This week, I am on holiday with the family at our hut on the Northumberland coast. Am hoping that the wind dies and the sun emerges for at least some of the time so we can get out and about a bit, maybe even escaping to the Farne Islands or Coquet Island.
While I am away, please do keep an eye on our Saving Species blog for updates on buzzards and our Saving Special Places blog for updates on cases that affect important wildlife sites.
Before I go, however, I wanted to let you know about a new series of guest blogs that I have arranged for the coming weeks.
Last week's launch of our State of Nature report was a wake-up call for all of us. The sad reality is that biodiversity is continuing to decline, the pressures on the natural world are growing and our response to the crisis is slowing. This has influenced the RSPB’s own strategic thinking. We know that we need to up our own game, we need to work better with others (last week was just the start) and we also know that we should be doing more to inspire more moral, political and practical support for nature conservation. But, as a sector I think we are still searching for new ideas. I am therefore keen to stimulate a debate about what else we need to do to live in harmony with nature. To catalyse this debate, I have invited people with differing perspectives to propose One Big Thing they think we (either the RSPB, the nature conservation sector or society at large) should be doing in the next 2-3 years to kick start nature’s revival. This week, I am delighted to be able to share the thoughts from academia, from land management community and from business. In the coming weeks I hope to share the thoughts from young people, from the arts and further afield. The whole series will be kicked off tomorrow by Tony Juniper.
And if your tempted to contribute to the debate, why don't you tell me about your One Big Thing for Nature. It would be great to hear from you and I'll share the best ideas through this blog soon.
I do hope you got to the Farnes, Martin - but from the howling gale here today I fear you may not have done ! There's nothing like a peck from an Arctic Tern to connect one to nature, and being amongst the nesting Eider, Terns and Puffins really re-charges the batteries.
There's no doubt that nature conservation has lost momentum in the face of a ferocious assault from the neo-liberal right with their 'I'm alright Jack' and 'live for today, let tomorrow look after itself' philosophy. It's a waste of time beating ourselves up about that - its not our fault and with a rumoured $100m + dollars invested in climate change denial in the US its hardly surprising skilled PR men have created uncertainties in the public's mind - exactly as they aimed to over smoking and health.
But it is right to examine where, even if things have not gone wrong, they could have gone better and its hard to come to any conclusion other than that a change of gear is urgently needed. Rather like the challenge facing the labour party, nature conservation must now present a compelling alternative to the status quo and to do that two things are required>
First, conservation now has to step over the boundaries of sectoral interests: ecosystem services is about much more than bigger nature reserves, we cannot continue with the 1947 settlement that puts agriculture above every other value of the land and pouring more and more concrete is not going to stop thousands o homes flooding every year - a new settlement on land use and planning is urgent, and not just for the birds.
Second, and very much linked, we need a positive vision of the future: of our towns and cities surrounded by accessible, wildlife rich countryside which also helps us balance water supply and runoff, produces low carbon fuel and makes a major contribution to wellbeing and happiness of the urban majority. Protest and saying no only goes so far, and in the last three years we've clearly run out of road.
It is possible and its been done before: it's hard to conceive of an RSPB not involved in agricultural policy, but way back in the mid 80s there was a fierce debate about whether RSPB should be involved - I suspect Stuart Housden is the only current member of RSPB staff who remembers it - and it was far from a foregone conclusion. The story of the Forestry Commission from its hairsbreadth survival after the Flow Country in 1988 to overwhelming public support in 2011 is a similar story of fundamental change.
And there are some superb foundations, built over the last 30 years by nature conservation and epitomised by RSPB's increasingly focussed, no holds barred approach to species and habitat conservation: behind all the doom and disaster is a very clear game of two parts: the species that have had that special attention have almost without exception actually done well : think Bitterns, Red Kites, Cirl Buntings, Nightjars, Goshawks - in increasingly stark contrast to the wider environment, increasingly intensive farming, more and more unmanaged woodland and a planning system yet to do the promised damage, but hanging, with its islands airports, like a sword of Damocles over our wildlife's heads.