Five thousand homes at Lodge Hill, Kent. Able Marine Energy Park, the Humber. Hunterston power station, Ayrshire. M4 relief road, Newport. All schemes the RSPB has opposed or is opposing. All special places protected by environmental  legislation, not...

Stepping up to win for our best wildlife sites has never been easy – I’m lucky to work with colleagues across the UK who are brilliant at it and – modesty not withstanding – we have a great record of protecting our best wildlife sites from damage; this...

[This is a post by Clare Stringer - the RSPB's Head of UK Overseas Territories Unit within the International Directorate]

Last week, two events brought attention to the astounding underwater biodiversity of the UK’s Overseas Territories (OTs)....

Yesterday I heard Nick Boles give his first speech as planning minister at the Town and Country Planning Association’s annual conference, Where will the people live?

He was fresh from his appearance on BBC Newsnight where he was grilled by Jeremy...

Planning minister Nick Boles claims that buildings can be more beautiful than nature. The RSPB believes we shouldn't have to choose. Well-designed homes close to nature: that's the RSPB's vision for the homes the country needs. We agree that we need many...

Our birds are lucky in one very important respect – they are very well counted and monitored by a small army of volunteers. Our efforts (I contribute records through BirdTrack) are the foundations of conservation in the UK.

The annual report ‘The...

Islands are often hot spots of unique life; São Tomé and Principe are just such islands, never connected to Africa or each other, their wildlife has developed in isolation.

That very isolation can make island wildlife very vulnerable to...

Just a short post to add my congratulations to Lancashire Wildlife Trust for their successful campaign to stop peat ‘winning’ (a euphemism is ever there was one) at Chat Moss in Great Manchester.

Our lowland peatlands like Chat Moss have a taken a beating from the commercial extraction of peat for horticulture leaving tattered remnants of huge importance to their localities and the wildlife that depends on…

Dan Pullen is a regular contributor to this blog and, back in June, he was telling us that our work to get vital migratory and wintering bird sites in Bulgaria properly protected had advanced with further action being taken by the European Commission against the Bulgarian Government.  The next instalment is looking very positive, here’s Dan (our International sites casework officer) to take up the story.

I’m very…

As I'm a bit pressed for time, please excuse me just bunging out our press reaction to today's die-back summit

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Ash dieback is just the tip of the iceberg' RSPB reacts to Westminster Government summit on Chalara fraxinea

A summit on the tree disease Chalara fraxinea, also known as ash dieback, has taken place in London this afternoon [Wednesday 7 November].

The meeting, chaired by Environment…

Have you ever thought what makes a place special for you? I suspect for readers of this blog the answers will be filled with the details of nature, the species that bring a landscape to life, the bird song that conjures a magical spring day, a profusion of wild flowers and, very often, the trees that add form and structure to the view.

Our woods and forests, every copse and spinney frame so much of our world and strike…

In our final visit to the UK Overseas territory of St Helena, Jonathan Hall looks at the importance of the island for its marine life.

Seabird and Marine Conservation

Our story so far as concentrated on the life clinging to the tiny island itself (you can catch up here on the last blog by Daniel Pullen). Daniel and I were also on the island to discuss opportunities for further seabird research and marine conservation…

In a second instalment from on of the UK’s Overseas Territories, Dan Pullen, RSPB’s International Site Casework Officer, looks at the lengths developers are going to in the efforts to limit impact on the island’s unique wildlife.  The stakes are high to take the right decisions and do the work to the highest standards.

Development with Nature Conservation

As I mentioned in my previous blog, our time…

There is some very good news for the Tana River Delta. The global importance of the Delta has been recognised by its designation as a Ramsar site. In the world of wetland conservation the Ramsar designation is the Oscar, Nobel Prize and gold medal all rolled into one.

In a statement from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands secretariat, the Assistant Advisor for Africa Ms Ako Charlotte Eyong described the delta as the second…

Chris Mason has been protecting and enhancing his local swift habitat in a truly inspirational fashion. This is the story was sent to us this summer, 2012:

Some years ago a friend told me about a nesting colony of 7 or 8 pairs of swifts that was at risk. The old barn where the birds had nested for decades was to be converted into a house. I contacted a well-known local ornithologist for advice, and he arranged with the builders…

In a series of blog posts Dan Pullen looks at the challenges of saving nature on one of the most remote islands in the world, St Helena, here’s the first instalment.

Wirebird Conservation & Airport Issues

My colleague Jonathan Hall (who you’ll be hearing from later) and I recently spent a hectic eight days on St Helena, a UK overseas territory slap in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean.  This island…

Today the RSPB has taken the unprecedented and serious step of filing a complaint to the European Commission regarding Natural England’s approach to protecting important habitats in the South Pennines.

This isn’t a step we’ve taken lightly as our Conservation Director, Martin Harper, set's out.

As you can imagine there has been a lot of work behind the scenes to get to this point. One useful source…

The Ribble Estuary holds a special place in the history of nature conservation. In the late 1970s the whole estuary and its teaming flocks of birds was under real and imminent threat of development and more or less total loss. This was at a time when the conservation movement was small and losing more battles than it was winning. A time when around one in ten (12% to be precise) of our best wildlife sites (Sites of Special…

One day I will become a WeBs surveyor and join a band of dedicated (and in some cases intrepid) volunteers who chart the fortunes of the waterbirds that throng our wetlands. Although WeBs is one survey I haven’t helped with – I have had many reasons to use the results and be grateful to the legions of volunteers who collect the data.

The results for the winter of 2010/11 are now published and I am looking…

Our Wallasea Island Wild Coast project has been in the news for over a week now – and we’re delighted it is because we very proud of the scale and ambition of restoring a large chunk of the Essex coast for wildlife.

But there’s more; Wallasea Island will be in the forefront of connecting people to nature.

And more; restoring the coast’s timeless tides to Wallasea Island will help make the coastline…

[An update from Bulgaria from Dora Querido]

If the first question that came to your mind when you read the headline was 'what is a flash mob?' then have a look here on YouTube.

The LIFE + project for the Bourgas Lakes has been supported by the RSPB since 2009, and every year the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), the leading partner on this LIFE+ project, holds a student camp in the end of…

We’ve been receiving tragic news from Kenya reporting that violent attacks have left villagers dead and communities devastated - here’s coverage on the BBC.

The environmental challenges that the area faces have been documented on this blog – as has the close working relationship between staff at our BirdLife International partner, Nature Kenya, and the people of the Delta.

Displacement of local people…

If you are interested in the future of our woodlands in England – then there’s an opportunity to give your views to DEFRA; here’s the link.

We want to see an increase in woodland but also ensuring the right types of trees are planted in right places. It would be crazy to damage wildlife-rich open habitats like lowland heathland and chalk grassland.

Do let the Government know what you think.

Follow…

Yesterday saw the start of an exciting phase of the restoration of coastal nature on the Essex coast at Wallasea Island.

Here’s the full story of our launch with Crossrail – without whom the whole project would have been difficult to achieve. And here's more in the Guardian

And here are some pictures from yesterday and of the site and wildlife that will benefit.

Crossrail's Chief Executive Andrew…

The word of the day? Big!

What would you do with 4.5 million tonnes of earth?

Well we thought restoring part of the Essex coast and creating the largest man-made coastal reserve in Europe would be great thing to do – for nature and for people.

But such a big idea needs big partners and this landmark project (literally a new landmark on the Essex coast) has been made possible through a unique partnership with…