Research shows that over 25% of all evening meals in the UK are either vegan or vegetarian.  Kantar Worldpanel's research shows that in the 12 weeks to January's end, 29% of them had no meat or fish. 

Trends such as Veganuary - that's going vegan for January - and a continual interest in meat free diets are affecting people's habits.   Quorn Foods saw its global sales rise by 16% last year.

The research was collected from a consumer panel of 30,000 households.  It shows a year on year move to more vegetarian meals.  In 2014, 26.9 of evening meals were vegetarian and this rose to 27.8 in 2016.  

During January, 10% of shoppers bought a meat-free ready meal - so sales had risen by 15% compared with the previous year.

Vegetables such as spinach and aubergine were up 43% and 23% respectively, compared to the last 12 months.

Vegetarian books from Foyles

Visit the Vegetarian Society

Vsit the Vegan Society

Compassion in World Farming

It's always great to see children getting stuck into nature and the natural world, and even better to ee them doing things to help protect it and create habitat.   

So I was really pleased to see the efforts of the wonderful staff and pupils at Wicor Primary School in Portchester.  

They've raised £500 which they donated to the Woodland Trust - a fantastic achievement.   They did it through the sales of sausages which they devised with a local butcher using Jack in the Hedge, a garlic mustard that grows in the school grounds. Well done to the butcher, as well, for getting stuck in! 

The money was also raised by bake sales, sponsored events and proceeds from a blend of tea devised with a Portsmouth tea merchant.

Headteacher Mark Wildman presented the cheque to the Woodland Trust after the children had spent a day tree planting!  The school had received 179 free hazel, whitebeam, aspen and spindle saplings from the Woodland Trust along with four larger trees – Oak, hornbeam and cherry.  Every child had helped plant a tree, and the Headteacher commented that he'd seen many a child dragging their parents across to the tree they had planted saying "I planted that!"   

Strong winds actually blew some of the trees over after the planting - but the kids just got on with re-planting them and the school thinks this shows the children that nature needs looking after and nurturing - an important lesson in life when caring for our natural world.

I love the ethos of this school - they also grow fruit and vegetables in their allotment as part of their Environmental Curriculum.  They sell these back to the community to promote healthy eating and to raise money for the allotment. Find out more here

So well done to all the children and staff at Wicor Primary School!  

Here's a video from the Woodland Trust on the Green Tree Schools Award.  Over 8,000 schools are now involved and it's free to join in.  There's a guide to the Green Tree School Award here which you can download

The 2 February is World Wetlands Day. It's held on the same day every year.

And to honour the day, the Nature Conservancy of Canada announced that a 593 hectare parcel of land had been donated for use as a conservation area.

Situated on the north west shore of Gough Lake and known as the Ferrier property, the area is essential for deer, small mammals, grassland birds, shorebirds and waterfowl that live and migrate through the region.

And a number of species that are considered to be at risk have been discovered in the area, such as the Baird's sparrow and Sprague's pipit.

The wetlands are valuable as shorebird nesting and staging habitat for waterfowl.  Unfortunately research suggests that 64% of slough and marsh wetlands have disappeared in settled areas of the province. 

The Ferrier family owned the land since 1904.   Agnes Isabelle Ferrier left the site to the Nature Conservancy of Canada in her will. 

This property is one of 4 new wetland conservation rojects that were announced on Friday, so this has got to be good news for wildlife needing wetlands.  Find out more about it here.

In addition to the above news, the Nature Conservancy of Canada bought 160 acres, which had ecologically significent wetland habitat north of Good Spirit Provincial Park, Saskatchewan.  It has a number of species of waterfowl during breeding and migration, and a diversity of other birds and wildlife.  Moose needed the forest and shoreline for shelter and habitat.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada also conserved a 61-acre island which has a plant rare to Canada and which is listed as threatened under the Canadian Species at Risk Act.  The location is  Lobster Bay, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia.  Find out more here

Conservation volunteers do vital work for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, as the video below shows:

The Scottish Government is to consult the public on the creation of new marine protected areas - MPAs.

Four marine reseres are set to be established to protect dolphins and whales in their Scottish breeding and nursey aresa.

The areas are:

1. North East Lewis
2. The Sea of the Hebrides
3. Shiant East Bank (around the Outer Hebrides) 
4. The Southern Trench (from the sea off Buckie to Peterhead)  

The Sea of the Hebrides is known to be a vital breeding spot for basking sharkes.   Risso's and bottlenose dolphins, along several whale species, frequent all the areas.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation society had proposed 3 of the sites in 2011.

Currently, Scotland's MPA network covers about 20% of its seas at the moment and it comprises over 30 MPAs.

You can find out more about the WDC's report on this proposal here

And more about the Scottish Government's Marine Protected Areas here