It was striking that during the Secretary of State’s sweeping speech accompanying the publication of the Environment Bill this week she placed a lot of emphasis on the international leadership role that the UK Government seeks.

The UK Government is rightly proud of the impact of its Blue Belt programme leading to designation of marine protected areas around its Overseas Territories, it is rightly proud of its Darwin…

I have just emerged from a speech by Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers announcing the publication of a new Environment Bill.

This comes a fortnight after we published the state of nature report highlighting the ongoing and shocking declines of wildlife across the UK.

The publication of the Environment Bill is, of course, an important milestone: for the first time we have, after many years campaigning and hard work…

Across all four countries of the UK every wild bird is protected by law, it is illegal to intentionally kill or injury a wild bird, damage eggs or disturb an active nest. In most areas the law is black and white, however there are circumstances where a license can be issued to grant an exemption from this law.

Which brings up the question, is it ever justified to kill? A big question, but an important one for conservation…

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that the UK will leave the European Union on 31 October 2019 ‘come what may’, whilst many parliamentarians continue to seek to wrestle back control of Brexit from the UK Government.

Meanwhile, evidence that a ‘no deal’ or ‘hard Brexit’ would be damaging for the UK’s natural environment continues to mount. 

I write this acutely aware…

With the publication of the new State of Nature report, today seems as good a day as any to provide an update on how the RSPB is improving its own environmental performance.  As I wrote in my recent blog on the RSPB and Climate Change, there is an added urgency to tackle our own ecological footprint and we are determined to up our game.  Here, my colleague Sarah Alsbury (who leads our work in this area) outlines progress…

In 2013, the first State of Nature report was published and it provided, for the first time, a shared evidence about what was happening to wildlife across the UK.  In short, it united the conservation community behind a common UK nature conservation story.

Today, the third such report has been published this time with an increased partnership of more than 70 wildlife organisations which this time includes the government…

I have, for understandable reasons, been a little detached from European Commission politics in recent weeks so I was pleasantly surprised/amazed to read the agenda for Europe by the proposed EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

This is the single more environmentally coherent statement I have read from any political leader and contrasts remarkably from the one from her predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker whose own agenda triggered…

It has been quite a week - starting with four million people (young and old) taking to the streets as part of the Global Climate Strike last Friday and followed up with a week of campaigning action. 

As the youth strike for climate continues today, politicians at Westminster are stuck in the increasingly toxic Brexit vortex and global leaders fail to come up with a convincing response to the brilliant and passionate appeal…

On 20th September, the world will pause for the global youth and earth climate strikes. We want to support young people all over the country and around the world who are calling for urgent climate action. At the RSPB we are encouraging our staff, volunteers and members to take part too, in whatever way suits them best: joining peaceful climate protests, running climate-themed activities with the public on our reserves,…

I am delighted to report an important milestone in the history of the RSPB.  We have now acquired our first bit of land on one of the UK Overseas Territories - the Cayman Islands.  This land will be leased to our partner, the National Trust of the Cayman Islands, and be incorporated into their own reserve. 

Below, I explain the rationale but first, I thought it would be timely to provide some historical context.

Earlier…

Visiting North Wales is always special, and yesterday I enjoyed it in the company of colleagues from organisations with whom we have big plans to restore nature.  If I'd been on the right train to Bangor I might have had sunset views of the rugged coast that is so special for seabirds and choughs, and a glimpse into the mountains where ring ouzels are preparing for departure to North Africa.  Alas previous events in…

It was good to see a number of MPs and Peers at our annual Westminster parliamentary reception yesterday.  I hope that the scones we offered provided sustenance to help them through a long evening of voting and debate. 

We need politicians to be at their best in the next few days and weeks to find a way safely through the Brexit impasse especially avoiding a No Deal Brexit which creates extreme jeopardy for the environment…

Today’s new report by the IPCC is the most comprehensive scientific assessment of the relationship between climate change and land. Governments have spent the last week negotiating the contents of the summary for policymakers, which will set the scene for climate action in landscapes around the world for years to come.

