Blogger: Sarah Green, Project Coordinator - Natura People Partnership Project

One of the wonderful things about wildlife is that it doesn’t recognise geographical borders.  What do I mean by that?  Well, a badger, a butterfly, a hedgehog, a fox, an otter doesn’t care what county it’s in.  Birds will make long journeys across several different nations to reach their warm winter destination.  Because of this, if we want to save and protect the world’s wildlife we need different organisations in different areas and indeed, different countries, to work together.

Enter Natura People...

Natura People is an exciting new project build on the partnership between four European organisations and their nature reserves.  There is of course the RSPB, where the project deals with our historic Minsmere site (more on that in another post).  The other organisations are Provincie West-Vlaanderen, in Belgium, managing the Zwin Park; Provincie Zeeland, in The Netherlands, creating the new nature reserve Waterdunen; and Natuur en Recreatieschap de Grevelingen, managing the Grevelingen area, home to the largest saltwater lake in Western Europe.

These sites share similar characteristics – all are on the North Sea coast, all have a certain, shall we say, flatness to them and all are proud recipients of the Natura 2000 designation.  Simply put, this means that they are particularly important for wildlife and plantlife and are protected under EU rules.

So, what are the common species found across the sites?  Firstly, there’s some rather famous Ospreys. Born in Loch Garten, Tore did a zig-zag tour of Britain and is now in The Gambia, whereas Bynack is taking a more direct route, heading straight from Scotland to France, via Bruges and finishing on the Senegal/Mauritania border. These magnificent birds will spend the winter in Africa and return to our shores in Springtime next year.

Another bird that winters in Africa is the Swift, often confused with the Swallow (see Adam's previous blog post), this bird sleeps on the wing.  Both species breed at each partner site.  Redwings and Fieldfares winter at all 4 sites and Bewick Swans pass over the continent on route to the UK.  Bearded Tits and Bitterns, whilst rare in the UK are common throughout Holland.

The existence of these birds tell us there’s something special about our environment.  They remind us that although we may be separated by a channel of water Britain is not so different from mainland Europe.  Natura People is about bringing organisations together, finding common ground, sharing knowledge and raising awareness of the work we all do.

We’ve got a duty to protect the environment but we want people to experience it too!  The Natura 2000 designation means the reserves get special protection and the Natura People project means we can actively work to improve the sites, for wildlife and visitors.

I think you’ll agree that’s a great thing.

Don’t forget that you can follow what’s happening at Minsmere by subscribing to the blog, here.

Natura People is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG IV A 2 Mers Seas Zeeën Crossborder Programme 2007-2013.