15 years

I was reminded this week, via the curious medium of LinkedIn, that I have now been at the RSPB for 15 years.  My mind went immediately went back to March 2004 and I reflected on what’s changed and what has, for better or worse, stayed the same.

Back then, I had no children, lived in London, was enjoying watching my football team become invincible* and had just bid fond farewell to my former employer, Plantlife International.  My first day working for the RSPB was a Saturday in Manchester at the Labour Party Spring conference at a time when Tony Blair still ruled and Michael Howard was Leader of the Opposition. 

At that time, our priorities were to challenge the government to meet their own targets (to improve the condition of our finest wildlife sites and to reverse the decline in farmland birds) while also making the case for better legal protection for the marine environment, action to tackle climate change, ensuring every child had contact with nature as part of their formal education and ending the illegal killing of birds of prey.  Brexit and twitter were never mentioned.

Fast-forward fifteen years, what’s different?

A glass half-full perspective would point to new laws and commitments to protect the marine environment in the UK and with huge marine protected areas established in the UK Overseas Territories.  It would celebrate the legal targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Climate Change Act and fresh political commitment to restore nature in a generation.  What’s more, it would note that nature conservation organisations have a growing and impressive track-record of improving the natural environment: recovering threatened species, restoring or recreating lost habitat.

A glass half-empty approach would note the depressing fact that more than half of our finest wildlife sites remain in an unfavourable condition, that farmland birds (like the majority of species for which we have trend information) continue to decline and, perhaps most shockingly, birds of prey continue to be illegally killed especially (as reported this week) on grouse moors.   

In the mid-noughties, there was concern that young people are disconnected from nature, but fears about where the next generation of environmental leaders would come from have been smashed by the incredible energy and creativity of those behind new youth movements (for both nature and for climate change action).

And, notwithstanding the huge anxiety and uncertainty posed by the political impasse over Brexit, I would argue that we have a more politically engaged and potentially active UK public than ever before.  Harnessing this enthusiasm to influence political action for nature is our new challenge. 

That’s why we have launched Let Nature Sing: a new approach to bring to life the crucial role nature plays in our lives, and to reflect people’s love of nature to decision-makers.  The first output from this is a single featuring nothing but birdsong.  The single will be available to pre-order on all major platforms from 5 April, going on general release on 26 April ready to reach a crescendo on International Dawn Chorus Day on 5 May.

We want people to download, stream and share the single and help get birdsong into the charts for the first time, spreading the word that people across the UK are passionate about nature’s recovery.

Our intention is that this and other interventions will reinforce the case for urgent action to address the environmental crisis. Specifically, we need…

…laws that ensure nature is allowed to recover; including access to environmental justice, strong environmental principles, and legally binding goals and targets

…deep and long-lasting reform of the food and farming system, which rewards nature-friendly farming

…a global deal for nature in 2020, which sets us on a shared path towards the recovery of the natural world

…the value of nature to be embedded in decision-making by governments and businesses.

Get it right, which we must, then we have a chance to look back in another 15 years’ time and say that this was the turning point – the moment when the nation stepped up for nature.

*For those of you who do not understand this reference, I refer to Arsenal’s extraordinary achievement in going undefeated as they won the Premier League.  Today, my (and my two Arsenal-supporting children’s) expectations have changed and I am content if Arsenal finishes in the top four.

Images of two species that have continued to decline over the past 15 years - turtle dove and cuckoo - courtesy of Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)