...some time in the future, when the RSPB announces that it is embarking on an ambitious campaign to make the world richer in nature, the NFU will respond as follows:
'We welcome this campaign. As stewards of the countryside, farmers are alarmed at the big declines in farmland birds that indicate wider declines in wildlife as a whole. We are pleased that the RSPB works so closely with farmers carrying out free surveys for thousands of NFU members at the RSPB's expense, providing a network of advisors delivering free advice for farmers, working very closely with those farmers lucky enough to have the rarer farmland birds such as cirl buntings and stone curlews on their land and we often walk, almost hand in hand, into meetings with government ministers to ask for better designed and more effective agri-environment schemes so that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money can deliver more wildlife. We will always be grateful to the RSPB and other wildlife NGOs for campaigning during the Comprehensive Spending Review to protect the funding for agri-environment schemes when the NFU was silent on the matter. We recognise that the RSPB doesn't just talk about these issues, it puts its money where its mouth is and its Hope Farm project has shown beyond doubt that modern arable farming can deliver increasing farmland bird numbers if farmers do the right things. Thats why NFU office holders are all implementing such proven measures on their own land and we are all hoping to win the prestigious Nature of Farming Award. We are going to step up for nature with the RSPB.'.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
I dread putting my 2 penny worth in here. The RSPB does have a bit of a problem; on here the they are called 'left wing loonies' and how things have changed since 'their own stooges were in government'. During the 'sale of the forest' scenario they were being accused of supporting their colleagues in a right wing government.
The problem is that the RSPB cannot win on forums like this. As a large multi tasking organisation there is always someone who will criticise some aspect of their policy.
I find it strange that on this occasion when the RSPB are clearly seeking to improve the environment through agro environment schemes the very people who should be be in support of those schemes are making adverse comments.
So does the farming community not wish to improve the environment; of course they wish to improve it. I have never met a farmer who has a lack of regard for the land he owns. Farmers who seek and get the support of the RSPB in my area are clearly happy to do so.
The RSPB wants to improve the environment and at a grass roots level the farming community want to do the same.
Farmers are business people and you cant expect them to undertake improvements at their own cost year on year. Times and the pressure on our food supply have changed, so farmers must either be rewarded or we let markets sort out the strong from the weak and let the environment fall by the wayside.
If the farmers want to do this why then is this such a big argument, the organisations that represent and support the farmers should surely get behind their own members and help them work in the modern world.
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