• Breckland’s natural riches revealed

    Andre Farrar

    I love the Brecks – not least, because a visit takes you to a place obviously different. A distinctive landscape shaped by soil, low rainfall and thousands of years of human activity.

    Stone-curlew by Steve RoundWe've followed the fate of one of the Brecks most distinctive inhabitants, the stone-curlew, through this blog. The proposal to dual the A11 put this sensitive nocturnal migrant wader centre-stage and the eventual outcome was well…

  • Focus on Cancun

    Andre Farrar

    The world's eyes will be on the latest round of climate talks taking place in Cancun, Mexico.  We have two colleagues there working with BirdLife International to press for the best outcomes from these important talks.  No one is expecting this round of talks to provide all the answers - but real progress needs to be made.  Negotiations about forests are at a critical stage and I've popped over to the Climate Change…

  • What price nature?

    Andre Farrar
    I suspect most readers of this blog have no difficulty in the idea that we should strive to ensure that the rest of life on earth should have a future.  In Europe, our best places for wildlife – identified, designated and (to some extent) protected are brought together as a network known as Natura 2000.  It’s a term that is rarely used or heard in the UK – though it is no less important here – on the off chance the…

  • Out of Africa – a round up of stories

    Andre Farrar
    From the high veldt in South Africa
    One of the attractions of spending a couple of weeks in South Africa was the chance to escape a bit of the British winter – so why was I wrapped up, wishing I had brought gloves, walking into a foggy dawn?
    Altitude. 
    I was visiting the high grasslands near Wakkerstroom home to some rare and very special birds.  The fog shrouded a rolling landscape of extensive fields as our…

  • Act now for tropical forests

    Andre Farrar
    In any analysis of the really, really important environmental issues facing the world there’s one that always tops the list – the need to keep tropical forests standing.  Given that is probably one of the most obvious statements I’ve made for a while – I must say I’ve been a bit rubbish at covering the issue in the Saving Special Places blog.  In my own defence, our Harapan Rainforest project…

  • Hen harriers still only have one English stronghold

    Andre Farrar
    In many ways, the fortunes for birds of prey have improved over the last 30 years – so some such as the red kite, buzzard and peregrine very much so.  And that is an important context to remember when our attention turns to the fate of hen harriers in England – take the pressure off and birds of prey will bounce back.
    Every year we put out a story about the outcome of the breeding season, and it has developed…

  • Our Vision for the Future of Planning

    Simon Marsh
    Question: what would bring together a coalition of 22 organisations, collectively representing 6.5 million members and thousands of volunteers?
    Answer: the most significant change to the planning system in England in the last 60 years, in fact since the system was set up in 1947.
    The UK coalition Government has started fundamental reforms to the planning system, which could have many implications for saving special…

  • Wye, Wye Oh Wye!

    Andre Farrar
    The results of the Our Rivers campaign vote for best and worst rivers in England and Wales are in.  While I have to swallow my disappointment that my promotion of the Great Stour in Kent has clearly failed to swing the vote – the Wye is clearly a fantastic winner.  It’s award is the second bit of good news the river has had in the last few weeks – it is a tributary of the Severn and had the Severn barrage proposal…

  • Hunterston – time to say no.

    Andre Farrar
    I hope you’ve been following the Hunterston saga on these posts over the last year.  In common with a lot of our work to save special places, the story has peaks of activity and long periods where nothing much appears to be happening (they are usually the time that colleagues are busy behind the scenes doing the legwork to ensure that our case is built successfully).
    Southannan Sands is the special place in at risk…

  • Birds of the Grey Wind

    Andre Farrar
    Still they come, from their arctic breeding grounds, to find shelter and a winter haven in Northern Ireland.  Whooper swans travelling in family groups, yapping brent geese and the wildfowl and wading birds that tell of the changing seasons.
    It is a leap of thought to turn from the stinging wind and focus on what we need to do to keep their futures safe. An essential first step is to ensure that the special places they…

  • A place in our affections – a place to love nature.

    Andre Farrar
    As the dreadful 2002 foot and mouth outbreak took hold, the countryside was closed. One place that was less affected was the tip of Romney Marsh where the shingle spit of Dungeness juts out into the English Channel.  I was there one day and was amazed at the numbers of people that had turned up. It was a time when we all were reminded just how important our countryside is.  I like to think that some of the people that discovered…

  • Mixed news for stone curlews

    Andre Farrar
    So as the rain beats against the window it’s difficult to believe that England has an officially recognised semi-arid region.  The Brecks is a distinctive landscape of big skies and sandy soils with a climate that has shaped a home for a special and characteristic range of wildlife.
    The Brecks is the most important place in the country for stone curlews (pictured) and, along with Salisbury Plain, is where partnerships…

  • The biofuels story moves on.

