Ellie Crane, RSPB Agriculture Policy Officer
Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) has gone on record as saying that climate change is the biggest threat facing UK farming. He points out that though farmers may be able to adapt to gradual changes in temperature, extreme weather events can be devastating. The floods, droughts and heatwaves we’ve experienced in recent years have had a severe impact on the harvest, and we can expect more of this erratic weather in the years and decades to come.
Although we don’t agree with everything Mr Kendall said in his interview (see the RSPB response here), it’s certainly welcome that such an influential figure in the farming community is speaking up about climate change. We’ve discussed the impacts of climate change on farming in a previous blog post and we agree with Mr Kendall about the seriousness of the challenges farmers are facing.
What is still lacking, however, is recognition of the challenges facing the natural world and the vital role that farmers will play in tackling them. The recent State of Nature report, a joint effort by 25 UK wildlife organisations, showed just how serious the situation is. 60% of the species studied have declined in recent decades as a result of multiple pressures, including climate change and changes in farming practices.
Recent research on farmland birds shows that, perhaps surprisingly, changes to farming are still affecting populations more than changes to climate. Although the effects of the weather can be clearly seen in year-to-year fluctuations in bird numbers, the long term populations trends closely match changes in agriculture. Farmland bird numbers fell steeply during the 1980s under the intensive farming regimes of that period, and started to level off during the 1990s as agricultural production stabilised and agri-environment schemes were introduced. We are still losing farmland birds now, but at a slower rate than in the past. There is growing evidence that climate change is affecting bird populations, but for farmland birds agricultural practices remain by far the most important factor.
So the challenge for farmers and for society is even greater than Mr Kendall makes out. Not only must we continue to grow enough food while the climate goes haywire: we must do it in ways that don’t destroy the amazing life-support system known as the natural world. In recent years, farmers and conservationists working together have made some progress in reconciling food production with protecting our environment (though there’s still a long way to go).
Let’s not throw away all this good work in a misguided attempt to grow more food at all costs.
Hi Sooty - thanks for reading and commenting. As a regular reader of our blogs you know all about the great partnerships the RSPB has with wildlife friendly farmers across the country. We're not interested in laying blame (and certainly not in 'kicking' anyone) - just in identifying the causes of wildlife decline and working alongside others to make things better. In the case of farmland birds, the evidence is clear: changes to farming over the decades since the war have created a more challenging environment for wildlife, which has led to populations declining. The good news, as I mentioned in the post, is that the work farmers and conservationists are doing is making a difference. Obviously changes to farming aren't the only challenge facing our wildlife, and we are working to tackle the other problems as well, including climate change as Olly says. See www.rspb.org.uk/.../pollution.aspx, www.rspb.org.uk/.../aviation.aspx and www.rspb.org.uk/.../green for some examples of what the RSPB is saying and doing about pollution and greener lifestyles.
Ellie
Thanks, Sooty - but I think it's pretty clear from all our climate change mitigation work that that CO2 pollution from our energy production and use, cars, aviation etc is a growing, and likely to become the biggest long term, impact on birds and biodiversity. Apologies for late reply, family holidays - by train (not perfect, but better that most) and cycling.
When will the rspb say that all the pollution from the way we live today including pollution from vehicles,shipping and air travel is having a terrible effect on wildlife including birds.Of course the answer is never you may upset the majority stick to kicking the minority i,e farmers.