Nature
Humans depend on the services that ecosystems provide such as fresh water, pollination, soil fertility and stability, food and medicine.
It is important that there is a biological variety of life (plants and animals) on Earth to maintain our ecosystem. Over the years our ecosystems have become weakened by the loss of biodiversity and this loss makes them less likely to deliver the services we depend on.
Did you know that only 5 per cent of the borough is woodland? Trees play a huge part in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and can act as a buffer against flooding and climate change. There are many things we can do to help save biodiversity.
Create a home for wildlife
Help to protect the wildlife in the borough by making them feel more at home. Create a safer space for them to live in, such as wild gardens, bird tables and hedgehog houses. There are lots of ways to welcome different species to your garden, balcony or terrace.
Stop with the poison
We often use herbicides, pesticides, slug pellets and weed-killer in our gardens, but these often run from lawns into nearby lakes and streams with negative effects for the plants and animals living there. Try to find healthier ways to care for your garden by using organic or natural products.
Keep your garden green
Rather than paving over gardens or swapping grass for artificial turf, keep your garden natural with grass, hedges, trees and plants. It will improve drainage and reduce your risk of flooding and wildlife will have somewhere cosy to live and explore.
Go peat-free
When buying compost for your window box or garden make sure you opt for peat-free compost as removing peat from its natural habitat releases lots of carbon and destroys wildlife habitats.
Save the forest by buying 'good wood'
You can protect forests across the globe by only buying wood products that come from a sustainable legal source. Illegal logging is the harvesting, processing, transporting and buying and selling of timber which breaks national and international laws. By questioning where your garden furniture or wooden flooring comes from, you can halt the chainsaws and support suppliers who are doing it right.
Look out for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label and if you don't see it, then ask, and make sure you are only buying good wood. Also, look to reduce your paper consumption by using recycled paper. Using 100 per cent recycled paper saves 24 trees per tonne of paper.
Adopt an animal
Many species are at risk of extinction. You can help to save our wildlife by donating to a local wildlife organisation, adopting an animal or contributing to a local appeal that will use the funds to create and restore habitats and protect endangered species.
Watch our Climate Conversations video on nature
In this video, Councillor Tricia Ayrton visits the earth stewards at St. Peter's CofE school in Rochdale to see how they are taking action through nature-based solutions.