Migrants on my mind (2)

I have often wondered what went through the minds of the people of Easter Island that chopped down their last tree.  Were they aware of what they were doing, but powerless to stop themselves?  Their actions "wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism" all because of a strange cultural ritual (see here).

A similar thought occurred to me as I read that hunters in Malta were bemoaning the lack of turtle doves to shoot this season (see here).  They obviously managed to hit at least one as Chris Packham shared an image of an injured bird via twitter today (here).  That'll be another turtle dove that won't make it home.

Chris is, through his video diary this week, doing a fantastic job at putting a spotlight on the excess of the Maltese spring hunters and it was good to hear him feature on the Today programme and Radio 2 phone-ins (I was travelling!).  Steve Micklewright and his Birdlife Malta colleagues will be delighted by the increased exposure that Chris' visit has generated in the run up to the proposed referendum on hunting.  It will, no doubt, be a boost to volunteers and staff.

And, when turtle dove is literally in the firing line, it is another timely reminder of the importance of improving the breeding success of our fastest declining species here in the UK (here).  

Photo of a turtle dove: one that got away

Whether suitable habitat is available for any of our farmland birds depends not just on the good will of farmers but also on the rules and incentives that govern management of our farmland - and that means each of the UK administrations making the best out of the bad Common Agriculture Policy deal that was agreed last year.

In Northern Ireland, a failure to secure political agreement over funding for agri-environment means that there is now a £100m shortfall which will threaten the long term future of species such as the Irish hare and marsh fritillary butterfly.  The good news is that many farmers are now joining our calls on the NI Assembly to find the funds to continue to support wildlife-friendly farming.  You can read more about what we are doing here.

In England, the agri-environment budget is settled but more work is being done on the design of the new scheme.  This is the scheme which will could decide the fate of species like turtle dove.  

But there are other decisions being made by Defra now which could affect our farmed environment and determine how much value we get from public money - such as the new Pillar I ‘greening’ payment which applies to 30% of the total £11,500,000,000 in farming subsidies that will be paid out between now and 2020 in England.  While the rules have been heavily diluted, Defra still does have some licence to do good specifically through their use of Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) - 5% of land doing good things for the environment.  

But for this to do any good at all, Defra would have to ignore exemptions that would allow, for example, farmers to count land growing nitrogen-fixing crops such as peas and beans, which offer little for wildlife and also happen to be lucrative crops.  For example, at our farm in Cambridgeshire, our 34ha of combining peas last year would have more than given us our 5% EFA, while also netting us a profit of £684 per ha. So why, you might ask yourself, should we get some of the hard working public’s taxes for our peas, when we’re getting so much from the market?   We want to made to work harder for our money and for wildlife.

Saving UK wildlife means we need to obsess about the detail of these agreements and fight to get civil servants and politicians to see sense on 'greening' and on funding/designing agri-environment schemes.  

It also means that we must do all we can to support our Birdlife Partners throughout the flyway of our migrants.  Please do what you can by helping our campaign to influence CAP implementation across the UK, our Birds Beyond Borders project and, of course, keep watching Chris Packham (here) and support the Birdlife Malta campaign to end spring hunting (here).

Easter Island: let this not be a parable for our time.