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Five thousand homes at Lodge Hill, Kent. Able Marine Energy Park, the Humber. Hunterston power station, Ayrshire. M4 relief road, Newport. All schemes the RSPB has opposed or is opposing. All special places protected by environmental legislation, not only because these are officially protected areas...

The energy of the wind harnessed by well planned, correctly located windfarms, is an essential part of the response to the threat of climate change. But badly located wind turbines are a real threat to wildlife. We’ve been working closely with our Bulgarian BirdLife partner BSPB for seven years...

This blog has been following the story of many special places for wildlife and the people who work tirelessly to save them, nurture them and make them accessible for others to enjoy. It’s 100 years since Charles Rothschild’s idea that the best places for wildlife should be protected led...

I was reminded the other day that in 1941, in the darkest hours of World War II and with Churchill’s backing, planning for post-war nature conservation was underway. Our countryside and wild places, our wildlife in towns and rural parishes and its role in our lives is part of what defines us. ...

It’s been good to be at work today. It usually is but today was a bit special. For the last six months we’ve been planning (with a bit of plotting and scheming) developing our evidence, engaging, advocating and campaigning to set out argument that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was fundamentally...

This is the first line of DEFRA’s keenly awaited review of the ‘Habs Regs’ – the ways the EU Birds and Habitats Directives are implemented in the UK This is a great first line ... and you can read the rest of it here . More will follow during the day. Follow me on twitter

A number of my colleagues have been putting their speed-reading skills to good use recently – firstly with the output from the coalition Government’s Red Tape Challenge on Monday there was a big result in that the public voice (over 15,000 of you stepped up with our e-action to Business Secretary...

The time and commitment my colleagues put into developing our case to protect nature at public inquires is considerable – but time is only part of it. Stepping up for nature in the crucible of a public inquiry is often tough, as it is by its nature, adversarial. Then there’s the wait for...

According to Natural England “Maerl is a collective term for several species of red seaweed, with hard, chalky skeletons. It is rock hard and, unlike other seaweeds, it grows as unattached rounded nodules or short, branched shapes on the seabed.” Like the tropical corals it resembles,...

Normally arcane pieces of environmental legislation are for the super-specialists and lawyers – but last week’s Autumn Statement by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has propelled the role of this (and other) Directives into centre stage. The Habitats Directive and it’s...

A couple of years ago, just before he retired, Alistair Gammell shared his perspectives on the development of the most effective, and progressive, wildlife legislation in the world. Alistair’s long career with the RSPB took him to the post of Director of International Operations, but he was there...

It’s different in Scotland. True in so many ways. The RSPB works throughout the UK and this means respecting and working within the devolved structure of Government. During a year that has seen unprecedented grass roots activism around forestry and planning in England, I’ve detected a certain...

In November 2009 I made a promise that we would update you on the campaign mounted by the Romanian Ornithological Society (SOR – BirdLife Romania) to establish proper protection for the world-famous Danube Delta. The news, then , was that the Romanian parliament had chucked out a draft law that...

The spring issue of the RSPB publication Conservation Planner is just out and here is a link to the document. As the editor has kindly included a link to this blog, it was the least I could do! Here is the link to the loads of other newsletters that we produce. This issue highlights the challenges...

One theme that should stand out from this blog is that protected areas are extremely important places! In the European Union, wildlife legislation – in the form of the Birds and Habitats Directives – has enabled real gains to be made for wildlife. Yet wildlife in these protected areas...

This year, 2010, was to have been the year when the decline in the biological diversity of the EU had been halted. The target won’t be met. But – 2010 is also the year in which Governments across the European Union and around the world will come together in Nagoya in Japan in October at...

The International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) has got a hard act to follow. It is true to say that the global climate crisis is but one side of the coin shared with the parallel biodiversity crisis but following the climate bun-fight that was Copenhagen, the devastation of our natural world has some ground...