Nature’s Advocates

An unprecedented outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has worryingly hit the UK’s internationally important seabirds. If we are to turn the tide and drive their recovery, we must act now. Here we explain the urgent actions needed to give our seabirds a fighting chance.

The scale of the climate and nature crisis may lead us to reach only for the big levers of change but places, people and communities matter when it comes to saving nature.

While many farmers and policy makers are leading the transition to nature positive food systems, we still have a long way to go to make sure that policy supports farmers taking up nature-friendly practices. The RSPB championed the role of nature in our farming systems at this year's Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture show.

Businesses need to identify their impacts and dependencies on nature, whether direct or indirect, and start driving change now. Senior Policy Officer Kim Dunn discusses how business can lead the way and start taking action towards a Nature Positive future now.

Private investment is finally an option for nature conservation. As a nation, our big challenge is to make good use of this money. This is the fourth in an exciting blog mini-series exploring our vision for a Nature Positive future and how we can make it a reality. In this blog, project consultant Jack Rhodes looks at how we can use high-quality private investment to help protect and restore nature.

When the UK’s independent climate advisers give the UK Government 4 out of 10 for progress on climate action, you have to question the Government’s commitment to really delivering our net zero targets. Governments across the UK urgently needs to move from setting policy to implementing climate action on the ground.

RSPB has released the Pesticides and Wildlife report which is a comprehensive review of studies looking at the harmful effect of pesticides on wildlife and sets out why the current risk assessments are failing to protect nature.

After the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting last week in Nairobi, a massive gap remains between what we need to secure a nature-positive world, and the inconclusive and woefully inadequate text currently on the table. To turn the ship around, we need to rally around this once-in-a-decade opportunity to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

Breaking news: there is finally agreement on a new date and location for the all-important UN biodiversity summit, COP15, under the CBD. The summit will be held in Montreal, from December 5th to 17th 2022. The countdown is now on – 166 days to go – to the moment the world will adopt a new framework to save nature this decade.

To give you a sense of what has taken place at the Bonn climate talks, what it meant for nature and how the RSPB has been engaging, here are three days in the life of the RSPB’s climate lead Melanie Coath in the week she spent at the talks.

The publication of UK food Strategy was met with a lukewarm response. Whilst there are some positive elements within the document, it does not quite hit the mark. At a time of nature and climate crisis, when so many are already taking action, it feels like the UK government is wasting time we just don't have.

On global wind day, we find ourselves at a crossroads: we urgently need more offshore wind and we also need to protect our seas, our ally in the fight against climate change and home to our wonderful seabirds

The UK is in the grip of a nature emergency. The government’s Nature Recovery Green Paper fails to really address the causes of nature’s decline and risks wasting time on unnecessary changes.

The UK Parliament, MPs and Peers from all parties came together to “stand up for a nature-positive world”, urging and supporting the UK Government to take a strong leadership role at the upcoming UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15 summit.

The pristine waters around Tristan da Cunha, one of our UK Overseas Territories, was legally designated in 2021 as the biggest no-take area in the Atlantic and an official reception in Speaker’s House, Westminster was held just last week, on 10 of May, to celebrate this huge conservation success story

There is an urgent need to reverse seabird declines in the UK, yet Governments are seeking to give themselves a loophole that could mean taking urgent action to save seabirds ceases to be a priority.

Nature and climate crisis might have been absent from the Queen’s speech this year but in this blog we highlight where and how nature needs to be include if the head of state wishes future generation to enjoy the benefits of nature.

Nick Hawkes, RSPB UK’s Uplands Communications Manager on the importance of keeping our gardens peat free.  UK peatlands store ten times as much carbon as UK’s forests. Peat has no nutritional value as a compost for your garden and when you spread it the carbon stored is quickly converted into the gas, adding to greenhouse gas emissions.

After decades of advocacy from the RSPB and its partners, the UK Government will prohibit the use of damaging fishing gears in four Marine Protected Areas, including the Dogger Bank SAC, which is so important for our seabirds

Future Fisheries Alliance responds to the Joint Fisheries Statement, a vital piece of legislation for the sustainable management of UK fisheries which could see the UK place itself as a world leader in securing a more resilient future for our seas and coastal communities but is at risk of being missed.

Mel talks about the third IPCC report, why we urgently need to protect and restore nature alongside reducing greenhouse gas emissions if we are to limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C. Currently, emissions are still rising, meaning we need much stronger climate action than ever before during this decade.

Nick Hawkes writes about the risks lead shot and ammo still poses to people and nature. The RSPB would like to see the use of lead ammunition banned and its immediate replacement with non- toxic alternative products which are now widely available. This is a matter for the UK Government to address.

This blog, written by Head of Future Nature Jamie Audsley, is the third in an exciting mini-series exploring the RSPB vision for a nature positive future in the UK, what this means and what it will take to make this vision a reality.   &nbs...

Georgina and Fiona reporting back from a set of intense negotiations at the UN. As the latest round of detailed talks on a new global biodiversity framework come to an end in Geneva, despite welcoming some progress, we’re left feeling frustrated with the slow pace and perplexed with the lack of urgency in efforts to agree specific targets and delivery methods.

This blog is the second in an exciting mini-series exploring the funding needs behind achieving a nature positive future. RSPB Principal Economist, Paul Morling looks at how much we need to spend to save nature in the UK and the role of public and private finance in filling the current gap