I spent two days last week enjoying the West Country weather – one day getting drenched on Dartmoor, the next indoors at a conference at Exeter Racecourse where the going was very soggy.
The purpose of my visit was to help Devon Birds celebrate the completion of the new county bird atlas (edited by Mike Lock and Stella Beavan) - a repeat of the one published in 1988. Like comparable initiatives it was clearly a mammoth undertaking with fieldwork conducted over six years, involving 1200 volunteers who supplied more than one million records. And, as expected the conclusions were as bleak as similar assessments (such as State of Nature): more species’ ranges had contracted rather than expanded (understanding of abundance changes will have to wait for the next Atlas).
Rightly, the conference for 250 people had been organised to work out how to deliver a better future for Devon’s birds - to use the Atlas as a trigger for action. It provided, in a county-sized nutshell, the challenges and opportunities facing Environment Minister Rory Stewart MP as he leads the development of Defra’s 25 year plan for nature: how do you harness the enthusiasm and commitment of local people who want to restore their natural environment in a time of austerity with so many competing pressures on land?
My role was to talk up the role of species recovery to improve the fortunes of threatened birds. I put a spotlight on five specie : Wood Warbler, Ring Ouzel, Dartford Warbler, Manx Shearwater and Cirl Bunting. I chose these species because we’ve done lots of work on them in Devon, because Devon Birds have been hugely supportive (both financially and practically), because they are at different stages in the recovery process and because they are symptomatic of the wider challenges that nature faces...
...we need to get a handle on the reasons for the decline of woodland migrants like wood warblers
...we need to do what we can to buy time for species like Ring Ouzel (where in Devon they are at the trailing edge of their range) to adapt to change climate,
...we need to ensure species whose ranges are expanding because of climate change (such as Dartford Warbler) have sufficient habitat to spread northwards
...we need to continue to drive the recovery of seabirds like Manx Shearwater (for which the UK holds 80% of the global population) by investing in targeted eradication of non-native rodents which have caused havoc on seabird islands like Lundy, St Agnes & Gugh (of the Scilly Isles) and the Shiants.
...we need to work with farmers to recover species like Cirl Bunting which has, in the past twenty years, benefited from 200 farmers providing 10,000 hectares of decent habitat supported by agri-environment. And, when necessary, we should translocate species to aid their recovery as we have for Cirl Buntings in Cornwall and others species likes Crane, Red Kite, Short-Haired Bumblebee, White-Tailed Eagle and Corncrake.
I wanted to make the case that targeted action for species can work provided that resources (both people and money) are aligned, you are led by the evidence and you are in it for the long haul. But I also said that while species recovery was necessary but it was not sufficient. A comprehensive response to the state of birds in Devon needs...
...investment in more, bigger, better and joined up protected areas ensuring that make the most of natural and semi-natural habitats. We need places like Dartmoor humming with wildlife.
...smart campaigning to retain the Nature Directives and tackle climate change
...creative ways of reaching out to new audiences.
Yet, I was particularly struck by a metaphor used by Natural England Board member Simon Lyster (former Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts with whom I shared an office in 1996 when I was just starting out in conservation). Simon, a keen tennis fan, said that when you are winning, you should keep on doing what you’ve been doing. But when you are losing, you need to change things.
He was referring, inevitably, to our collective response to the ongoing decline in farmland birds (see below).
Population trends of farmland birds in the UK: Source: RSPB, BTO, JNCC, Defra
While, rightly, promoting the planned benefits from the new Countryside Stewardship, he was acutely conscious that on its own, with current resources, it will be good but not sufficient. So, a bit like the Minister, he is on the hunt for new ideas – new ways of working with farmers to get that farmland bird index moving in the right direction.
The timing of his intervention is interesting. It comes two weeks since the publication of the index and a new paper showing how GWCT and the RSPB have reversed the trend through our demonstration farms (here). A conclusion from this work is that we know that if you provide a safe place to nest, ensure there is enough food to bring up chicks and to survive the winter, the bird populations will flourish. Alas, we've not yet managed to design the schemes to encourage enough farmers to change their management to benefit wildlife and the reality is that the new Stewardship will not have sufficient funds to deliver countryside-wider recovery. So what else is needed? Market solutions, tax breaks, praise or regulation? There our some clues in our recent voluntary initiatives report (here).
Simon is on the hunt for new ideas, and so am I – especially as the RSPB is currently developing a new strategy for our work on agriculture.
What do you think our strategy should be for reversing the declines of farmland birds in Devon and across the United Kingdom?
It would be great to hear your views.
Your question is not an easy one to answer Martin. If it were I am sure the RSPB would have the answer already. I would suggest individual approaches to individual farmers might be worth a try. This perhaps could be done by regional office teams working over time on a county by county basis, starting with the counties with the biggest losses of farmland birds first.
redkite