Last week, while the collective media frothed about the government’s car crash handling of Brexit, a ray of light was cast on another mass exit. Namely, the steady wiping out of Britain’s wildlife and natural plants since the industrial revolution. And I for one was glad to read it.

Normally, this kind of topic is universally depressing. The State of Nature 2016 report describes Britain as being “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”. The iconic, beloved hedgehog is almost gone, its population down more than 90 per cent since the 1950s.

As for the wild bird population of the UK, since 1970 it has fallen by 44 million. Butterflies, moths and beetle populations all show frightening evidence of long-term decline. Scientific studies have proven that industrial farming systems, and the growing reliance of farmers on pesticides, have played a key role in driving these declines.

Personally, whenever I read about mankind’s unforgivable folly in allowing the interests of businesses and corporations to put profit before sustainability, my mind numbs. I feel helpless in the face of so huge a problem and try to think about something more pleasant.

Luckily for people like me, others are thinking more boldly and intelligently in standing up for our native wildlife and natural environments. Last week a group of environmentalists and scientists published a ground breaking attempt to stop the seemingly endless destruction of Britain’s green and pleasant lands.

If you Google ‘A People’s Manifesto For Wildlife’, edited by TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham, you will be led to a plain-looking series of articles. Each one contains an incredible number of proposals on how to save our native species. Admittedly, it’s a longish, sometimes scientific read, and skipping the footnotes worked for me. But the ideas themselves are very far from dull.

Quite rightly for an issue that should unite us all, the manifesto has no party-political bias, but is critical of government and the vested interest groups who have brought us to our current crisis. Such a gathering of proposals is automatically controversial, though as the editors claim, ‘informed by sound science and fact’. Above all, the manifesto calls for ‘change in the way we treat nature in the UK - this will require strong and swift government action’.

There are so many proposals it is impossible to cover them all. They range from how we could reduce the vast slaughter of wild animals, especially our wonderful badgers, that goes on quietly in the UK – it turns out salmon farmers also routinely shoot large numbers of seals – to ways of limiting pesticides, right on to setting up special environmental courts to ensure justice is done when our environment is damaged, based on ‘the polluter pays’ principle.

Hedgerow and tree preservation, encouraging urban gardens and wild flower areas in parks, the reform of fishing practices and the establishment of coastal nature reserves, all get a mention. One contributor suggests: ‘It should be mandatory that all free-roaming cats are fitted with a collar and bell. This can reduce bird predation by 50per cent. That’s 27 million more birds in our gardens every year.’ I particularly liked the section on ‘rewilding’ large areas of land.

Sensibly, there is a massive emphasis on education. After all, it is our children who will inherit our nature-depleted UK, unless we do something fast. Proposals include rewriting The Education Act to place nature at the centre of the state curriculum. Also, that such learning is compulsory one day a fortnight, or equivalent, for every child in primary education. In short, bringing back the beloved ‘nature walk’. Likewise, that all UK cities and towns increase their tree canopy, with the planting done by local children.

It’s time we recognised nature is a bigger human need than car ownership, Brexit or an unsustainable consumer lifestyle. It is central to the means of life, as well as our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. As the manifesto says: ‘we are presiding over an ecological apocalypse and precipitating a mass extinction in our own backyard. But – vitally – it is not too late.’