The Power of Partnerships
Peregrine (Ben Hall, rspb-images.com)
It often seems that all we hear about the state of wildlife populations are stories of decline and disappearance. While we know that nature is indeed in trouble and we know there is much to do to stop the loss of biodiversity across the world, there are projects and people who really do give us cause for hope and reasons to celebrate.
The State of the UK’s Birds report (SUKB) [published today Tuesday 10th November 2015] showcases a range of these inspiring examples of organisations and their volunteers joining forces, from within and outside the conservation sector, aiming to improve the status of birds in the UK and UK Overseas Territories. These include the usual suspects; national statutory bodies and conservation NGOs, but also private landowners, farmers, supermarkets, the aggregates industry and even the brewing industry working together to deliver exciting and innovative projects. Innovative partnerships are going to be crucial to tackle the challenges wildlife faces in the future.
Featured projects include the innovative partnership at Langholm Moor Demonstration Project (partners: Buccleuch Estates, Scottish Natural Heritage, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, RSPB & Natural England) (featured on this blog post in Dec 2014) where the number of breeding female hen harriers have increased from one at the start of the project in 2008 to 12 in 2014 and lekking black grouse are now up to 29 in 2015 from five in 2008.
Black grouse (Andy Hay, rspb-images.com)
In addition, the spring density of the red grouse population went from 20.2 grouse per km2 in 2008 to 81.5 in 2014 – an increase of 304%. It is an impressive achievement by the gamekeepers to improve the red grouse population to these levels on a moor that has suffered intensive sheep grazing for many decades and, importantly, in the presence of healthy populations of hen harriers, buzzards, peregrines and ravens.
The real strength of projects like this is clear in the title – ‘Langholm Moor Demonstration Project’ – demonstrating the potential for positive change for species and to inspire other change by showing how gamekeepers, landowners, scientists and raptor conservationists can work well together to define sustainable grouse moor management in the 21st century.
Who knew that whisky and conservation went hand in hand?! (Aside from those hardy souls surveying golden eagles in the Highlands in January who certainly know the warming importance of whisky on their return from the hill but that’s another story!). The Famous Grouse partnership with RSPB Scotland represents the first ever partnership of its kind to raise awareness of the decline of the Red listed black grouse in Britain.
In Scotland, black grouse are recognised by the Scottish Government as one of the highest priority species for conservation action. ‘The Black Grouse’ whisky, now renamed ‘Smoky Black’ was launched in 2008 and has generated £600,000 for conservation over the last nine years, funding research into relationships between black grouse populations and woodland management as well as black grouse management work on the ground on seven of our nature reserves. Highly popular whisky tasting sessions have been held around the UK raising awareness of the issues facing these rare birds, and these have also enlivened demonstration days where the results are shared in order to spread good practice more widely.
Choughs (Andy Hay, rspb-images.com)
Alongside the organisations recognised as important partners in conservation the report highlights the involvement of thousands of volunteers across the country who dedicate their time to monitoring wildlife. A recent JNCC report has estimated the value of volunteer time on biodiversity monitoring alone to be worth in excess of £8.6 million per annum. The dedication of volunteers in Scotland to two species gets a particular mention in reporting results of the latest national species surveys for peregrines and choughs. Neither survey would be possible without the survey coverage provided by highly experienced volunteers; our gratitude goes to the Scottish Raptor Study Group and Scottish Chough Study Group for their part in these surveys. Provisional results from both these surveys from 2014 indicate largely stable populations since 2002 across the UK and Isle of Man despite some regional declines.
This is the 16th in a series of annual publications reporting on the status of the UK’s birds and, as in previous years, provides an in-depth overview of the status of both breeding and wintering populations derived from a wide range of surveys. Other topics featured in the report include a deeper look at the fortunes of farmland birds over the last 40 years. While the farmland bird indicator continues to decline some species have been shown to benefit from agri-environment schemes in England. In Scotland, regrettably, Government has not funded similar studies so although yellowhammers are increasing in number, bucking the wider UK decline, we can’t say whether this is due to the success of environment schemes in Scotland.
You can read the report in full here.