Wildlife across England has suffered a significant decline, but how much of London’s natural habitat and wildlife has been lost remains difficult to establish, with calls for better monitoring and more reliable figures to show what is happening to the capital’s biodiversity.

Government figures published in May 2026 show that the average abundance of monitored species in England fell by around 40% between 1970 and 2024. The indicator for priority species recorded an even greater decline, of around 80%.

However, these figures cover England as a whole and do not provide a separate measurement of wildlife loss across London.