...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.
Well Gert – it’s not often that I disagree 100% with you Touching the collective 'RSPB nerve' are we?
When the RSPB doesn’t tell the WHOLE truth – you know when it’s lying!
The fact is that the RSPB has spun the HH project and it did it badly – and Mark was party to it – but that’s his job! And now he’s moving on!
On thinking about it – perhaps the (senior) staff at the RSPB ain’t so nice after all !
Left-wing loonies I shouldn’t wonder!.
Trimbush - the Shooting times will never agree with the RSPB and the fact that they take such a defensive position is very telling indeed. People tend to forget that the RSPB is a charity and not a profit making organisation or some large corporate power so has no vested interests other than protecting our wildlife for us all. Can't say the same for people who kill things for fun and earn a pretty penny out of it so these comments are for a very narrow audience and irrelevant as far as I'm concerned as they add not one jot in doing anything positive for biodiversity.
Let's see these people and the NFU doing something positive for a change and stop sniping at the RSPB and other conservation bodies.
Redkite - I agree the RSPB is not critical of farmers , just the system within which they (and actually the RSPB themselves have to operate) - it's the spin machine of those organisations and narrow interest groups (who are mainly motivated by money) that find the truth difficult to take that twist it so.
From comments by NFU spokesman in the previous blog I would guess that the NFU response to this posting would be that as only 46% of the common bird species in the RSPB Stepping Up to Nature video are in long term decline there is no major problem and perhaps when 90% or more (or all) of these common bird species are in long term decline then we will recognise there is a problem and then produce a response similar to above. Or maybe it will be too late then anyway so we still will not take this action!!
Shame on the NFU for not producing such a response now.
I would ask Essex peasant that if he believes 46% of the common bird species in the RSPB Stepping Up to Nature video being in long term decline constitutes no major problem then what percentage does he think would constitute a problem ?
Essex Peasants irresponsible attitude and response in the previous blog explains how the state of wildlife on many UK farms may be in such a bad state
I think we have to differentiate here between farmers and the NFU. I am sure the RSPB is NOT critical of farmers there are many many farmers who do a huge amount for wildlife on their land and work very closely with the RSPB. (Of course one always wishes there were more wildlife friendly farmers). What I think the RSPB feels concerned about, and is a little critical towards , is the rather negative and unresponsive approach adopted by the NFU towards the RSPB's initiatives and efforts and towards countryside wildlife as a whole. The NFU, is after all, the leading organisation in the farming industry which has huge impacts on our national wildlife and one would therefore expect that the NFU would adopt a much more positive attitude and lead towards conservation than its current distinctly uninterested approach. Hence Mark's blog herewith. (I hope that this is a reasonable interpretation of your blog Mark).
redkite
It is not too surprising the NFU reponded the way they did rather than by issuing a press release such as this. They argue that farmland bird declines are not all due to farming practice and that many farmers are already doing good things. There is some truth in both of these. Yes, other factors - such as problems in wintering areas and on migratory routes potentially contributing to declines of species such as cuckoos and turtle doves - are involved but anyone who has observed te countryside over the past few decades (I am a 52 year old farmer's son myself) knows there has been an inexorable sterilisation of vast swathes of land over much of the country.
Equally there has been an evolution of attitudes and there are many farmers who now try to incorporate wildlifie friendly measures into their practice. However, as in may things, there are a few enlightened farmers who do a lot, a small number of unscrupulous or malicious ones who deliberately flout wildlife protection laws and in between a substantial number who simply give little thought to wildlife and consequently leave little available habitat for birds and other species.
Realistically the NFU is bound to accentuate the positives but the fact is that if we are not careful we will preside over the loss of not just birds but many plant and invertebrate species as well. Ensuring that tax-payer funded payments to farmers are effectively linked to implementing wildlife friendly measures is undoubtedly the key to bringing about change amongst the indifferent middle group of farmers (they don't need to be RSPB members, Sooty - if it is in their financial interests to protect wildlife they will do). At that point the NFU might be expected to advise its members to pay more attention to wildlife protection than at present though whether it will ever issue a press release such as your fantasy one above has to be doubted!
Jonathan Wallace