming (NL) or the RSPB (UK) or your countries equivalent organisation. These kind of (garden) counts happen for more animals species, another example would be bees, in the Netherlands the weekend of 23th & 24th of April is the weekend to count all your bee species in your garden, organised by NederlandZoemt. There are many more of these garden counts in which you could participate, there are ones for hedgehogs, spiders, butterflies, dragonflies, bats, amphibians, plants and many more.
You can also become a citizen scientist outside of your house and garden, I do it while going to the pier. The Zuidpier is one of my favourite places in my home-town and is great to observe harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), last February (2021) I did a course through ORCA to become a so called OceanWatcher. With the OceanWatcher course you get training and excess to an app through which you can do cetacean surveys. You can do these surveys wherever you are as long you are see a sea, so it can be a coastline, a beach, a ferry or your own vessel. With this app you collect effort-based data, and the data can be and is used for cetacean conservation measures.
For me I just love marine mammals and really like that I can combine my hobby of observing them with collecting their presence data. And that is something which you could do too. Have a thought about it, is there an animal species you really love, or maybe there is a nature reserve in your area where you could help out as a volunteer. Look into the opportunities around you, there is more to do than you think. And follow nature organisations which you like, and opportunities to volunteer within projects will arise. Maybe some even have apps out there already! I do know that in the Netherlands Stichting Anemoon is working on an app which everyone can use while on the beach, With this app you would help researching plants and animal that either live on the beach or have been washed ashore. this app will be released in 2022. And if you are interested in becoming an ORCA OceanWatcher as well, there are still some places left for the online training in 2022. (I put the link under the post)
I hope that you will look into green opportunities around you, or at the very last start with your garden or balcony. Let's make the world a greener and more diverse world from the new year onwards! I wish you all a happy and safe 2022! Thank you for reading my blog posts this year and I hope to see you in the new year with hopefully some more interesting posts and adventures!
Best wishes,
Mathilde
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