Since RSPB bought and started managing Hope Farm in 2000 we have hosted a wide range of visitors, from groups of farmers, industry representatives, government officials, MPs and Ministers. All have come to see how we have successfully halted and reversed the declines of farmland birds and farmland wildlife in general, all while producing great crops as well.
Amongst all the visitors, a small number have been from abroad – Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa amongst others. They are very interested to see what we are doing here at Hope Farm because declines of wildlife linked to agricultural changes is not unique to England, or the UK. It is a problem wherever rapid changes in how we grow and manage crops have taken place.
This is particularly true in western Europe, and it is quite possible that the fortunes of farmland birds in England, and the UK, are inextricably linked to how populations of the same species are faring in Europe. Hence our Birdlife partners in Europe lobby their Governments and the European Union just as vociferously as RSPB does.
Some of the most enthusiastic European visitors have come from our Birdlife partner in Germany, NABU. In 2013 representatives from NABU and The Michael Otto Foundation visited Hope Farm to specifically learn about what we have done here and how feasible similar projects may be in Germany.
Image by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
It is therefore really gratifying to learn that Hope Farm is being used as an example of good wildlife-farming practice in a widely read and respected German newspaper, Die Zeit. The article can be read here, but you will need to able to understand German!
If Modern Languages aren't your strong point, you can download an English version below, kindly translated by Richard Carden.
We are really pleased to be helping our European, and indeed international, conservation colleagues in their campaigns to protect wildlife across their farmed landscapes.