Reaction to the publication of the European Red List of Birds

Around the time that I was watching avocet chicks at RSPB's fabulous Frampton Marsh today, a new landmark document was published: the European Red List of Birds*. It’s a landmark because it encourages us to think about conservation beyond national borders and at a continental scale.  I'd like to offer my congratulations to the scientists from across Europe that have compiled this incredibly important report.

It should serve as the latest in a long line of wake up calls to governments across Europe to reboot conservation action - 18% of European birds are at risk of extinction and the pressures they face are increasing.  

In the UK we already have the Birds of Conservation Concern list which helps guide our work at home, and we have the IUCN Red List which assesses the conservation status of all birds at a global scale. The truth is that the UK has a lot of declining or threatened species on the first list, but not many of these register as facing extinction globally.  We have not had a European assessment for over a decade and I was interested to see how our UK species are faring elsewhere in Europe.

RSPB Frampton Marsh showing that conservation does work

This new list assesses the conservation status of bird species at that scale. It makes fascinating reading and for me two elements leap out of the assessments. Firstly, it reveals that many of the negative trends for birds in the UK are replicated across Europe. For example, the populations of birds like lapwing, curlew, turtle dove and willow tit are declining in the UK and these declines are mirrored across Europe.

Secondly, it reveals that species such as the red kite, stone-curlew and white-tailed eagle are benefiting from conservation measures that are preventing these species from entering the red list.  

In total, of the 246 regularly-occurring birds in the UK, 37 species have been assessed as at risk of extinction in the European Union.

Like many who read this assessment, I’m not surprised but am angered by the sheers numbers of species which are needing conservation help.  I do, however, taking comfort from the numbers which are being helped.

Conservation does work. I saw that today at the two RSPB sites on the western side of the Wash: Framption and Frieston.  Creative management and hard work has ensured that birds associated with the saltmarsh, saline lagoons and reedbeds are thriving.  And Frampton, designated as Special Protection Area and part of the EU's Natura 2000 network, is hugely important for its passage waders as it provides the largest remaining freshwater habitat around the Wash.  

The publication of today's report is a reminder that we simply need MORE nature conservation.  We know what we need to do - Professor Sir John Lawton has drilled into us that we need bigger, better and more connected protected areas.  In addition, thanks to the European Nature Directives, we have the legal tools to do it - if you don't believe me reacquaint yourselves with Article 3 of the Birds Directive and Article 10 of the Habitats Directive. What we need is the political will and resources  to implement the laws.  I hope that governments across Europe conclude the review of the Nature Directives quickly, recognise that they are fit for purpose and put their weight behind implementation.  In England, the Conservative Government's commitment to develop a 25 year plan to restore nature is a golden opportunity to galvanise action and we look forward to working with the new Minister for the natural environment, Rory Stewart MP, to make this happen.

Red Kite is a European success story that has benefited from conservation efforts so much so that two were seen over Frampton today

We are doing what we can.  The RSPB and our partners across Europe are putting their might behind programmes working on many threatened species which are considered to be facing extinction at a European scale. Curlew, lapwing, kittiwake, redshank, willow tit, Slavonian grebe, Arctic skua, turtle dove are all species being helped by the RSPB right now. Whether that’s using cutting-edge research to establish where kittiwakes go to feed, working with landowners to give stone-curlew a more certain future or buying and managing habitat for nesting lapwing, the RSPB is striving to protect these species and keep them from further declines.

So, read the report, remind yourself that conservation works, that the laws to restore nature are fit for purpose and that now is the time for all of us to come together to get stuck in for nature.

*The European Red List of Birds is financed by the European Commission and produced by a consortium of organisations, led by BirdLife International and including the IUCN and the Species Survival Commission.