The RSPB Community

Wildlife friendly farming – Nature needs you!

jenhegarty — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:43:00 GMT

Today sees the launch of one of the most comprehensive assessments of the health of the UK’s natural environment. Sadly, much of the ‘State of Nature’ report, written by new partnership of 25 research and conservation organisations, including the RSPB, doesn't make for happy reading – but there is hope so keep on reading!

But before we get there, I’m afraid we have to face the facts: much of the UK’s flora and fauna is not doing well and that’s across all habitat types, from farmland and woodland through to coastal and marine areas. And this is just the latest snapshot of a historical pattern of decline in the UK.

In a nutshell, and looking at only farmland, 60% of species are declining, 34% of them severely and many of these changes are linked to shifts in farmland management.

But - as the report also highlights, we can turn things around for at least some of these species:

“Agri-environment schemes have helped to increase the population of rare species and local populations of more widespread species, and there is evidence that even simple measures, such as those available in the English Entry Level Scheme, benefit birds”.

Every year the RSPB celebrates the work of farmers who take steps for wildlife, often through agri-environment schemes which are entirely taxpayer funded. These ‘Nature of Farming Award’ winners demonstrate just how space for nature can be reintegrated into conventional and often highly productive farming systems. Take a look at some of our recent NOFA winners here – they’re an inspirational bunch.

But the report does go on to say:

“However, we have not seen the much-hoped for recoveries of farmland wildlife – probably because not enough farmers have taken up the most effective agri-environment options, and available funding is limited.”

So there is still a lot for us to do. We need to squeeze more value out of agri-environment schemes so nature stands a chance of recovery and at the same time, decision makers need to ensure these schemes get the funding they need – including by transferring as much money as possible from the CAP’s ‘direct payment’ pot into rural development funding – which pays for agri-environment schemes.

We, and you know, that farmers are able to deliver fantastic things for the environment, often through some relatively minor adjustments to their farm management. But as today’s State of Nature report shows, we still need to do much more.

The good news is that there is scope to do more – for many species in decline, the challenge is not finding out what they need to recover, it’s securing the political will to ensure the options they need are in place at the necessary scale. So let’s work together to make that happen!

East Anglia’s ‘Noah’s Ark’

Heather G — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Guest blog by David Hirst, Natural England

A farming duo is giving wildlife in Essex a vital helping hand by creating their own version of ‘Noah’s Ark’ on their farm. Thanks to their conservation work, lapwings, lizards, snakes, bumblebees, corn buntings and turtle doves are now to be found alongside the more traditional farm animals on Moverons Farm near Brightlingsea.

Lesley Orrock and Payne Gunfield signed up to join Natural England’s Environmental Stewardship scheme - which pays farmers to use environmentally friendly farming methods on their land - and the couple are now reaping the benefits with a rich harvest of wildlife.

Since helping Lesley and Payne enter the stewardship scheme, Natural England wildlife adviser Sarah Brockless has noticed a big difference in the amount of wildlife around the farm. Lapwing now successfully nest on uncropped areas in fields; wild flower corridors have been established along the edges of fields to provide pollen and nectar for rare Carder bumblebees and other crop pollinators; and the network of farm hedgerows has been re-established through new planting and coppicing. A family of adders has moved into the farm’s specially-designed ‘reptile refuge’, known as a hibernacula, which has been constructed from recycled concrete rubble.

Last winter, Lesley and Payne were rewarded with the sight of a flock of more than 160 corn buntings and yellowhammers feeding on the farm. A specially formulated seed mixture crop is provided every winter to help the birds survive the ‘hungry gap’ between January and spring, when natural seeds can be scarce in the countryside. In addition, Lesley and Payne put out a mixture of oil seed rape, wheat, millet and canary seed across the farm throughout the winter months.

Lesley says: "We are privileged to live and work in such a fantastic place. We love the wonderful variety of wildlife we have on the farm but we wanted to do more to help secure the future of the wildlife we have and to increase the biodiversity whilst still maintaining a commercially viable business. With the combined help of David Sunnucks who farms the land and Sarah Brockless at Natural England, who helped us set up the Environmental Stewardship agreement, we feel we are well on the way towards achieving our aim."

Nationally declining farmland bird species that nest on the farm, such as turtle doves and yellow wagtails, will also benefit from the creation of new wildlife habitats providing sites for feeding and breeding. Turtle doves, which are now rare summer visitors to the UK, nest within the area known as ‘Noah’s Ark’, a large scrub area on the farm. The doves feed on the abundance of flower seeds that grow wild on the farm and also in crops, such as clover, that have been specially sown on the land.

The kind of wildlife habitat creation work underway at Morevons Farm is essential for securing a future for turtle doves in England. A steep decline in the birds’ population has led to the setting up of Operation Turtle Dove (www.operationturtledove.org), a three-year collaborative project between the RSPB, Conservation Grade and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, supported by Natural England.

Natural England’s Sarah Brockless added: “The knowledge, enthusiasm and hard work of Lesley and Payne have lead to outstanding progress during the establishment of the scheme. There is a true balance between a viable farm business, good practical farming and great nature conservation on Moverons Farm. It is through the hard work of farmers like Lesley and Payne and their participating in environmental stewardship schemes that we can make a real difference to our land, conserve wildlife and protect natural resources.”

By re-planting and coppicing the farm’s old elm hedgerows, a series of wildlife corridors will be created across the farm and rotational cutting will provide a source of berries for the birds and field mice to feed on during the autumn and winter months. A patch of Hogs Fennel has also recently been created on the farm to attract the Fisher’s Estuarine moth, one of Britain’s rarest and most highly threatened species of insect.

The next chapter in the farm’s success story will see the gradual re-introduction of traditional sheep grazing which will greatly enhance the importance of the farm’s sea wall for wildlife. Unlike cutting, which creates a uniform habitat, extensive grazing will create a variety of habitats for wildlife.

