I was taken by this story, here reported by Patrick Barkham in the Guardian – announcing a study into the benefits of bird song – to us, as opposed to the birds themselves.

To readers of this blog it isn’t much of a revelation that bird song is a special and important part of our lives ... unravelling the details will provide a wealth of fascinating new insights into our relationship with nature.

It’s been a difficult year for environmental planners in England. In the summer we had the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the subject of an intense public furore.  Autumn gave us the Chancellor’s statement moaning about the burdens imposed by environmental protection and proposing changes that could make it more difficult for the statutory environmental bodies to step up for nature, as well as a…

Well – what could it be, if we just extended Christmas one day longer?  Thirteen spoon-billed sandpipers perhaps!

A couple of days ago I joined a gaggle of excited partners and supporters at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge HQ to celebrate a milestone in the project to save spoonie from extinction – pop over to the Saving Species blog to read more.

And any better collective noun for a gathering…

There’s a bit of a theme emerging in some of the last few posts – summed up as business and birds (and biodiversity of course). It’s not really a surprise, as we are still coming to terms with the implications of Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in which he fingered the environment and efforts to keep it going as factor in holding Britain back. Regulation may (and should) stop wrong options being taken – but their real value…

In August, I wrote about the importance of the Min Jiang Estuary in China for two Globally Endangered species, Spoon-billed sandpiper and Chinese Crested Tern. 

I was there for meetings with local government officials and to do a training workshop for local teachers and volunteers of the Fujian Birdwatching Society.  This work was part of BirdLife International’s “Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands” project which is supported…

The nature of development has been in the news recently. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement sent shudders through the conservation and environment movement as he framed the regulations that have been effectively protecting the UK’s best wildlife sites as a brake on economic development.

Here at the RSPB we have a lot of experience of working constructively with planners and developers. Most…

Normally arcane pieces of environmental legislation are for the super-specialists and lawyers – but last week’s Autumn Statement by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has propelled the role of this (and other) Directives into centre stage.  The Habitats Directive and it’s European forerunner – the Birds Directive have formed the backbone of protecting Europe’s nature for over 30 years, and that…

A couple of years ago, just before he retired, Alistair Gammell shared his perspectives on the development of the most effective, and progressive, wildlife legislation in the world. Alistair’s long career with the RSPB took him to the post of Director of International Operations, but he was there in the thick of it when negotiations were underway back in the 1970s.

The storm unleashed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer…

It’s different in Scotland. True in so many ways.  The RSPB works throughout the UK and this means respecting and working within the devolved structure of Government.  During a year that has seen unprecedented grass roots activism around forestry and planning in England, I’ve detected a certain schadenfreude from colleagues in the other three countries watching as the nature of the shires comes under siege.

As the Coalition Government seeks to unshackle the economy - we're watching announcements with profound interest.  No-one can argue that our economic woes don't demand urgent government action, but now is the time the commitment the Coalition has shown towards tackling our environmental crisis to shine through.  Easy words - or profound commitment?  Here's Martin Harper, RSPB's Conservation Director, on the subject…

Why is it that the UK’s coastal wetlands haven’t suffered the levels of destruction seen around the world?  How a threat to the Thames estuary over 40 years ago revolutionised nature conservation.  I enjoyed talking to Charlie Moores about the Thames and it endless airport proposals – you can listen here on Talking Naturally.

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The Hoo peninsula in North Kent is not unfamiliar with threats to its most excellent natural environment.  Leading the litany of potential destruction have been a variety of over-blown airport proposals.  Not far behind was the proposal to develop the carbon-spewing Kingsnorth power station.

The area is very special to us here at the RSPB – one of our oldest nature reserves, Northward Hill, is at the heart of the…

Boris wants one. He really does. Lord Foster is the latest to design one. But time after time the proposals for an estuary airport in the Thames founder under the weight of reason, the massive costs and the unsustainable destruction of the coastal environment.

