Hopefully some long running sagas will finish in 2014 – it is to be hoped that the final proposal for an airport in the Thames will finally be consigned to history despite a reprieve for more evidence by the Airports Commission in their interim...

For the second year in a row, Secretary of State for the Environment, Owen Paterson, is kicking off the year by discussing the issue of biodiversity offsetting via comments in The Times – here’s our thoughts on his comments in 2013. In...

I recently posted a review of last year – and inevitably some of the themes we covered in 2013 will reappear during the next twelve months, nobody said that nature conservation is anything but a long game! The future of our special places for...

Can I start with a slightly belated ‘happy new year’! I started this blog in September 2009 and set myself the target of a minimum 8 posts a month – and only once, in April last year. It came in just under with just 7 posts! In...

Morecambe Bay has some of the country’s best nature spectacles and most beautiful natural places to visit. Our 2012 visitor survey found that 90% of visitors would be interested in visiting places these places. However, only 55% of visitors had...

It’s a tribute to many of my colleagues, often working with partners and local communities, that this blog regularly features stories of success and victories securing the future of our most important places for wildlife, both in the UK and overseas ...

In the last century England has lost more than three quarters of its chalk grassland heritage. Half of what remains is in Wiltshire. The Wiltshire Chalk Country vision ambitiously aims to re-create the largest network of chalk grassland sites in north...

As an old Chinese proverb says, “if you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.” Obviously, the writer did not live in Strathspey with our relatively low...

As 2013 draws to a close, welcome to the A-Z of Planning Policy in 2013 , an alphabetical tour of the people, the policies and the projects who’ve made this a memorable year for our work on planning policy and saving special places. A is for...

Yesterday's publication of the Airport's Commission Interim Report did quiet kill off the proposal to build a new four runway airport on Kent's Isle of Grain (though it did reject all other estuary airport proposals). I was at the launch of the report...

I started working in the Brecks as the Community Engagement Officer after spending a season on Fair Isle, and what a different landscape to work in! A much larger landscape by comparison, although being about three miles long Fair Isle isn’t much...

I’ve just come from the launch of the Airports Commission Interim Report. Sir Howard Davies, the commission’s chair eloquently, patiently and with a little humour took us through the reports findings.

Logic, graphs, bar charts, clarity of...

Regular readers of this blog will know that recently the RSPB changed its strapline to ‘Giving Nature a Home’. Finding places for all the amazing diversity of wildlife in the UK and beyond is at the heart of our work, whether it’s hedgehogs...

In today's Daily Mail this article appeared.

In December 2012 the Environment Agency (EA) contacted neighbours and the RSPB (which owns much of the Brading Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) to inform them it had acquired the remaining...

We have a new blog from Joanne today! A lot of exciting things have been happening........

Hello again! Since my last blog post I’ve been busy visiting schools and chatting to more of you about what makes the Inner Forth special for you. Now I have five...

Annabel Lambert writes:

The Chancellor has delivered his Autumn Statement for the fourth consecutive year. The environment was mentioned in passing, but we’re far from the long-term vision we’d hoped for here.

Local Enterprise Partnerships...

6 mini dams went in yesterday through the Cairngorms Futurescapes Ruthven moor wetland restoration project. The materials were kindly paid for by the Cairngorms National Park Authority. It won’t change the world, but it is a solid example of what Futurescapes...

[Posted on behalf of Ian Barber, RSPB's Senior Partner Development Officer - Asia] Local people told us the direct road was impassable so we were forced to take the alternative rough and dusty road which went along two sides of a triangle to get...

Welcome to the first blog post for the Trent and Tame River Valleys Futurescape.

More, better, bigger and connected wetlands are at the heart of the vision for the Futurescape. We have a way of delivering this through the restoration of mineral sites...

According to my colleague Alice Ward-Francis, São Tomé is "totally awesome". Alice is working with our Portuguese BirdLife Partner SPEA on a project to ensure the future of three Critically Endangered birds (the dwarf olive ibis...

On Wednesday this week I tagged along to the end of a mass volunteer day to improve limestone woodland and grassland habitats in part of the Morecambe Bay Futurescape. Although I wasn't there to get my hands dirty, Tania Crockett had worked with one...

It is cold and windy, leaves are falling to the ground, the rain has been battering down all week and they have even started the skiing season in the highlands. This may be a signal to go in to hibernation, or at least find yourself the nearest fire and...

Boats have made their way up the Thames since humans discovered floating – in more recent times the Thames has been an artery of trade and commerce, of travel and exploration in times of war and peace.

Through all this the Thames estuary has retained...

When it come to landscape-scale conservation I doff my hat to the National Forest . They have been thinking about such an approach to rehabilitate a post-industrial landscape and provide biodiversity gain for two decades, along with delivering social...

Well, it is all excitement here for the launch of our new, local South Downs Futurescape Photography Competition ! Not a ‘native’ of the South Downs (I hail from across The Pond!), this landscape never ceases to fill me with wonder and...