As well as rare bumblebee species, the farm’s sea wall supports populations of grasshoppers and crickets, such as the short-winged conehead and great green bush-cricket, which are now almost entirely restricted to the Essex coast sea walls and scrub areas such as Noah’s Ark. Sharp-eyed walkers may also notice common lizards and slow worms on warm days. Interesting plants to look out for are shrubby seablite, golden samphire and the nationally scarce dittander.

The farmland is visible from the well-walked sea wall footpath coming out of Brightlingsea.

It will be guaranteed, 100% beef

Gethin Davies — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:51:00 GMT

This week we’re returning to a showpiece event for beef farmers. We have attended this event a few times in the past to get across the important role that cattle farming plays in shaping our countryside and the opportunities available to wildlife. See here and here.

At this year’s event, we will be focussing on Higher Nature Value farming systems. Cattle are often integral to such systems, and we’ll be asking the farmers visiting our stand to tell us how important the wider outputs of farming are to their farms. Things like providing habitats for wildlife, clean water, carbon storage and valued landscapes.

Despite the horsemeat scandal and the abysmal weather of the last year, I expect to find the beef industry in a reasonably good spirits. Cattle prices are very healthy (up more than 10% on the year), hardly taking a dent from the horsemeat scandal – indeed, it may well have helped UK producers as consumers seek greater assurance on the provenance of their meat, and also shone a light on the issue of unclear labelling. Spring also seems to have arrived at last with grass growing, hedges well in leaf and swallows returned to their favourite barns on farms around the UK.

It is always interesting being at these industry events. They are very much for the farmer, unlike the agricultural shows which also attract large numbers of the general public. We will probably be the only stand focussed on wildlife, nestled amongst stands selling machinery, feed and every other conceivable thing that a beef farmer might need to run their business. Some understand exactly why a wildlife charity would want to attend such an event – they will recount stories about wildlife on their farms and discuss the work they are doing to help wildlife. Others will be less sure that we are relevant to them, but hopefully just being present helps establish the idea that wildlife and other environmental outputs from farmland are just as much a part of a livestock farming business.

Our latest views on CAP reform

Heather G — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:47:03 GMT

Read the latest about our views on CAP reform on Martin's blog here

Want to see turtle doves?

Heather G — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Many farmers across the East and South East are working hard to give turtle doves a home as they return from their wintering grounds in Africa. But still, as numbers are ever dwindling and their breeding range consistently retracting, many will never have been lucky enough to ever see a turtle dove.

If you are in North Norfolk this Saturday, why not drop into the 'Wild About The Wensum' event at Pensthorpe, where you can see turtle doves in the wader enclosure, and learn more about the plight of these highly threatened birds? Pensthorpe Conservation Trust are one of our lovely partners in Operation Turtle Dove. This year the Wild About The Wensum event is raising money for Operation Turtle Dove - so by visiting you can have fun, learn about wildlife, and support vital work that will help future generations see turtle doves where they belong - in our fields and gardens across a much bigger range than they currently occupy.

Full details below:

Farming for food and corn buntings in north east Scotland

Heather G — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:15:00 GMT

Hywel Maggs, Conservation Officer for North East Scotland, tells us about one of the fabulous farmers he has been working with to help corn buntings

John Moir has recently been nominated for the Species Champion category in the Nature of Scotland Awards by Scottish Agricultural College Consulting.

It's an accolade that is richly deserved. The Moirs have successfully integrated a host of conservation measures targeting corn buntings into their commercial farm business situated on the northeast coast of Aberdeenshire. Running a herd of Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle, Scotch Mule ewes and growing organic spring cereals at Old Rattray and Cairness Home Farm, the Moir’s have supplied organic beef to Marks & Spencer and Tesco, whilst their organic oats go to Waitrose and livestock fodder to other Scottish organic farmers.

At the same time, in response to careful management, the corn bunting population has increased by 157% between 2006 and 2012 at Old Rattray, and has been the focus of targeted research into recovery work for the species.

Conservation measures have been adopted through participation in Government funded agri-environmental schemes and voluntary partnership initiatives which have benefitted birds, butterflies and other wildlife. The Moirs state that they have achieved this through a gradual process of integration, allowing the farm business to adjust and react positively whilst boosting the population of a threatened species.

John is a great advocate for corn buntings in Scotland, he has been prepared to speak out for wildlife on his farm and how this should be safeguarded as part of agricultural support programmes.

The purpose of the initiative

Corn buntings were once described as abundant though patchily distributed throughout most of Britain and Ireland. Large declines since the 1970s led to extinction in Ireland, and an end to regular breeding in Wales. In England and Scotland their range has also contracted and declines continue. A study in eastern Scotland revealed an 83% decline in singing males on study sites between 1989 and 2007. The Scottish population now could be as low as 800 singing males with the remaining stronghold being in the North East.

Loss of winter grain and weed seeds, destruction of nests by harvesting, and indirect effects of pesticides on the abundance of invertebrate food for nestlings may all have contributed to declines. Consequently, the species is on the ‘Red List’ of Birds of Conservation Concern and a priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. It is also a species of unfavourable conservation status at a European scale having declined in 22 of the 34 countries.

Corn bunting recovery work began in East Scotland in 2002, with the Moir’s directly involved each year since 2005. Targeted implementation of appropriate agri-environment measures is urgently needed to halt and reverse such declines, a challenge made all the greater by rising grain prices, delays to the introduction of new measures, and abolition of EU ‘set-aside’ as a means for providing food and nesting habitat.

Objectives

The initiative aimed to halt and reverse corn bunting declines in their remaining stronghold, through partnership working with farmers and their agents, conservationists and policy makers. The work aimed to identify causes of decline, develop a recovery ‘toolkit’ backed by robust research findings, and incorporate into Government policy. An ongoing aim is to ensure this ‘toolkit’ is targeted at an appropriate proportion of population.

Funding has come through entry into Government agri-environment schemes and voluntary participation in an initiative funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Solution

Since 2005, work has involved trialling and monitoring options for corn buntings and integrating them into commercial operations. These trials have not always been immediately successful, but with tweaks and further work, solutions have been found to deliver for corn buntings whilst being practical for the farmer. John has experimented with innovative techniques to deliver sustainable habitats for corn buntings. This has involved management such as on-site composting of grass to provide suitable grazing in the early spring, whilst creating dense corn bunting nesting habitat in summer. Management of organic cropping trials has offered both nesting and winter foraging habitats for corn buntings and an insight into what might make suitable low input arable silage as part of commercial livestock operations. John has played a valuable role in the formulation of corn bunting agri-environmental options by ensuring an agronomic perspective is built in.

