Blogger: Paul Forecast, RSPB Regional Director in the East
" Over the past 40 years Europe has lost 300 million birds and in just the past 15 years we have lost 70% of European grassland butterflies. Farmland wildlife remains in crisis. Following proposals released yesterday, the situation will get a lot worse unless leaders make the right decisions next week on the 22 & 23 November."
This year sees the 25th anniversary of the Agri-environment Scheme in England, and many such schemes have delivered fantastic results for wildlife, but rather than protect and boost this vital source of funding, signals from Europe’s politicians, including our own, point to an uncertain future. Agri-environment money is a lifeline for wildlife and a vital income stream to farmers. Therefore the new proposal to slash funds by an unbelievable 9.1% are astonishing.
A reduction of this amount could spell disaster for wildlife in England, and the rest of Europe. As well as being important for widespread but declining species such as the skylark and yellowhammer, agri-environment schemes are essential for less well-known species, including stone-curlew. It is possible that without this funding, these species could be lost from our countryside within a decade.
Stone curlew by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Yellowhammer by Tom Marshall (rspb-images.com)
Skylark by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Since the first agri-environment schemes were introduced in 1987, tens of thousands of farmers and landowners have helped wildlife. Here in the East, Chris Skinner is a conservation farmer who manages a square mile of countryside at High Ash Farm, two miles south of Norwich at Caistor St Edmund.
In 2006, he entered the large-scale Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme, monitored by Natural England, which provides funding for him to farm the vast majority of the land for biodiversity benefits, as long as he meets strict criteria for species growth.
He said: “The public wants us to farm in an environmentally and wildlife-friendly way, but that does cost money. “Without these funds I cannot afford to farm my land to the benefit of wildlife and have to go back to more conventional ways of farming which would be disastrous for the farm wildlife and the taxpayers who come to enjoy it.”
A survey of farmers in the UK has revealed that 96% think environmental work on their farms would be impacted if payments for wildlife-friendly farming agri-environment schemes, were stopped or reduced.
The EU Budget is under enormous pressure, in fact the odds for it being cut that are probably so short you wouldn’t waste the bus fare to the bookies. But EU leaders have to demonstrate that there are bits of the budget that simply must not be cut.
The agri-environment scheme is one such example and the proposals to cut it must be rejected. If these savings have to be applied elsewhere then there they must fall on areas of EU expenditure that cannot demonstrate value for money and do not help our farmers to become more resilient, more market orientated or rewarded for protecting and improving the environment. When it comes to the CAP, we know where savings can be made, and it isn’t here. Cuts are inevitable but making the cuts to the right areas and moving money into the most effective areas is what is most important.
David Cameron will be meeting his European counterparts in Brussels next week on 22 and 23 November. If you care about the future of the funding that benefits our countryside, then we call upon you to step up for nature and email him (yes, it actually works). Urge David Cameron to safeguard this spending and get us, the public, more for the money spent on agriculture by visiting www.rspb.org.uk/steppingup
Follow more up to date news next week by searching for #RSPBSteppingup and #EUBudget on Twitter @RSPBintheEast.
Together we can make a difference in Europe and your local countryside.