A question: What do NFU Scotland, the Scottish Crofting Federation, the Scottish Agricultural College, The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Scottish Land & Estates and RSPB Scotland all have in common?.
The answer Waders – or to be more precise the Wader Friendly Farming Initiative. Recent trends have shown some dramatic declines of some of our most popular waders in Scotland. These include lapwing down by 23%, curlew by 53% and oystercatcher 21%. Snipe are one species that are bucking the trend increasing by 60%.(Figures from the 2009 Breeding bird survey) Over the last few weeks the advisory team in Scotland have had a busy promoting this initiative firstly at the Royal Highland Show and secondly at the Scottish Game Fair. Through the WFFI we are hoping to raise the profile of declining wading birds on farmland and encourage farmers to adopt low-cost farming practices that could help breeding waders. So if you are a farmer in Scotland why not sign up to the Initiative http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/scotland/waderfriendly.aspx. By signing up RSPB will send you relevant advisory materials plus offer a free visit.Our advisors and conservation officers in Scotland work closely with a variety of interested organisations, farmers and landowners to provide high quality wader habitats help waders. An examples of this collaborative work is the Strathspey Wetlands and Waders Initiative. http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-220840