Our children and our children’s children.  How often that phrase gets re-cycled as an often-lazy way of talking about the long-term implications of decisions, both good and bad.  We want the special places we save and protect to be there for those future generations (I’m also keen for them to be there for me too!)

I’ve been a bit more careful about trotting this out since becoming a Dad.  But on Saturday…

I’d been wondering how to promote our Bird of Prey Campaign through this blog, and now I have the perfect reason.

The RSPB welcomes the Scottish Government’s announcement that consultations on the designation of six new Special Protection Areas for golden eagles will begin in the New Year.  By extending the network of sites of European importance (known as Natura 2000) in northern and western Scotland, golden…

This blog does get its feet wet occasionally and we have visited a number of coastal sites – but we haven’t ventured too far off shore.  One (rather bad) reason is that there’s only one Special Protection Area (SPA) designated out there, in the sea and that’s Carmarthen Bay.  Given just how important the UK is for seabirds and just how critical our marine areas are in ensuring they have somewhere…

Lets hope it’s going to be different this time around.

You may remember the film when Bill Murray repeats the same day over and over again – well nature conservation can feel like a bit like that.   A couple of days ago I joined some colleagues to discuss emerging plans to harness tidal energy from the river Mersey.

I’d been here before.

Two decades ago my life was taken over by proposals to build a…

We’ve been running a photographic competition in Northern Ireland. The winning images have just been announced.  You can have a peep here (follow the link at the bottom of the page). And here's some press coverage.

The competition was called ‘Nature’s Hotspots’ and its theme was celebrating the importance of Northern Ireland’s Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs). If you are a regular reader, you will…

We have been following the progress of the Whitson SSSI public inquiry which, in short, was hearing an appeal into a refusal to give retrospective planning permission for an aerodrome on Upfield Farm on the Gwent Levels in South Wales. We have now heard that the appeal has been refused.  The aerodrome is simply an example of unauthorised development.  Our primary concern was the possible impact of this developing airfield…

We were dismayed this week to hear that the Romanian Senate of Parliament has thrown out a draft law that would have protected the irreplaceable natural environment of the Danube Delta.
 
The Danube Delta is one of the world’s largest wetlands, with over 100,000 ha of mires, lagoons, reedbeds, dunes and forest – a true wilderness that is home to a fantastic array of wildlife and is contains priority European habitats and…

Back on 28 September I promised that you would be amongst the first to know the outcome of our negotiations aimed at getting agreement on how the Highways Agency will safeguard stone curlews as part of their proposal to dual the A11.  Here's a link to the web page that tells you some of the background to the case.

Well, the news is very good (and hopefully you will see some of the media coverage).

I’m writing this…

They’re out – at last.

As I reported on 1 October, the Government has now published its national policy statements on energy. These statements will be crucial when the new Infrastructure Planning Commission makes decisions on proposals for new power stations, whether coal, nuclear or wind, in England and Wales. The decision was delayed by some weeks, apparently because ministers were finalising their policy…

I spent Friday with 90 very enthusiastic RSPB volunteers and staff members talking about climate change and the challenge it poses for all of life on earth (and yes that definitely includes us – but also everything else that shares this planet with us).

One of the great things about working for the RSPB is that we do make a difference – we’ve got a proud tradition of campaigning successfully to make things better…

BirdLife International (the RSPB is the BirdLife Partner in the UK) has just published a handy round-up of news covering the Important Bird Area (IBA) programme.

One of the cornerstones of bird conservation world-wide is the identification of (IBAs).  The programme has already identified 11,000 areas in 200 countries – and still the work goes on.  The rigorous identification of IBAs is essential if they are to be…

Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Environment has announced plans to sack all fifteen regional directors of the country’s environment inspectorates and national parks.  This dramatic and incisive move comes ahead of news that the European Commission (EC) is starting an infringement action against Bulgaria aimed directly at stopping the destruction of wildlife sites that are amongst the best and most important in…

The RSPB is the UK partner of BirdLife International.  One of the greatest contributions that the partnership continues to make to global efforts to conserve birds is the identification of the most important places for them.  We have a 'just what it says on the tin' name for them - Important Bird Areas (IBAs).  News has just been released by the BirdLife Partner is Australia, Birds Australia, of the publication of…

Here’s the first update from the Public Inquiry currently underway in Newport.