Work at John’s farm has been used to highlight successful recovery work for corn buntings to a wide audience. Various corn bunting focused demonstration events have been held at Old Rattray and work here has featured on both television and radio. A wide range of partners have been involved including SAC Consulting, SNH, RSPB, Scottish Government, Scottish Organic Producers Association, Welch’s Seed Merchants and neighboring farmers.

We hope to continue this work and feed in to the development of future Rural Development support schemes.

Results

A key area of conservation that John has helped develop has been delivering safe nesting habitat in grassland which is usually mown during the breeding season. Research work at Old Rattray and other farms in eastern Scotland revealed that one third of early summer nests are within grass fields usually mown during mid summer. Detailed research monitoring has shown that by delaying grass cutting in these fields, corn buntings are eight times more likely to fledge broods. To maintain a stable population, 10% of the grass would need to be late cut. John is currently late cutting approximately 47% of his commercially mown grassland for corn buntings.

This work has led to the development of an option that has been included in the current Government agri-environment scheme and is being deployed on land managed by John and in the wider area by neighbouring farmers.

In addition to nesting habitat, John’s unharvested crops have attracted flocks of up to 150 corn buntings in recent hard winters, along with 1000s of other farmland seed eaters, such as yellowhammers, linnets and reed buntings. Research into the use of these seed bearing crops on John’s farm has helped to tailor mixes to suit corn bunting requirements across a wider area. Such unharvested crop mixes are now commercially available and advocated through a local seed merchant, being sold as a corn bunting specific mix. John has provided seed from his own cereal crops free of charge to locals. This seed supply has been used at various other sites for direct winter feeding and spring sowing.

Numbers of corn buntings at Old Rattray have increased from seven singing males in 2006 to 18 in 2012.

Research findings at Old Rattray have fed into a paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology in 2011 entitled ‘Adaptive management and targeting of agri-environment schemes does benefit biodiversity: a case study of the corn bunting Emberiza calandra’. This paper demonstrated how work carried out by the Moir’s and other farmers has been benefitting corn buntings. It reported that where targeted management was being deployed with a strong advisory element corn bunting numbers increased by 5.6% per annum between 2003 and 2009. In contrast, numbers showed no significant change on farms in non targeted schemes, and declined by 14.5% per annum on farms outside both schemes. The paper also highlighted that in 2009, only a quarter of the population was targeted with appropriate recovery effort. Provision to the required level will need 500-600 hectares under appropriate management, at a cost of approximately £120 000 per annum.

“Digging for Wildlife”: The Economics of Food Security

Kathryn Smith — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:58:10 GMT

Increases in food prices have raised consumer concerns around the affordability of food and our future food security. In today's blog, RSPB Environmental Economist Donal McCarthy tells us what recent trends in food prices might mean for food security and wildlife, both in the UK and more widely.

In recent years, concerns have grown around the issue of food security, primarily as a result of increasing, and increasingly volatile, food prices. In the UK, Minister for Agriculture and Food David Heath has warned that we need to increase UK food production, stating that “there may come a time soon when we need to dig for survival." By recasting the famous “dig for victory” campaign slogan of the Second World War, the Minister seems to be implying that we potentially face a return to wartime-like conditions (e.g. rationing and food shortages) in the near future.

So, what are the facts and how concerned should we be? Let’s start with production: a brief look at the numbers suggests that things might not be quite as bad as they seem, and in fact that they might be quite unremarkable by historic standards. Government statistics show that the UK is currently over 60% self-sufficient in food (or over 70% if you consider only the foods that can actually be grown here). By comparison, we were less than 50% self sufficient for much of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

However, the self-sufficiency ratio does not tell the full story, and in fact it is a relatively poor measure of food security, ignoring, for example, issues of food access/affordability and the importance of long-term productive capacity in securing supplies. Both are serious issues that would almost certainly get worse if we were to aim for national self-sufficiency. Let’s examine each of these in turn.

Affordability – concerns about rising food prices are second only to energy and fuel prices in terms of the economic issues that most worry people. Prices have risen by 12% in real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation) since 2007, meaning that food now costs roughly the same amount as it did in 1997. However, looking at the bigger picture food is now far more affordable than it was in the period post-Second World War; as a % of household expenditure, we now spend less than half as much on food as we did in the 1950s.

Over the same period, many of our farmland bird species, key indicators of the quality of the farmed environment, have decline by 50% or more.

Of course, people on lower incomes, who spend a larger proportion of their income on food relative to the average household, are being hit hard by the current combination of falling real wages and rising prices. However, this is primarily a distributional issue, not a production issue. Increasing UK food production would not necessarily lead to lower prices, and in fact could lead to higher prices; there are sound economic reasons why the UK produces less food than it consumes (e.g. consumer preferences, trade and comparative advantage).

Globally, a similar picture emerges. The real price of food has trended downwards since the 1970s as growth in global supply has outpaced growth in global demand, while the share of consumers’ expenditure devoted to food has fallen in many countries. Currently, we comfortably produce enough food globally to meet existing demand. Moreover, if eating habits changed and the cereals currently fed to livestock were used for human nutrition, the additional calories would suffice for an additional 3.5 billion people. Eliminating consumer food waste in industrialised countries would provide an amount of food equivalent to current net food production in sub- Saharan Africa.

The world currently has more than enough food, yet some 1 billion people still go hungry because they cannot afford to pay for it, at the same time as the developed world faces an obesity crisis. These are serious failings in the food system that must be addressed; simply increasing production will not solve the problem.

Productive capacity: Our long term food security ultimately depends on maintaining the productive capacity of agriculture.. Recent price spikes, driven in part by a combination of poor harvests (linked to extreme weather events) and rising production costs (linked to oil price rises and natural resource constraints) clearly highlight the potential impacts of climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation on our future food security.

