The world is on track to meet a 2020 target on the expansion of protected areas, but more work is still needed, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is warning that despite increasing recognition of the biodiversity crisis and its impacts on human well-being, the scale of the government response is “far from commensurate with the magnitude of the calamity.”

The European Union has adopted new legislation that will tackle the rapidly growing threat to biodiversity from invasive species.

Three years on from the last Eurobarometer survey, the latest one shows  that, despite the economic crisis, Europeans’ concern about the environment has not diminished.

Over 2,000 hectares of damaged peat in West Yorkshire has been restored since last year as part of a £9m project by Yorkshire Water to improve drinking water quality.

Wildlife experts at the Environment Agency have confirmed that water voles have returned to every county in England.

Humanity has exhausted its annual ecological budget in less than eight months, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank and WWF partner.