A few words from Mike Clarke – CEO RSPB

We need your help to defend nature....

Did you know that the laws that protect many of the wild places and nature you love are at risk? European leaders are considering weakening the laws (known as the Nature Directives) that protect our most vunerable wildlife and the homes they depend on. This could be catastrophic for wildlife.

We need your support.

Together we can convince politicians to leave these laws as they are, and to focus on giving nature a home across the UK and Europe by putting them properly into practice.

I am returning from the EU Commission's 'Green Week' in Brussels. This year the focus has been on nature and it comes mid-way through the EU's public consultation on the Nature Directives.

And, the Birdlife partnership has been here in force!

Patricia Zurita, BirdLife's CEO from Ecuador, spoke at the opening ceremony. And our very own Phoenix member, 17-year old Leanne Tough spoke at the closing event to a packed auditorium. In between, BirdLife Global Council members challenged the EU from all corners of the earth. Our flyway partners told them "Africa is watching".

And throughout, the record-breaking #defendnature public response kept climbing and climbing - to repeated applause - closer to 200 000 by the end of the week.

We have had supportive voices from businesses, banking, and from the German Government.

From my meetings with the offices of two Vice-Presidents, Commisioner Vella, and the Environment Directorate, it is clear that they have heard our voices - and they are rattled! Thank you for all your efforts, and do please thank all those people you know who have lent their support.

But, we have a long way to go. We need every single person who will support our campaign. It will make a real difference. Ask your friends, family, colleagues to make their voice heard. 

Every extra action taken in the RSPB’s name will help inspire other organisations that they, too, can have an impact and will encourage them to work even harder. We can win this.

And - if you had heard Leanne speak out for the young people of Europe, for their nature and for their future - you would be as determined as I am, at the end of this week, that win this we will.

Thank you, 

Mike

Please visit www.rspb.org.uk/defendnature to make your voice heard too. Tell European Leaders what you think. We want the millions of people who care about nature to show that they support these important laws....

And a little bit from me too....

A Turtle Dove at RSPB Rainham Marshes last week...  our first for two years but will it be our last? This year all the bird information services have been reporting every Turtle Dove seen when they should just be part of our lazy summer evening walks, not as something to go and see just incase you do not get another chance. Watering down or even losing the Nature Directives on top of the continued unjustified slaughter of millions of migrant songbirds as they pass through Malta, Cyprus and other Mediterranean fringed countries could well mean that this and other species become the stuff of dusty old books and on line archives....

Even now birders of my generation are using the phrase 'I remember when....' How very sad that it has come to this...

Help us turn the tide...

Howard... Visitor Experience Officer....  let's ensure that we still have the wildlife for me to enthuse about and share....

12-6-15