All of us, consumers and producers, farmers and conservationists, should be concerned. Particularly about the loss of farmland biodiversity and the ecosystem services which are fundamental to sustainable agricultural production and food security. Food experts have suggested that the current UK food system cannot be regarded as sustainable “by any stretch of the imagination”, while the 2011 UK National Ecosystem Assessment confirmed that we have consistently under-valued and over-exploited our natural resources. Over recent decades, the UK has produced more food from crops than at any other time in history, but cheap food has come as a serious cost to the environment. As David Heath has recognised, there are big challenges facing the food system. However, unsustainable increases in food produced in the short run can come at the expense of reduced capacity for production in the long-run. Right now, our biggest focus needs to be on improving the environmental sustainability of agricultural production in the UK and the EU more widely (of the food we import, the majority comes from the EU, where self-sufficiency is around 90% as a whole). Farmers like those taking part in the Nature of Farming Award every year are a real demonstration of what can be achieved for wildlife on profitable farmland.

During the First and Second World Wars, soldiers drew great solace from the skylarks that, despite the bloodshed, continued to sing above no-mans-land. As skylarks continue to decline, can I suggest a more appropriate use of the famous wartime slogan than the variation used by David Heath in his recent comments? As concerns around climate change and the biodiversity extinction crisis grow, perhaps we need to start “digging for wildlife” before its too late? I’d be keen to hear your thoughts. Victory is far from guaranteed.

What do chimps and tigers have to do with food and farming?

Kathryn Smith — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

We've heard a lot this week about growing food in the UK and how British farmers can do their bit for wildlife. But what difference do our food choices make to the wider world? Today we hear from Laura Stevens about the effect our buying habits can have on rainforests and it's very special wildlife.

"I remember when I was a kid and going to the supermarket with my mum used to be a novelty - running up and down the aisles chasing my siblings, biting chunks out of the French stick before we even got to the checkout and causing general havoc. Nowadays, it’s not quite so fun – if I can get in and out of there in less than half an hour then I’m happy. The last thing I want to be doing is spending hours reading ingredient lists and labels, but I do want to make the right choices for wildlife and it’s not just wildlife here in the UK – it’s the species that call tropical forests home too. Here are just a few of those, taken with camera traps in the Gola and Harapan rainforests:

Chimpanzees, Gola

Sumatran tiger, Harapan

Now you might be thinking to yourself “what have tropical rainforests got to do with farming?” Well quite a lot actually. Every four seconds an area of tropical rainforest the size of the football pitch is cut down for timber and the cleared areas are then planted up for intensive agriculture. Palm oil plantations are a massive problem, but soy, coffee and cocoa are problematic too."

So how do I do more for tropical wildlife without spending hours in the supermarket? Laura says it's dead easy and suggests I follow these four simple rules:

- Always look out for the FSC logo when you’re buying paper or wood products and choose products that carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal.

- Remember, less is more. Palm oil is used in a whole variety of things, from sweets to toiletries, but it’s often labelled as vegetable oil so can be really tricky to spot. If in doubt, try to buy palm oil free products where you can or products using palm oil that’s sustainably sourced.

- A little research goes a long way. Try to find out as much as you can about what’s in the products you buy and what impact they have on tropical rainforests so you can make an informed choice.

- Think before you buy. Do you really need it? Could you reuse or recycle something instead? Good for rainforests and good for your pocket!

Going bananas for biodiversity

Kathryn Smith — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:02:00 GMT

I walked in to my office this morning and found a cake tin sitting on my desk. I haven't seen the results of what came out of it yet, but apparently the polar bear it was used for made a little boy very happy on his 4th birthday! Funny really, as last night I was in a baking mood myself and made this!

Bread has always seemed a bit of a chore to me, but having been inspired (along with thousands of others) by the Great British Bake Off, I've recently discovered a few recipes that are so simple and straightforward to make as there's no yeast involved, and no sitting around waiting for the dough to rise. Perfect when you haven’t got a huge amount of time! This one was made with Allinson flour (they're part of Conservation Grade) so I know it's been produced on farms that provide wildlife habitat.

Birthdays are always a good excuse to get baking, but I often find myself just pottering about in the kitchen, whisk in hand and covered in flour, for no better reason than wanting to create something to share with others. I find homemade is cheaper and so much more satisfying than shop-bought, and the great benefit is that you know precisely what's gone into making it when you do it yourself from scratch. No standing in the aisle at the supermarket for ages trying to read a list of ingredients - by the time I've done that I could be half way through making my own!

After a very busy week last week with not much time spent at home, I had a bunch of very brown bananas that I'd not got round to eating. Instead of chucking them in the compost it seemed a good excuse to knock together a banana loaf. The friends who received it as a thank you present were very appreciative! I've long been a stickler for Fairtrade bananas (although I find I have to go to specific places to avoid buying them in a plastic bag). Along with my Allinson flour and Soil Association organic eggs I wasn’t doing too badly on the wildlife-friendly front. Although organic eggs are a little bit more expensive, I don't eat a lot of them so it doesn't work out too badly.

Because I was making this banana loaf as a present, I wanted to make it a little bit extra special by adding some Love Nature chocolate (made in the UK with organic and Fairtrade ingredients, and no palm oil). It was a good decision! By the time Sunday afternoon rolled round, there wasn’t much left of this:

My Nana's recipe always goes down a storm and it was made all the more enjoyable knowing that the ingredients I’d used were helping to provide a healthy, sustainable environment for wildlife.

Tomorrow, we'll hear about the economics of farming and how that impacts on us as consumers. In the meantime, I’ve volunteered to make a cake for a meeting next week – do you have any suggestions on what it should be? Let me know if you have any recipe ideas!

Beefing up on biodiversity - How can I shop for meat and help wildlife?