If you want to catch up with the story so far – you can read the first post.  In short, this Public Inquiry is now looking at an appeal into refusal of a retrospective planning application for development of an aerodrome which could affect the Newport Wetlands and nearby Severn Estuary through disturbance.

So, the Inquiry finally…

Over the last five years we have been working hard to support our Polish Partner OTOP (BirdLife in Poland) with their Via Baltica campaign. Key Natura 2000 sites in north-east Poland are under threat from a series of road projects on this international road corridor, which will link Helsinki to Warsaw via Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The corridor upgrade is taking place as a series of separate projects rather than being…

It’s forty years since proposals to create London’s (then) third airport in the Thames stimulated the conservation movement to get its act together and start to gather the data that has become the bedrock of campaigns to protect some of our best places for wildlife from damage.  The Birds of Estuaries Inquiry became part of today's Wetland Bird Survey

Then it was a site off the Essex coast at Maplin Sands…

This blog has been running for just over a month.  Already some of the casework the RSPB is involved with has started to feature regularly in these posts, but it's a bit like a big school of dolphins, there are loads of them but at any one time only a few are visible above the surface.  You can find out more about our work to save special places here on a new set of webpages - there are Google maps and everything to…

For the first time, since this blog started, the RSPB will be involved in a public inquiry.  The case revolves around a planning permission issued by Newport City Council in the late 1990s allowing the use of a grass landing strip for aircraft flown by the family and friends of the applicant.  The land involved was part of the Whitson Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the Gwent levels in South Wales.

Over time…

Waiting to catch the Eurostar back from Brussels (I’ll come back to why I was there later), I caught up with this news item that highlights the importance of vegetated coastlines from mangroves to saltmarshes as part of the solution to tackling global warming.  This UN Environment Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNESCO report calls for a halt in the destruction of these habitats (currently running…

The Tees estuary is one of those ‘against the odds’ places.  Large chunks of it have been lopped off for development yet nature has endured amongst the ship-breakers and chemical plants.  So, it’s good to be able to report some positive news.

Responding to pressure from Natural England and the RSPB, a housing developer in Hartlepool has revised their plans for 458 houses next to the shoreline. By pulling…

Hot on the heels of last week’s news that E.ON have put their plans for Kingsnorth on hold comes further encouraging news for the campaign to end the use of dirty coal.  The Danish energy company DONG have announced that they are pulling out of plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston on the Clyde. 

My colleague, Aedan Smith, head of planning for RSPB Scotland has commented;  "We're glad that DONG…

The big news today is that the E.On is shelving plans for a new coal fired power station on the Thames at Kingsnorth.  On its own it can be portrayed as a simple economic decision, but that would be to ignore the vigorous and high profile campaigning that has undoubtedly provided the impetus for this postponement.  We’ve played our part in that campaign and this is an opportunity to say thank you to all those who have supported…

I have a bit of a reputation amongst colleagues for going on about the Birds Directive.  ‘Yes, we know its important, but it’s a bit, well, dull’.  And at one level, the inner workings of the legal foundation for so much modern success for nature conservation is not, perhaps, where you would start to enthuse people.  You are unlikely to hear ‘Cor look at that peregrine, it’s listed on Annex 1 of the Birds…

We nearly lost the Ribble.  In the 1970s its future hung in the balance.  Land claim and development seemed a likely fate for what, even then, was widely recognised as an important place for bird conservation.  The size and scale of the challenge was beyond the resources of the RSPB of the 1970s and disaster was only averted when the Ribble was acquired for the nation by the Government.  There were still casualties, a bite…

A piece of planning history was made today. A new planning system in England and Wales was launched. It won't affect you the next time you plan to extend your home, though, and it won't make any difference to the new housing estate or supermarket in your town. This is about the really big stuff, the power stations, ports, motorways, airports and suchlike.

The new Infrastructure Planning Commission will deal with…