Watching Springwatch yesterday, a couple of statistics quoted stood out for me.

England is almost bottom of the league in Europe for the % of land that is currently Forested.. The Netherlands is at the bottom.

As I have a connection to both these countries , that's a concern.

If you are a citizen of either, it would be easy to conclude that environmental problems lie elsewhere, in far flung places, when the reality is that we have enormous challenges to our own wildlife and environment.

We need to address these, before we can hope to see a change elsewhere. We need to be the example that the rest of the world follows.

How wonderful could it be if two of the countries with currently the poorest track recordwere to transform and become the axis for a new beginning in Europe. The regeneration of the natural world.

They could go on to inspire the world.

Hope is one commodity worth exporting.