Browse by Tags

Hello from a very sunny (for the moment) Skinflats nature reserve. We have a bit of a treat today, it's the first Futurescapes guest blog! This has been written by Kate Fuller of the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative, a project which is delivering parts of the Inner Forth Futurescape, plus a lot more...

Avocet!! Right here on the Skinflats reserve , an avocet!! Amazing! You can probably tell I am a little excited (hence all the exclamation marks) but at the end of last week I got a glimpse of a bird that I have never seen before and certainly did not expect to see right here on the River Forth! ...

Wednesday is the first anniversary of the National Planning Policy Framework, or NPPF. The draft was subject of much controversy, and even though the final version was much improved, it’s clearly open season for debate about its impact, especially about the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable...

The Space for Nature; Land for Life Conference on 28 th February was a key milestone for the Greater Thames. Over a hundred individuals, representing interests from across business, communities, local government, conservation and funders, came together to celebrate our previous successes and identify...

I admit that working for nature in the Greater Thames isn’t all about glitz and glamour. Not in comparison to the 2013 Brit Awards which will no doubt dazzle and shimmer in North Greenwich tonight. Take a conversation I had the other day about the fate of the dunlin. If you wanted to invent...

Dan Pullen is a regular contributor to this blog and, back in June , he was telling us that our work to get vital migratory and wintering bird sites in Bulgaria properly protected had advanced with further action being taken by the European Commission against the Bulgarian Government. The next instalment...

Sat in an office in the middle of Bedfordshire, I often miss the coast. I was reminded of two of my favourite coastal locations recently as they hosted visits by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). They were our RSPB Marshside nature reserve near Southport and RSPB Bempton Cliffs on the Yorkshire...

Back at the end of February I blogged ( here ) on the news that, after a long-running legal battle, a Portuguese developer received a custodial sentence and a hefty fine for trashing a protected wetland. It was great news for the environment (and one of the most-read posts on the Saving Special Places...

I was delighted to hear last week that, in a long-running court case in Portugal, a property developer had been given a two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 150,000 euros for habitat destruction to the Ria de Alvor marshes. I first visited these marshes more than 15 years ago. The Ria...

This blog has just turned two! Some 330 posts later and what have been the big themes? I had a look at the same question a year ago – and here’s how the top ten topics have changed Dungeness – holds on to top spot with 53 posts Special Protection Areas – up one place...

My colleague, Kate Jennings, who's our Site Poilcy Officer - has been at the heart of working to protect our best wildlife sites ... here she reflects on some significant recent publications. Last week saw the little-heralded (although by some long-awaited...) publication of two Government reports...

I suspect most readers of this blog have no difficulty in the idea that we should strive to ensure that the rest of life on earth should have a future. In Europe, our best places for wildlife – identified, designated and (to some extent) protected are brought together as a network known as Natura...

It’s the Saving Special Places blog’s first birthday. We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last year – both from the UK and further afield, from the Severn to the Serengeti. Last September Lydd and Hunterston were already prominent cases, one post was entitled ‘Lydd Airport...

The Barrow Port Area Action Plan has recently been Examined in Public – and as a result of the inspectors report has to make some changes if it is to be formally adopted – to be deemed sound, in the jargon. The key amendment from the point of view of the natural environment is the removal...

At this time of such dreadful news from Greece it’s great to be able to bring you some good news. Our friends at the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS - the BirdLife International partner in Greece) are delighted that Greek Ministry of the Environment has designated 66 new Special Protection...

This year’s Goldman Environmental Prize (for Europe) has been awarded to Malgorzata Gorska (pictured with the award). This recognises her enormous role in securing the protection of the Rospuda valley and is richly deserved. The threat of the Via Baltica (an international road corridor) to...

News has just come in of a serious threat to Son Bosc which is an area of very high conservation interest just ouside The Albufera Natural Park in Majorca. As well as its Park status it is both a Ramsar and Natura 2000 site. One of Son Bosc’s greatest claims to fame is its population of robust...

My colleagues in Wales were delighted to host a visit by MEP Derek Vaughan (pictured on the right with RSPB Conservation Manager Sean Christian) to the Newport Wetlands national nature reserve. Mr Vaughan was impressed with the reserve’s centre – thronged with half term families –...

Lots of posts on this blog have featured wetlands and, in particular, the UK’s coast and estuaries. This is no coincidence – this country’s coastal heritage really puts us on the world map of conservation issues. As we look forward to the end of winter hundreds of thousands of wildfowl...

The the idea of protecting the best places for nature on land is a familiar and accepted way of doing conservation. The best of the best – our Natura 2000 site network – has been a success (there’s a long way to go to complete the network, but that’s another story). The requirement...

I regularly bang on about how important our protected areas are. In particular, our Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation (together forming the European Natura 2000 network) are vital to efforts to safeguarded not just wildlife but also a range of services the natural world provides...

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...

It’s the dream of every footballer to walk out on the pitch at the Bernabeu or the San Siro or Old Trafford. Opera fans plan their pilgrimage to La Scala. No tourists worth their salt would fail to miss St Mark’s Square when visiting Venice or not bother to view the Old Town from the Charles...