Kathryn Smith — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:29:00 GMT

While researching my article for Birds magazine, I had lots of suggestions for farms to use as case studies from RSPB staff all over the UK. One suggestion that particularly inspired me was the work that Amanda, Chris and Denise are doing on Peelhams Farm. So much so that I’ve just placed my first order on their website! I don’t eat a lot of meat – I’d rather eat less and buy better quality – but it does form a part of my diet so I’ve opted for an organic economy pack which should keep me going for at least a couple of weeks. Shopping for meat products can be particularly confusing, so in today’s instalment of this week-long special on food, we hear from Eleanor Burke, Food Project Officer, who sheds some light on how important livestock farming can be for wildlife, and how our choices can influence the health of our countryside.

“There is a growing awareness that we need to consume less meat both for health reasons and because it can reduce our impact on the planet. The meat that we do eat can also have hidden implications for wildlife. Many intensive livestock systems no longer provide the ‘Big 3’ (nesting habitat, winter food and summer food) which wildlife needs to thrive. Also meat produced in the UK can actually have a global footprint as they are often fed on crops, such as soya, grown on land which has been cleared of forest or other important habitats. So picking your chops or sausages carefully can make a real difference.

Some livestock systems are just more wildlife friendly and deliver a lots of other benefits too, like helping to reduce global warming by locking up carbon in the soil and protecting our best loved landscapes. These systems, known as High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems, are mainly found in hill and upland areas, where the remote location and harsh weather makes farming particularly difficult. HNV farms are economically vulnerable and the farmers and rural communities that depend on them often struggle to make a living. The future of HNV farming in the UK hangs in the balance; without a better package of financial support, their future is under threat, along with that of the incredible wildlife which thrives there.

(High Nature Value farming on our Geltsdale reserve. Andy Hay (rspb-images.com))

We as consumers can help by looking to choose meat from farms such as these, but how can we do this? One way way is to identify producers who are part of a certification scheme such as organic, LEAF or Conservation Grade. These schemes allow shoppers to make a difference by looking for and supporting schemes that have high environmental credentials. However, not all certification schemes are wildlife-friendly and some deliver very little. Certification schemes have developed for different reasons, some to deliver for wildlife and reward farmers for this and others have been set up to assure consumers that farmers are meeting legal requirements and food safety standards. Ones to look out for when buying beef or lamb are those that use traditional breeds and support low intensity extensive grazing, which is important for maintaining the habitats that many priority species rely on. Another way is to look out for farmers who are in agri-environment schemes. These differ in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but are designed to help farmers to put back habitats and features to benefit wildlife as part of their farm management.

Certification is an area that we’re very interested in and we’ll be starting work on a project this summer looking at what wildlife-friendly meat production schemes are available and what they do to benefit wildlife. At present, it is less straightforward to find wildlife-friendly meat as schemes are still in their infancy, but we are in discussion with different schemes to find out more. In the meantime, when out shopping ask lots of questions! If consumers demand genuinely sustainable and environmentally friendly products, food retailers and producers will respond.”

Food for thought

Kathryn Smith — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT

If you’ve received the latest issue of Birds, you’ll know that I’ve challenged myself to shop in a way that means my cupboards are filled not only with tasty food that’s good for me, but also grown in a way that’s good for wildlife. I’ve always been conscious of what I put in my shopping basket, but I lead a busy life and sometimes it’s hard to make the right choices when I’m in a hurry, I’ve missed the farmers market or don’t get home from work until after my local greengrocer has closed.

I often use Big Barn to find specialist local shops to explore, and even though I live in a town I’m surrounded by countryside so there’s a fair amount of choice. But often I have to resort to the supermarket (there are four to choose from within walking distance of my house!) so when I do, I want to know that my purchasing habits are not having a negative impact on the countryside. Even better if they have a positive impact.

Luckily, I have lots of friendly colleagues to call upon to help me in my quest – and in this week-long series on food, we’ll be hearing from some of them as they offer advice on what we can all do. They’ll be shedding light on the economics of farming on a global scale, as well as providing hints and tips on identifying products that are wildlife-friendly, whether they’re grown here in the UK or in the tropics. And as for me, I’m looking forward to having a good excuse for spending more time experimenting in my kitchen, and having friends over to eat whatever I create!

If you have any hints, tips, stories or recipes I’d love to hear them!

Beekeeper rally creates a buzz!

Ellie Crane — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:20:00 GMT

Sorry, hardly an original pun I know!

I was lucky enough to be a part of the March of the Beekeepers event in London today.

We got a great turnout - beekeepers, gardeners and others, many in fantastically creative costumes. I'm not going to try to guess numbers but we certainly made a big impact and hopefully generated a lot of publicity for the crucial neonics vote on Monday. The main rally took place in Parliament Square, and while we waved banners and sang stirring songs (Give Bees a Chance) a small delegation delivered a letter and petition to Downing Street. Owen Paterson can't fail to realise that this is an issue which the public cares strongly about - fingers crossed he will make the right decision on Monday.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy. I’ll let you know after Monday how the vote goes.

The March of the Beekeepers

Heather G — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Last month EU agriculture ministers failed our pollinators – and therefore failed food producers and food eaters. That’s a pretty comprehensive failure.

They failed us because they blocked the commission’s proposal to restrict the use of neonicotinoids for a two-year moratorium. Since then, the Environmental Audit Committee published their report on ‘Pollinators and Pesticides’, which concluded that that not enough is being done to mitigate the risks (you can read more detail and our thoughts here).

Hopefully this report will have helped shift opinion ready for the second vote next Monday, 29 April, when we want Owen Paterson to lead the way, and support the restrictions proposed.

But lets not leave it at that.

This Friday, 26 April, we are encouraging people to join the March of the Beekeepers, to show Mr Paterson how he should vote. The march is supported by Avaaz, Buglife, Environmental Justice Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network UK, RSPB, Soil Association and 38 Degrees. And, we hope, you!

Get your beekeeper kit on, put your hair in a beehive, wear stripes, carry fruit or flowers, sport a jar of jam or honey, don a Winnie to Pooh costume, or just come as you are. Meet at 10.30am for an 11.00am start in Parliament Square, Westminster, London on Friday 26th April 2013.

Even if you can't make the march, you can still show your support - sign the 38 Degrees petition here.