Humans exploit 72% of the ice-free land surface globally. We are therefore directly responsible…

You may have seen the blog summarising hen harrier breeding success in England explaining how the Hen Harrier LIFE project team have been involved in protecting and monitoring nine successful hen harrier nests in England this year, with the successful fledging of 33 chicks.

This is the result of a lot of hard work from a huge number of organisations and committed individuals.  Yet, this good news is tempered by knowledge…

I had just arrived in Durham for the first day of the RSPB’s (excellent) reserves’ conference when I heard two bits of significant and related news. 

First, Defra announced more detail about the proposed Environment Bill and responses to six consultations including some firm positions on various issues including net gain and conservation covenants. 

And then, within the hour, it was confirmed that Boris Johnson…

Tuesday was a hot day.

In a wide-ranging speech delivered in the Nash Conservatory at Kew Gardens this week, the still Environment Secretary Michael Gove outlined what we could expect in the promised and much-needed the Environment Bill.   It included much of what we (including all those that took part in last month’s Time is Now mass lobby) have been calling for including a legally binding commitment to wildlife recovery…

Today's a busy day.

Later this morning, Michael Gove is giving a speech about his upcoming Environment Bill and what he wants to see in it. This is an important moment and we will be giving the content close scrutiny to see if it matches previous positive rhetoric.

This evening, the RSPB will be hosting a panel debate in Westminster on the future of driven grouse moors. How can grouse moor management change in order…

The size of the conservation challenge can be daunting: a growing list of species threatened with extinction, wildlife sites in trouble and the pressures on nature intensifying.

This is why I remain a fan of earth/conservation optimism to demonstrate that we have made progress to improve the natural world - inspiring confidence that we have what it takes to save nature even if it takes one species and one site at a time…

Guest blog by David Hampson from the RSPB's Site Conservation Policy Team

Seventy years on from the legislation that paved the way for the creation of National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England and Wales, two important things are happening this week. Landscapes for Life (the National Association of AONBs) is holding a conference where they will be considering how these protected landscapes…

Conservation is often about making tough decisions about when to intervene and when not to.  Sometimes - as is the case for vertebrate control - these decisions can be controversial.  In the end, decisions we take are judged by the outcomes we achieve.

Let me give you an example from a site which I last visited in November to give a fond farewell to our much-loved and charismatic colleague, Roy Taylor who passed away last…

Credit: Ben Andrew (RSPB-images.com)

More than 40 million gamebirds (pheasants and red-legged partridge) are reared and released into the UK countryside each year for recreational shooting, a tenfold increase since the 1970s. There are increasing concerns over the environmental impacts of continuing this practice and at such levels, and crucial new research from the BTO shows these concerns to be well founded.   

What…

I fear that ongoing criminality in our uplands is now accepted as a norm and even tolerated by some.

For many years, the RSPB report hen harriers which have disappeared over grouse moors under suspicious circumstances, never to be heard of again. Scientific and government reports continue to highlight the link between grouse moors and the illegal killing of hen harriers and other raptors. Only in March this paper revealed…

Something brilliant happened this week.

On Wednesday, more than 12,000 people travelled to London to take part in the Time is Now lobby of Parliament organised by members of The Climate Coalition and Greener UK.  In total, more than 300 MPs from all parts of the UK received the message that the time is now to act to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.     

The halls of parliament were packed while the roads leading…

Regular readers of this blog may remember that in March, we received the disappointing news that we’d lost our legal challenge against Natural England’s decision to grant licenses to trial brood management of hen harriers. We believe the presiding judge Mrs Justice Lang erred and have since applied to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal. If this is granted, we would expect to return to court before…

The big five were on show in Kent on Friday. 

Sitting eating excellent cheese and pickle sandwiches, I saw wood pigeon, stock dove, collared dove, feral pigeon and… turtle dove! 

Lovely image of turtle dove courtesy of young Kent birder, Jack Farrar

All were feeding on a plot of land next the garden of a local resident, David Burridge, who had erected a hide to keep an eye on the local turtle dove population which…