The nature of the Lake District has been shaped by climate and centuries of human activity – and so it will be in the future. We’ve just announced a new management partnership with United Utilities on their Haweswater Estate.  Haweswater itself is the biggest single source of drinking water in North West England supplying some two million people

The RSPB will be tenants of Naddle Farm which is 500 ha (1250…

Was just one of the attractions at RSPB nature reserves over the Easter holidays.

And now spring is gathering pace, what better time to get out and enjoy the nature that is bursting out all around.  There are plenty of RSPB nature reserves to visit – which is your favourite?

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Writing this in the dry lands of Bedfordshire – it’s obvious we really need rain! The drought is worsening from Thursday 5 April a hosepipe ban will come into force.  There’s no doubt the drought will feature in these pages over the coming weeks – but for now here’s a helpful link to Anglian Water’s new Drop20 campaign.

If you’ve just linked to this blog from the RSPB e-newsletter and…

I was reminded the other day that in 1941, in the darkest hours of World War II and with Churchill’s backing, planning for post-war nature conservation was underway.  Our countryside and wild places, our wildlife in towns and rural parishes and its role in our lives is part of what defines us.

The last ten days have seen an unprecedented series of major initiatives and announcements that will shape nature conservation…

I have now read the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) line-by-line, comparing it with last year’s draft.

I am impressed, and still happy, as Martin Harper reported in his blog yesterday.

Why am I so happy? Martin mentioned our top three red lines. The Government has listened to us on all three points, and the result is a much more balanced document that we believe will help to deliver the Government…

In the latest guest post, Jon Fuller sets out the view from Essex where mad-cap estuary airport schemes are not new. Jon is an environmental campaigner from Southend and sets the latest plans for the Thames in a wider context.

When London Mayor Boris Johnson first suggested an estuary airport, I dismissed the idea as fantasy. I remembered the Maplin Sands episode over 40 years ago and concluded I could safely ignore…

The wait is over. Just under nine months after the Government published its draft new planning policy for England – the National Planning Policy Framework, or NPPF – the final version has been delivered. Here’s what we said in our press release:

The Government has listened to public concerns over planning reforms and has announced plans which will allow for growth while protecting wildlife.

The RSPB…

(Posted on behalf of Geoff Welch)

Kazakhstan does 'big' really, really well!  In the UK we are not used to the vastness of space that is Kazakhstan.  The world's largest landlocked country has almost 15 million hectares of Important Bird Areas (IBAs).  If you tried to fit the RSPB's nature reserves, covering 130,000 hectares, into this area you could do this 115 times! 

Kazakhstan's IBAs support important…

Continuing our series of guest blogs from around the Thames estuary, here Rolf Williams the RSPB's Kent Communications Officer, takes to the skies

Have you ever shopped at Bluewater in Kent, or how about Lakeside in Essex? They cater for tens of millions of shoppers each year. As I flew over them at 1,800ft it truly dawned on me how terrestrially routed we are, our mindset utterly shaped by the need to move across…

We now know for sure that England’s National Planning Policy Framework will be published next Tuesday. But nothing yet is certain about its content. We suspect that there has been much wrangling between Government departments behind the scenes, including over the definition of sustainable development, one (and only one) of our red lines. Getting it right could mean the difference between green and grey development.…

It’s been good to be at work today. It usually is but today was a bit special. For the last six months we’ve been planning (with a bit of plotting and scheming) developing our evidence, engaging, advocating and campaigning to set out argument that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was fundamentally wrong when, in his 2011 Autumn Statement he claimed that environmental regulation placed a ridiculous cost on business.…

This is the first line of DEFRA’s keenly awaited review of the ‘Habs Regs’ – the ways the EU Birds and Habitats Directives are implemented in the UK

This is a great first line ... and you can read the rest of it here.

More will follow during the day.