A difficult cropping year at Hope Farm

Ian Dillon — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT

The weather dictates everything in farming whether you are an arable or livestock farmer. For us as an arable farm cultivations, spraying operations and harvesting are all at the mercy of the weather. Crop growth is also very much affected by the weather.

When wheat harvest took place last year we very much hoped that we’d seen the last of the bad weather. After a 2 year drought, the spring and summer had turned out to be one of the wettest and dullest on record. The wheat and field bean crops certainly suffered and it is hard to believe that breeding birds, especially ground nesting birds such as grey partridges and skylarks didn’t suffer as well.

Optimism returned as cultivations began for crops to be harvested this year. Plan A was to have 66ha of 1^st wheat and 17ha of 2^nd wheat (variety Scout); 51ha of oilseed rape (variety Cabernet) and 29ha of field beans (variety Wizard). With a delayed wheat harvest in 2012, oilseed rape establishment (29^th August) was delayed longer than we ideally wished. The field of 1^st wheat and our 2^nd wheat fields were also drilled later that we planned (14^th October) and the quality of seedbed was not up to our normal standard.

This was an indication that while the harvest in 2012 had been difficult, the subsequent cultivations and establishments proved even more difficult. In September very dry conditions compromised our blackgrass control, followed by persistent rain which soon prevented any travelling on our heavy clay soils. Cultivations and drilling became impossible. The reality of being contract farmed meant that some of the few windows of opportunity that appeared were missed as the contractors were busy elsewhere.

Plan A soon gave way to Plan B, C, D and before we knew it Plan Z had been formulated and passed. A decision was made to leave the two wheat fields which were following field beans to the spring, and to sow spring wheat (varieties Mulika and Red Wheat). This would allow us to tackle a rather severe blackgrass problem which had developed in those fields. It also meant we would be growing spring cereals on the farm for the first time in many years. This in itself is a gamble on heavy clay, but flexible decision making was becoming key to ensuring good crops would be grown.

This flexibility was particularly valuable in the fields we were planning to sow with field beans. This crop is always the last to be sown, but as November passed into December hopes were receding rapidly. Eventually we had to face reality and in late December we made a decision to abandon growing beans and move to spring sowing of peas (variety Daytona) instead. As I write this the peas are still not sown, but this should happen in the next few days as the fields are ready to drill and soil temperatures are rising.

I would like to say that is where the difficulties ended, but we’ve recently had to abandon sowing the Red Wheat, as that field just refused to dry out despite drier weather and clearance of ditches and outflows from field drains. This is a blow and has obvious financial consequences, but we will use this period of non-cropping to sort out the problems with drainage in this field and to clean the field up.

This may sound as if it has only been Hope Farm that has suffered these problems. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case. Over the winter and spring as I have attended many training events, seminars and presentations the first question on most peoples lips was ‘Are you all drilled up?’. The question was often asked knowing that neither of us where, and even when drilling had been achieved it wasn’t great. Many arable farmers across the UK have suffered similar problems, not to mention livestock farmers especially in the uplands. I think it is fair to say 2012 and 2013 will not be remembered fondly by the farming community.

Now that we are in late April, the weather has finally relented, the sun and heat have returned and the crops are growing. Fortunately our oilseed rape and winter wheat don’t look too bad, and the spring wheat is also growing well. The crops aren’t as good as we would normally expect, but neither are they disastrous.

One final consequence of this very difficult autumn and winter was the failure to establish our wild bird cover crops and flower-rich margins in the autumn. That is the preferred time to establish these on our farm to ensure the best possible quality of habitat is created for butterflies, bees and birds. These will now be sown in the next week or so. This is a risk as drying soils may impede germination and crop development, but the reality of farming even on a wildlife friendly farm is that the crops come first and habitat creation and maintenance second even though it is very important.

I hope that when I write about the harvest in this blog that it will have been a good one and that it will also have been a good breeding season for the wildlife on the farm. The first butterflies (brimstones, commas and red admirals) have been seen and the starlings are beginning to lay their eggs. Spring is here, summer is round the corner and let us all hope that it will be a good one.

More on Martin's blog

Heather G — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:29:00 GMT

Yesterday I recommended reading Martin's blog for our views on predation. Check it out again today for more news about predation and the fortunes of some of our wonderful - but waning - waders, and the impact of agrienvironment schemes.

Redshank: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Predators - a tricky issue

Heather G — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The issue of predation is one that inflames strong passions and hot debate. Check out Martin Harper's blog today for our latest thoughts - and share yours too.

Buzzard: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Woop woop! the first swallows arrive... but spring is too late for some.

Emily Field — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:23:00 GMT

Seeing the first swallow of the year is always exciting and the dates tend to stick in my head: 24th March 2010 on a V&FA volunteer training day, 26th March 2011 on my way to work, and yesterday the 14th April (not me though- my mum emailed me to say she’s seen hers... I still haven't seen one!).

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged here, mainly because I’ve been settling into a new job. Last autumn we were awarded funding from EU LIFE+ to secure the future of the stone-curlew in the UK- and I jumped at the chance to manage this exciting new project. Working with farmers, we'd recovered the stone-curlew population from just 157 pairs in the 1980s to 400 pairs in 2012, and now we hope with this project to make the population more self-sustaining, by helping more farmers to create more safe nesting habitat (areas of bare stony ground away from human disturbance) to reduce the need for rescues.

But losing up to a fifth of the UK stone-curlew population in the March freeze wasn’t exactly how I envisaged it starting. The discovery of ten dead birds in eight days was a grim start to the year for field staff and farmers alike. We could afford to loose ten birds, however, it is extremely rare to find the bodies of birds which die in the breeding season, at best we come across maybe 10% of those which die each year, so the fact that we found ten, means probably over 100 died.

Photo: Nick Tomalin

For the Fieldworkers- the ones who ringed the bird as chicks, and possibly rescued them from passing agricultural machinery, before returning them to raised to fledging by their parents, this was personally upsetting.