That it could be done is not in any doubt – the pell-mell loss of coastal wetlands world-wide is testament to the ‘if it can be built – it should be built’ approach…

That may sound like Yoda's re-interpretation of a well-known sustainability slogan, but in fact it refers to a Parliamentary bill which today became the Localism Act 2011.

The RSPB has been a leading member of the Greenest Planning Ever coalition which has been campaigning on what was the Localism Bill for the last year, and until May this year it was my privilege to chair this group.

The Localism Act is principally…

The international efforts to save the spoon-billed sandpiper from extinction involves both species and site based conservation action, that’s why it has cropped up both on this blog but also the Saving Species blog.

Here’s the latest news – announcing the safe arrival of 13 spoonies in the UK and here’s a  link back to some of the posts on this blog from earlier in the year.

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I've been reflecting on a week when our climate and the impact we are having on it has been very much in the news.

So it was with huge relief when I heard from colleagues in Scotland that we had reached a huge milestone in the campaign to stop the development of coal-fired power station at Hunterston on the Clyde.  It’s been a campaign that we’ve followed throughout the two years I’ve been contributing to this blog…

I’m sat at my desk getting updates via Twitter from my colleague and @Martin_Abrams (if you are a Twitter devotee do follow him) from a conference we are running with WWF and Natural England called Climate change: biodiversity and people on the front line.  

The conference is taking place now because in a few days time the world will gather for the Durban Climate Change Conference – and the stakes could not be higher…

For forty years we have been fighting proposals to concrete over vast swathes of the Thames estuary to construct a monster airport.  Lord Foster’s latest sophisticated doodle pinpoints the Isle of Grain in north Kent (my home county, not that that is terribly relevant) as the location of a four runway airport with arms of infrastructure waving their way through the landscape.

It will solve all our problems, we are…

Quite often over the past six months I’ve asked you to Step Up for Nature. It may have passed you by (I hope not) but I know many of you have taken steps to help save the special places that are a vital part of our natural world.

This blog helped launch Stepping Up for Nature back in March ... and I had the chance to help publicise the event on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.  And if you fancy a news update…

I recently posted some blogs about Yangkou, Rudong in China and its importance for Spoon-billed sandpiper.  The site’s importance has now been further highlighted through observations by Tong Menxui from the Shanghai Birdwatching Society.  He watched the mudflats over a series of days and recorded a peak number of 103 Spoon-billed sandpipers on October 12.  As the World population may be around 300 this could indicate…

An announcement that a long-running planning saga has come to an end in Ayreshire has been warmly welcomed by my colleagues in Scotland – here’s a note our Head of Planning and Development in Scotland, Aedan Smith, sent me:

Generally speaking, we want to see more renewable energy development, including more windfarms.  We desperately need them to help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the damaging…

The twists and turns of the proposal to build a new SSSI-damaging, carbon-spewing coal-fired power station on the Clyde at Hunterston have been a regular feature of this blog. The news that more than 20,000 individuals have registered their objection to the proposal comes days before a decision is expected on 9 November.  If you are one of the people that’s stepped up to challenge this damaging proposal – thank you.…

I've been moonlighting again over on the Saving Species Blog ... well to be fair I can't claim any credit at all as I'm posting the an update from Tristan da Cuhna on the first surveys of northern rockhopper penguins after the dreadful oil spill resulting from the wreck of the MV Oliva back in May ... and you can read all about it here.

And here's a picture of a pair of rockhoppers (photocredit Trevor Glass…

On Monday, after what felt like a never-ending process of drafting and honing, we submitted our response to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s consultation on the controversial draft National Planning Policy Framework. 

Our response was formed of three parts.  The first was our consultation response in which we answered relevant consultation questions.  The second was our proposed track changes…

We need a revolution in the deployment of renewable energy – if we’re to tackle the twin crises of climate change and the loss of nature (the real meaning behind that clunky word ‘biodiversity’) then we need to revolutionise our approach to enable the right renewables in the right place.  This is, by no means, an issue only for the UK.

A new legal warning issued by the European Commission to the…