Over a year we have a very wide range of visitors to Hope Farm as I previously blogged about. The vast majority of visitors come from England as you might expect for a farm on the outskirts of Cambridge.

Occasionally however we receive visitors from much further afield, and this morning we were very glad to host a delegation from the Chinese Ministry of Land Use. We had a very useful discussion in the farmhouse kitchen sharing our experiences, explaining why RSPB works on farmland and why we bought Hope Farm in 2000 and the success’s we have achieved here.

Despite having given the statistics many times I still have to pinch myself when I tell visitors the order of magnitude we have achieved here: only 2 yellowhammers being found in December 2000 compared to nearly 300 in December 2014, and a total of 250 birds of 22 species in December 2000 compared to 1600 birds of 44 species in December 2014. Our Chinese visitors seemed impressed, and so am I' especially as we did see some yellowhammers on our walk round the farm.

We talked about the importance of still caring for wildlife in the rush towards better living standards for us all. For me it is perfectly understandable why everyone in the world should aspire to a better life, but we do have to appreciate that sometimes the natural environment can suffer as a result and that some of those species that we most cherish become much less common as a result. Taking care to protect wildlife while our lives improve is critical to our future.

I find it remarkable that a group from the Ministry of Land Use in China has heard of Hope Farm, and quite inspiring that on their 2-day visit to the UK that they specifically asked to visit here. I think they were quite impressed with what they saw and heard and hopefully the visit here will inspire them to keep protection of the natural environment at the forefront of their minds as they guide China’s development.