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A number of my colleagues have been putting their speed-reading skills to good use recently – firstly with the output from the coalition Government’s Red Tape Challenge on Monday there was a big result in that the public voice (over 15,000 of you stepped up with our e-action to Business Secretary Vince Cable) backed by evidence of the importance of environmental regulation meant that their role has been retained ... with…

The budget has ramped up pressure on our natural environment as never before – but the picture is incomplete, we have yet to hear what the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England will look like.  We’ve been involved in the process of trying to improve earlier drafts – we don’t know what the final version will contain.

In his budget speech the Chancellor said that the new framework…

The budget has been given to Parliament and the scrutiny of the detail (where the devils always lie) begins.

Colleagues gathered around our media office television to watch – most of the green bits of the budget had been heavily trailed and weren’t exactly surprises, but hearing all together brought home the implications of dashing for gas, giving tax breaks to oil exploration and speeding up the exploitation of exiting…

As I write we’re waiting to hear what the 2012 budget holds for us all – and what it will mean for the future of the natural environment.

Over 19,000 of you stepped up and told the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the environment does not have to be sacrificed in the pursuit of economic recovery ... vital as that is.

Avocet - directly threatened by proposals for a Thames Estuary Airport. Photo Chris…

In the current furore around the future of our countryside – treasure or sacrificial lamb – it's more important than ever to be clear that the debate is not solely about the rights and wrongs of major infrastructure projects (though some like the much-rejected Thames Estuary Airport are rotten to the core) – but how we decide which ones to back and which ones to avoid.

I’ve been planning to blog…

In most days, weeks – even decades, today would have been a defining moment in  how our Government (the Westminster one at any rate) will deal with the little matter of our environment. That life-enhancing, enriching, sustaining, Britain-defining, tourism-boosting, world class, singing, croaking, soaring, fragile thing that, apparently, stands between us and economic salvation.

But the Prime Minister’s speech on…

Today's guest blog gives a flavour of what it's like to face the obliteration of your local landscape - with all its connections and heritage - not to mention internationally important wildlife.  Friends of North Kent Marshes was formed in the heat of battle ten years ago when last the airport planners came calling.

David Leans’ epic film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” starring John Mills…

In January this year DECC announced that the South West had been named the UK's first Marine Energy Park, creating a partnership between government and buisness to drive forward the development of marine renewable industries - offshore windfarms, wave hubs and tidal power schemes - from the Severn to the Isles of Scilly. The following was published last week in the Western Morning News and Western Daily Press and consdiers…

A year ago we launched Stepping Up for Nature in London ... with launches later in the year in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Since then people like you (and probably you too) have taken nearly three million steps – thank you, they most certainly all add up!

Last March I wrote this at the launch and today our Conservation Director, Martin Harper summarised some of our achievements since then and, crucially, looks…

Here at the RSPB and at other environment charities we’re waiting with bated breath for the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework (the NPPF). The Government has committed to publishing it by the end of March, and we suspect it may come out sooner, possibly even before the Budget on 21 March. Media reports suggest that Chancellor George Osborne has been pressing Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to get…

Yesterday I told you about what we did when the weather postponed our planned boat trip on the Thames to explore the footprint of the Isle of Grain four-runway airport concept proposed by Lord Foster.

Sadly I missed out on the boat – but today the weather has relented and I just got this picture showing our Director for SE England, Chris Corrigan (left) with the Friends of North Kent Marshes – as the sign says, Conservation…

I love the coast – but I have to admit to being a land-lubber at heart. So heading off for the Thames this morning in full sunshine made me think that our planned boat trip would be running as planned. But the east coast has a mind of its own.

Our voyage was to be an opportunity to take journalists out to see the area currently targeted as four-runway airport in plans by architect Lord Foster – the boat trip will…

A short and simple post.

http://vimeo.com/37724686

Please watch the video and then please e-mail George Osborne. The Chancellor’s March budget will be a powerful signal of the intentions of the coalition Government towards the natural environment. We believe in a world enriched by nature, where growth is sustainable not at the short-term cost of our finest wildlife sites.

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