Defra’s decision to trial the destruction of buzzards nests and removal of wild buzzards from shooting estates leaves me lost for words...almost! The welcome return of the buzzard to much of the British countryside in these enlightened times following decades of persecution has been one of the most visual conservation success stories of our age.
Defra’s decision has obviously come on the back of strong lobbying from elements of the shooting industry. However, I have had the privilege to work with many shooting estates that accept the few losses to birds of prey as a small price to pay for the sight of these majestic predators, which incidentally take far more of the farmers’ foes than the farmers’ friends. Indeed, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) figures show that 1-2% of poults are taken by birds of prey – miniscule in the context of other factors gamekeepers have to deal with. BASC also have solutions that do not involve removing birds of prey, which the RSPB has been happy to publically endorse.
The estates I work with undertake fantastic conservation work on the back of their shooting interest that benefits a wide range of wildlife. I think it is fair to say that the majority of wildlife-friendly farmers I work with have a shooting interest. They would not want to be tarred with the same brush as the minority that lay down huge numbers of birds without the habitat to support them, who are more likely to benefit from this decision. My vote would be to invest research in supporting wildlife-friendly farmers, not a solution for those who do not create the habitat for wildlife to thrive in a balanced system.
Read what Martin Harper, Director of Conservation, has to say and learn how you can step up and voice your concerns here.
By Jenna Hegarty, Senior Agriculture Policy Officer
Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in well underway and the RSPB is doing all it can to remind our politicians and decision-makers that Pillar 2, which is home to agri-environment schemes, need to be more strongly championed. Agri-environment schemes reward farmers and land managers for managing their land in a way which is good for wildlife and represents a fantastic return on the public’s investment in farming. Many of you will be in schemes yourselves and will see the benefits that participation brings, from increases in wildlife to a reliable income stream (always handy when commodity and input prices remain so volatile).
Sadly, the political focus has largely been on other matters, including the overarching EU Budget (which will determine how much money the CAP gets), the distribution of CAP payments between and within countries and proposals to ‘green’ part of direct payments. This is leaving the best bit of the CAP, Pillar 2, increasingly vulnerable and we need to make the case, and make it loudly, that Pillar 2 should be protected and its funding increased as part of this reform round. We’re also calling for funding for agri-environment schemes to be ‘ring-fenced’ to reflect their importance and value for money.
If you’d like to help us make this case then there’s plenty you can do: participate in our e-action, write to Farming Minister Jim Paice to let him know you strongly support Pillar 2 and agri-environment and let your farming union representatives know so they can represent this viewpoint as an influential stakeholder.
Bee orchid: Paul Dunn - Glamorgan Heritage Coast ProjectLapwing: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com) Leveret: Anthony Griffiths
For the first time ever, the European Parliament (led by the agriculture committee) shares decision-making powers with EU Member States in this round of CAP reform. This means that our MEPs will help shape one of the most powerful drivers of how our farmland is managed. As the next CAP will run to 2020, a year which coincides with the renewed EU targets for halting and reversing biodiversity declines, it’s even more important to ensure farmers are properly supported and rewarded to make space for nature and the environment alongside food production on their farms.
To this end, the RSPB are currently running an e-action calling on MEPs to ‘step up for nature’ as part of this CAP reform round. This means ensuring Pillar 2 (and agri-environment) gets enough funding, High Nature Value farming systems are properly supported and new greening measures are designed in a way which delivers genuine environment improvements. If you’d like to join the thousands who already participated, please go to www.rspb.org.uk/capreform
Barn owl: John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Some wrongly label extensive livestock farming systems as ‘inefficient’. A case study of the livestock farming system on one of our upland reserves highlights that these systems can provide a lot more than first meets the eye.
Following a successful day at last year's ‘National Beef Association event’ (read more here), we are attending this years event at the Three counties showground, Malvern on Thursday 24 May.
Last year we had a lot of interest in the cattle farming operation at our Ouse Washes nature reserve, and the ‘riverside beef’ label helping to market beef from wildlife rich grasslands in the east of England. This year, we are telling the story of the cattle enterprise on another of our reserves, this time in the uplands.
Tarnhouse Farm is a large hill farm in the North Pennines that makes up part of the RSPB Geltsdale nature reserve. The farm is managed by tenant farmer John Errington, and is made up of 92 suckler cows and 500 breeding ewes.
Cattle numbers have been increased at the expense of some sheep over recent years, and this has been instrumental in the recovery of iconic upland birds on the farm, notably black grouse and wading birds such as curlew, redshank, lapwing and snipe. Black grouse have increased from no birds in 2003 to 25 in 2010 - at a time when black grouse populations in the North Pennines generally have nearly halved.
But the benefits don’t just stop at wildlife. The newly published case study of Tarnhouse farm highlights how this extensive livestock system also makes a major contribution to the conservation of carbon-rich soils and water quality improvements alongside food production and wildlife conservation.
The RSPB campaigns for more support for extensive grazing systems, with agri-environment schemes central to the viability of the farming business at Tarnhouse. A cause of concern for the important wildlife and wider benefits associated with extensive upland farming systems is the declining numbers of cattle in upland regions, and the unfair labelling of extensive systems as ‘inefficient’ if the farm is looked at solely from the perspective of food production.
Cattle play an important role in managing many important habitats across the wider countryside as well as our reserves. If you’re at the event call in, but if not, we’d love to hear how cattle are making a difference for wildlife on your farm or local area.
Following 18 months of drought conditions, we have had the wettest April since we bought the farm. This has been welcome news for our crops, which are looking much better for it, and for the environmental features we established last autumn: wild bird seed mixtures to feed our birds this winter and pollen and nectar mixtures which should support high insect numbers over the next 3-4 years. The consistent heavy rain will probably have affected nesting success of our ground-nesting birds quite badly, and we have had much higher chick mortality in our starling population. This has probably been more down to the cold temperatures than the wet conditions. Whilst the rain finally filled our bunded ditches up to levels that we normally expect to see at this time of year, it was short-lived as levels have fallen again quite rapidly over the relatively dry conditions in the last few weeks.
Out on the farm, lapwings are back in our spring beans. Rarity of the spring so far was a bee-eater flying over, seen whilst taking a lucky group around the farm.
Visitors to Hope Farm will now be able to see the scale of our success in boosting wildlife populations, whilst maintaining yields and improving profits as soon as they walk through the farmhouse door. The highlights of our 13 years at Hope Farm are now on display around the meeting rooms. At the moment, this will be reinforced when touring the farm, with the constant sound of singing skylarks: May is a good month to see the farm at its best, in terms of nesting bird activity. Later in the summer, we should see the benefits of our pollen and nectar mixtures and flower-rich margins, bringing in big numbers of bumblebees and butterflies. Through the autumn and winter, the wild bird seed mixtures provide the focal point for another wildlife spectacle, feeding the vast majority of our yellowhammers and other seed-eating birds.
If you are a member of a farmer club who wish to visit Hope Farm, please contact our Farm Manager, Ian Dillon at ian.dillon@rspb.org.uk.