Battles over Europe and consequences for our wildlife: a view from Dr Mike Clarke, Chief Executive of the RSPB

Below is an opinion piece from my boss, Dr Mike Clarke, which appears in the Daily Telegraph here. 

Have a read and let me know what you think.

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Next summer, if you happen to be journeying along a country lane, you may be lucky enough to hear the joyous song of a skylark, high above a field of golden wheat. You may stop to capture the colour of butterflies dancing amid a blaze of wildflowers. Or, you may hold your breath as a nesting bird emerges from the depths of a leafy hedgerow.

These are the sights, sounds and smells of the British countryside. They’re part of our national heritage. They’re timeless.

Or are they?

Those of us who value this landscape and wildlife are increasingly concerned that, far from being timeless, a time bomb is ticking. This week, the EU will be discussing issues that have far-reaching consequences for our continent.

70% percent of the UK’s land area – and most of what we think of as “the countryside”-  is farmed land. As well as feeding us, a huge proportion of our wildlife lives, breeds and feeds there.  Farmers are not just food producers, we need them to be the vital guardians of our landscape and wildlife.

Farms are also businesses. What they produce, they sell to the market. Times are tough for the market, so they’re tough for some farmers too.

But for the birds, bees and butterflies, times are even tougher. Who is paying for wildlife? The market will always find a way of paying for food, even if, as in the recent case of dairy farmers, it isn’t always a fair price. But who will pay for the birdsong that gladdens your heart and the bees that busily pollinate the fields and hedgerows? The business of being a bee is even harder than the business of farming.

You can’t put a value on them, but they matter, in an almost visceral way. It’s indefinable but it touches your very soul.

It’s pretty unfashionable to say anything positive about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Its reputation is not entirely unjustified but we’re stuck with it for the foreseeable future.

But the CAP does some good things. It has, in recent years, no longer been coupled solely with food production. It has provided farmers with an incentive to safeguard wildlife, through agri-environment schemes, funded out of the so-called “Pillar 2” of the CAP.

That skylark, singing joyfully over your head, probably isn’t there by chance. Less poetically, it may be there because the local farmer applied for agri-environment funding and provided a small patch of uncultivated land for it.

These are tough times in Europe and, quite rightly, spending is under scrutiny. But it’s Pillar 2 of the CAP that’s under threat. There’s a strong chance that the cuts will fall disproportionately on Pillar 2, rather than on the less discerning Pillar 1 – the Single Farm Payment, which provides far fewer and less effective environmental incentives.

This seems illogical and perverse. The part of the CAP that’s under threat is the part that’s not supported by the market and which provides real value for the taxpayer. They’re scrutinising the wrong bit. No wonder the CAP gets such a bad press.

Pillar 2 isn’t perfect but it is based on sound principles and is home to some of the best examples of value for money found anywhere in Europe.  It provides a lifeline for iconic species like the turtle dove, as well as helping farmers to provide important public benefits that the market doesn’t reward, like clean drinking water and landscapes to attract tourism.

This is happening at a time when nature needs more investment, not less.  If we lose funding for wildlife friendly farming, we know that the vast majority of farmers will stop doing the things that wildlife needs. 

We shouldn’t simply accept the simplistic view of Europe ‘meddling in our affairs’ that often prevails. It’s a generalisation and risks throwing the baby (or, in this case, the birds, bees and butterflies) out with the bathwater.

It also means that the UK fails to engage in the big debates, the outcomes of which could make a fundamental difference to our quality of life and the things that we hold most dear. It took years to combat the worst excesses of the CAP and ensure it had an environmental element , but it would take even longer to put the life back into our countryside if the rug were pulled from under it.

You can help by emailing David Cameron in advance of his meeting this week – our PM may have been ‘given a mandate’ by Parliament to cut the budget but we must urge him to recognise that some bits of the budget need to be spared the knife. 

Why not tell the politicians that, while having a full belly is undeniably, unquestionably essential, having a full heart is just as important.

Please click here to find out how you can help our campaign.