To the Farmers who had gone to the trouble to create safe nesting habitat for them to breed this year under a HLS agreement, this was a frustrating blow. We think they starved, unable to get to their invertebrate prey in the frozen ground- but post-mortems on the birds will tell us more.

We’re still waiting for more birds to arrive. Those who waited in Spain for the wind to change will hopefully have been more fortunate. In a month or so, we’ll have a good idea of how many birds we’ve lost by comparing field diaries with last year’s. But I’ve been unnerved by this spring (albeit it doesn’t take much- coming from West Wales I often get spooked by the dry Norfolk weather!)

It won’t have escaped the attention of those who know me that I love cycling, often starting the day with an invigorating twenty mile cycle to work via the country lanes. This is where I see most of my wildlife, and get most of my inspiration for the work I do. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve started to see the signs that spring is finally here - pairs of yellowhammers, the colourful males carrying nest material, skylarks squabbling over territory and frogs’ spawn.

However, this is juxtaposed against more strange nature events. Redwing flocks have been hanging around roosting noisily in the local hedgerow trees this week, geese were flying south in the middle of the night last month, and there’s not a chiffchaff to be heard or a single bluebell to be seen (and last week a frog broke into my house- but that is strange for other reasons!).

From my Volunteer & Farmer Alliance (V&FA) days I know it’s not unusual to catch a couple of flocks of Fieldfare straggling on in April, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Yesterday I was enjoying the warm southerly wind at the allotment and finally planting all the things I’ve had on hold for three months, let hope this is the start of a good summer and things look up for our wildlife!

In search of turtle doves

Heather G — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Turtle doves are just embarking on their long flight to return to our shores – but in far fewer numbers than even 5 years ago. We are working hard to understand the causes of these declines. Jenny Bright, one of our dedicated Conservation Scientists, shares her experiences of working on this project last year.

Turtle doves: Andy Hay

Turtle dove catching day: July 2012

I meet my fellow ‘turtle dove hunter’ at a farm in Essex, to set the traps and head back to the B&B where I set my alarm for 4am. Not an unusual time for this research project unfortunately, and it has been known to be earlier! I am particularly excited about tomorrow though, after working on the turtle dove project for a few months I have now been granted a license to use a whoosh-net, meaning I can now help with catching doves to fit radio-tags to them, and tomorrow is my first day catching.

I have been working on the project since May, when turtle doves have mainly returned from their wintering grounds in Africa and are starting to think about breeding. Many breed on farms in the UK, mostly in the east and south east England. The research project aims to look at why the turtle dove has shown such a catastrophic decline in recent years, and what we can do to help them. We know that turtle doves now only have half the number of attempts at nesting in a year than they did in the sixties, which has happened at the same time as a big change in their diet. The answer may be that there is not enough of their preferred food in summer. Turtle doves are rather pickier than some birds, eating only seeds. We are working with farmers and have put trial plots of some of turtle doves’ previous favourite arable plants, and are hoping to compare how well they breed on these farms with neighbouring farms that don’t have the plots.

This is not as straightforward as it might sound. For example, for the past few weeks, I have been getting up (usually pre-dawn, as turtle doves often only sing for a few hours after dawn before packing up for the day), putting on full waterproofs to attempt to thorn-proof myself (not too much of a hardship on most days last summer, but rather less pleasant on the few days of blazing sunshine!) and crawling through suspicious looking bits of bramble in a turtle dove’s territory. When a turtle dove is not tagged, this is hard and often unrewarding work. Turtle doves are pretty cryptic at showing you where they nest, and unless you happen to be lucky enough to see them building a nest, the signs can be few and far between. A friend of mine once described nest-finding as ‘finding somewhere you don’t want to stick your head, and sticking your head there’, which feels particularly apt for this project!

So the team have spent several weeks crawling through bramble, finding only a few nests. Tomorrow, we will try and catch turtle doves, using what is called a ‘whoosh net’, a spring-loaded net attached to a pull-chord, which I will hold whilst sat at a safe distance in a very small tent. We put a small pile of seed next to the net to hopefully lure the birds in with. If we catch a bird, we put a radio-tag on it, meaning we can track it, making nest-finding considerably more successful as hedges and bushes with nests (of tagged doves) in will now beep!

The following day I sit in my small tent for six hours, watching a pile of seeds. The only action during this time is the farmer walking past with his dog and telling me that he has never seen a turtle dove land on the seeds. Suddenly from out of nowhere, seven turtle doves appear and land on the seed pile, around the seed pile, and, unfortunately, also on the net, making it unsafe to pull the chord. This is too much excitement after my more doveless recent weeks, my heart is now hammering, and I have to take my hand off the chord as it is shaking so much! The doves fly away again without having arranged themselves in a suitable manner. My heart sinks. Ten minutes later, the doves are back, five of them this time, and before I know it have lined themselves up on the pile and are safely caught! They are juvenile birds, hatched this year, so unfortunately they will not have nests for us to track, but we can still gain a lot of useful information on their feeding behaviour.

Today’s first catch – at last!

Catching birds to track can be time consuming in itself, but the tagged birds give us an invaluable insight into the birds breeding, allowing us to find nests much more easily, follow birds that have more than one nest over the summer, and see how far birds travel to feed (up to 7 miles during our study – a long way for lunch!).

There were several great moments like this on the project, and turtle doves are beautiful birds to work on, but overall I would describe my experience of working on the turtle dove project as alarming. Previous research projects I have worked on usually involve working on a species which has shown a historical decline, whereas with the turtle doves it felt like they were disappearing in front of your eyes. Four out of five turtle doves have been lost since 1995. In the first year that I worked on the project, we surveyed 60 sites where birds had been in the previous few years, to find they had been lost from over a third of them, and they disappeared from many of our study farms between years. Although last year is likely to have been difficult for many birds due to the weather, the 12 nests that we found fledged a total of just three chicks between them. If the turtle dove declines at its current rate, predictions are we will lose it as a breeding species within the next decade. I only hope that some of the information gathered from the research project can help to come up with a solution for them before it is too late.

