Tomorrow I am heading off with the kids to the North-East to see family and to escape the Siberian weather of East Anglia.

But, as a special treat,  I have invited 5 guest bloggers who work in our International research and species recovery teams. Together they will try to give a flavour of the depth and breadth of RSPBs training and research in some far flung corners of the globe. 

The RSPB prides itself on implementing evidence based conservation -  policies or practical solutions that are underpinned by sound science.  It's something that has proved its value over and over again in the UK.  Science has, for example, been used to diagnose declines and develop solutions halt the decline of many of our farmland birds such as the corn crake and skylark.  It is also been the the basis of management for key sites and habitats for some of our rarer species of high conservation concern such as capercaillie, stone curlew and bittern. 
 
This is exactly the same approach we use and promote for our international work.  Here the stakes often, but by no means always, seem higher simply because so many species or sites are so much closer to extinction or destruction and the technical and financial resources are often much thinner on the ground.  However, by working alongside Birdlife International partners around the world RSPB is making a real difference in terms of saving species, sites and habitats and building in-country scientific capacity so these partners can sustain this work into the future
 
Why do we do it?

Because 190 bird species are classed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list - species on the brink of extinction. Species like the magnificent Tristan Albatross restricted to on Island, Gough, in the south Atlantic.  This has a global population of  about 11,000 birds that has declined by almost 30% in the last 40-50 years.

The tiny Liben lark (with a world population of about 90-256 individual birds almost entirely restricted to a 36 km2 small grassy plain in Ethiopia ) and the slightly bizarre northern bald ibis (a species that has undergone dramatic historic declines such that  95% of wild birds occur in one subpopulation in Morocco. 

The RSPB has the skills and expertise required to help restore the fortunes of many of these species. Indeed for all these three we are working with  Birdlife partners in Tristan da Cunha, Ethiopia and the middle East and north Africa to do just that. Infact , scientists have estimated 16 bird species would have gone extinct between 1994 and 2004 were it not for conservation programmes
 
But I would argue, for many species we have an international obligation to fulfil.  Migrant species cross continents and cultures.  To halt and ultimately reverse the declines of many of our migrant species such as the cuckoo and the wood warbler, we need to address the problems they face here on their breeding grounds, on wintering grounds is sub Saharan Africa and staging and stop over sites in between. Similarly species on the 14 UK Overseas Territories are 'our responsibility - the Montserrat Oriole in the Caribbean and the St Helena Wirebird in the South Atlantic - both  single island endemics for which the UK has  a clear duty of care.
 
But the world is a big place and we can only do this through partnerships and by building the capacity in countries where threats to species, sites and habitats are greatest.  All our international research strives to do this be it by having local scientists or students embedded in field teams gaining first hand experience, supervising international PhDs, running training course or hosting internships.  

I hope you enjoy the week's blogs. 

  • Have been probing how best to challenge the way politicians use science to inform policy.  Not there yet, Redkite, but I do think that there is a gap in the market.

  • These are further examples of the RSPB being  a truely superb organisation as to what it does and what it achieves. This international work of the organisation is absolutely vital and I would certainly support any expansion of it. There are sometimes differences of opinion at local levels, as in any organisation, but these pale into total insignificance when one views the bigger picture of what the RSPB contributes to preserving biodiversity and it is the bigger or overall picture that one must always look at. You are quite right Martin that sound science is so important and is the foundation of the RSPB's work. Our politicians could learn a lot from the scientific approach that the RSPB adopts. Wrong decisions and politics proliferate when sound science is missing from an issue and I am sorry to say, this happens all too often with our political masters.