    Andre Farrar
    The story that the UK’s plans for using biofuels from crops is creating an insatiable and-hunger in countries such as Kenya has been a slow burn in the media.  I stuck this post up on Monday and we are now seeing some substantial articles appearing.  Here is one from the Guardian’s John Vidal.
    The Independent’s Oliver Wright has taken the story on and the reaction of Transport Minister, Norman Baker,…

  • Eagle owls on the One Show

    Andre Farrar
    On a warm summer’s day I spent an enjoyable few hours contributing to a piece to be screened on tonight’s One Show.  As is often the case with doing a bit of tele – there’s quite a lot of waiting, made all the more pleasant by being sat in the fragrant heather watching hen harriers and peregrines (possibly descendants of birds I was helping to protect nearly 30 years ago) . 
    The reason for the…

  • Fuel Hunger

    Andre Farrar
    There were 10 in the bed and the little one said ‘roll over’. So they all rolled over and one fell out.
    The UK is increasing demand for biofuels and this will lead to the destruction of more natural habitat and actually create more climate changing greenhouse gas emissions than previously feared. 
    There were 9 in the bed and the little one said ‘roll over’. So they all rolled over and one fell out.…

  • Bonus bathtime curlew

    Andre Farrar

    Curlew by Graham Catley

    As a bit of news-junkie, the thought of a morning without the Today Programme wasn't a great start.

    But every cloud.

    As I ran the bath I was faced with the delicate job of untangling the bathroom radio from its surrounding forest of shampoo bottles and tubes of stuff – but wait, what's this? The mournful trill of a curlew?

    Saved.

    The BBC were re-running a programme about The Wash – prosaically named…

  • Rat attack

    Andre Farrar
    Here’s a story about probably the most remote special place we could find – Henderson Island.  It’s part of the Pitcairn group and is an island with a bounty of wildlife.
    Preventing extinction is a fundamental cornerstone of what we do here at the RSPB – the consequence of the impact we are having on the species and habitats that share the planet with us can be severe. 
    Henderson Island is home…

  • In praise of green sandpipers

    Andre Farrar

    Last week I was attending a meeting at our Rainham Marshes reserve, it was a good meeting but you don’t want to hear about that!

    At the end of our discussions, we had a chance for a head-clearing walk around the reserve; it was a lovely day, until about ten minutes before the meeting’s end. And then the sky darkened – not just slightly, Lord of the Rings darkened.  Black clouds with bulbous bottoms massed…

  • Too busy to blog 2. The Humber, A11, Nagoya

    Andre Farrar
    In a desperate attempt to catch up with this momentous week for the future of nature, here are some short updates.
    On the Humber, Able UK’s plans for port-related developments went before North Lincolnshire Council last week.  This one of those cases where we are not saying that the development is fundamentally flawed – but we are campaigning vigorously to ensure that nature gets a fair deal.  The Humber is…

  • Too busy to blog 1. The Severn, Kingsnorth and Hunterston.

    Andre Farrar

    Here we are in the middle of one of the most significant weeks for the natural world and I’ve been absent from the blogwaves.
    The Severn barrage disappeared at the beginning of the week, but already news of a privately-funded proposal is emerging.  The barrage is dead, long live the barrage seems to be the endless groundhog-day refrain.  But some stunning predications are shaking out of the paperwork behind last…

  • Severnth Heaven?

    Andre Farrar

    Reports in the Sunday papers (here in the Independent on Sunday) indicate that tomorrow will see the massively damaging Severn barrage dropped on cost grounds.  The cycle of wild enthusiasm, appraisal of  the true risks and costs followed by collapse of proposals under the weight of their massive cost and predicted environmental impact is now becoming familiar.  This is the second time on the Severn and already the first…

  • Reaping the harvest of the wind

    Andre Farrar

    Coo, Michael McIntyre and I together in the last weekend’s Sunday Times magazine. Fame at last.  Well, actually, I got some pithy quotes into an article about wind farms at sea - I'll probably have to wait for an invitation to appear live at the Apollo!

     My quotes picked up the usual smattering of comments at work that always provide a welcome reminder that people are out there reading stuff in media land.  As…

  • It’s the economy, stupid.

    Andre Farrar
    Our economics team organised a great event yesterday.  Yes, we have an economics team who are playing a vital role in mapping the ways that nature can avoid being the silent victim of the impending cuts.
    Yesterday could have been a gloom-laden affair looking at just how bad things can be – but it wasn’t.  It’s going to be tough but the un-missable tone behind yesterday’s event was optimistic.
    …

  • Changing the economic landscape

    Andre Farrar
    We’re hosting a conference this afternoon with a title that fits the national mood; Financing Nature in an Age of Austerity.  We’re proud of our record in terms of delivering birds for your bucks but there’s no doubt the next few years are going to be tough as the public funds for nature conservation inevitably shrink.
    We’ve made our case that nature is especially vulnerable to spending cuts – and over…

  • A Message from Hungary

    Andre Farrar
    We’ve heard from our friends at BirdLife Hungary – who have issued their reaction to the shocking toxic mud spill (which I include below).  BirdLife Hungary wants to take an active part in the restoration work after one of the largest ecological catastrophes in their country.  The ecological implications of the incident add to the human tragedy unfolding in the wake of the spill – the thoughts of our colleagues…