Turtle doves are largely dependent on farmland, so this threatened bird needs farming heroes across the south east to help them survive. They will be arriving soon - hungry, and in need of nesting sites. If you want to help turtle doves on your farm, find out how here

For more ways to help the turtle dove visit www.operationturtledove.org

Last chance!

Heather G — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

This week is your last chance to enter the Nature of Farming Award for 2013 – the UK’s largest farm wildlife competition. Entry closes on 18^th April – yes, that’s next Thursday.

But why should you spend some of your valuable time taking part in an Award?

For one thing, getting recognition for the great work you do for wildlife is satisfying – and also good for your business. And who would turn that down in these challenging times?

Somerset and Carolyne Charrington, winners of the Nature of Farming Award 2011, said:

“There has been a positive impact on the holiday cottages - great advance bookings from new guests, and regular guests booking for [2 years time] so that they can be sure of keeping their slot! We have met a lot of people who had voted for us, and that has been great. Locally people have been very positive about a Mull farm winning a national award.”

Taking part in the Award also helps share techniques amongst the farming community, so all farmers across the UK benefit from the collective experience and knowledge of the farming community.

But its not just farmers. The Award also raises the wider profile of the essential roles that farmers have in our society. For example, Henry Edmunds, winner of the Nature of Farming Award 2012, was celebrated by BBC Radio 4 during their enormously popular Food and Farming Awards.

And we do need to raise the profile of farmers. The people of the UK (everyone, not just farmers) and our wildlife need a healthy, sustainable agriculture industry. So we need the UK public to support the UK farmers delivering that industry. Which means they need to understand enough about farming to care about it.

I know I keep banging on about it, but I remain very disturbed by LEAF’s report last year that showed such a shocking lack of knowledge about where food comes from. We recently conducted an anonymous survey asking people some simple questions about how much they know about farming, and the results were sadly unsurprising. Almost 28,000 people took part, and a resounding 62% of respondents said they knew ‘nothing/very little about farming’.

But happily over 97% were interested in the way our countryside is farmed. And this was further backed up when we asked them why they voted in the Nature of Farming Award. You may expect a good chunk voted because it entered them in to a free prize draw. It is true a free prize can help capture attention initially, but they spent the time filling in the form because they wanted to support wildlife-friendly farmers. A total of 86% said the number 1 reason they voted was either ‘I wanted to show support for all wildlife-friendly farmers’ or ‘I wanted to help the RSPB support wildlife-friendly farmers’.

So that all adds up to why you should enter today. Download your application form at www.rspb.org.uk/natureoffarming

Good luck!

The Nature of Farming Award is funded by the EU Life+ programme, safeguarding the future of our farmland birds under the EU Birds Directive.

Image: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Winter bird numbers provide a ray of sunshine on RSPB Hope Farm

Heather G — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

By Derek Gruar, Senior Research Assistant, Hope Farm

After one of the wettest summer for years, winter continued the theme of damp and dull weather conditions; with the ground still saturated we like many farmers across the UK have struggled to get crops in for the 2013 harvest. This also made conditions difficult for winter bird surveys on the farm, with survey teams having to contend with ploughed fields of heavy clay and excessive quantities of often deep mud.

Three monthly surveys of the whole farm were carried out from December to February inclusive, with all birds using the farm mapped. After revisions of any potential double counts, a total number for each species observed was calculated for each visit.

Over the three counts more than 4000 birds of 44 different species were recorded on the farm. December saw the highest numbers, and totals decreased slightly as the winter progressed. The December count was boosted by large numbers of wintering thrushes with Fieldfare and Blackbirds in large numbers. The undoubted highlights in December were a single Waxwing feeding in the farm garden and a Lesser Redpoll feeding in one of the field margins.

January saw large finch numbers attracted to our sown wild bird seed plots, with one of the largest Chaffinch flocks ever seen on the farm with over 100 birds in it. Woodcock and Snipe were also recorded on arable fields. February always tends to be quieter than other months as food resources such as hedgerow berries become depleted, however Chaffinch numbers remained high.

As with the summer bird monitoring on Hope Farm, we calculate an index of the following species (from the previous government’s quality of life indicator): Kestrel, Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Skylark, Jackdaw, Rook, Starling, Tree Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and Corn Bunting. (The summer index also includes the migrants Turtle dove, Whitethroat and Yellow Wagtail). This allows us to make a yearly comparison of bird numbers compared to those seen in the first year of winter surveys conducted on the farm back in 2000/01.

Of these “index” species mentioned above, the farm held large numbers of Linnet, a flock of between 100-200 birds seen using sown wild bird seed plots on all counts, this compares markedly to the early days of our ownership of the farm where wintering Linnets were a rare sight. Reed Bunting and Grey Partridge were also seen in higher than average numbers. Skylarks were almost exclusively found in the growing oilseed rape fields and yellowhammers were rather uncommon compared to previous years, when more cereal based food resources were on the farm as part of our research trials. No Lapwing, Stock Dove, Tree Sparrow or Corn Bunting were recorded in these counts.

These 16 species have increased by an average of 635% since the winter of 2000/01. The index figure, 7.35, is the second highest for wintering birds on Hope Farm, the highest being recorded in the very harsh winter of 2010/11.

To put this result in context of bird numbers, not a single Grey Partridge or Linnet were recorded on any of the three 2000/01 winter surveys, but the maximum count for these species in 2012/13 was 37 and 200 respectively. Skylarks increased from 35 to 77, Yellowhammer from 2 to 96 and Reed Bunting from 3 to 39 over the same time period.

There have been many studies that show that for some species over-winter survival is a major factor in their population decline. This research also suggests that providing food for birds on farmland through the planting of wild bird seed mixes, keeping over-winter stubbles and leaving small areas of crops unharvested has a positive effect on bird numbers. Over the past few years we have provided a mix of these options on Hope Farm. Currently we have sown areas of wild bird seed mixes and field margins that provide ryegrass seed during the winter. One on going aspect of our research is looking at how these options may be made more effective for birds and other wildlife such as pollinating insects.

The best analogy to describe the effect of providing winter seed producing measures for birds on farmland is to consider the farm as a garden. As with gardens, birds and other wildlife make use of the habitat, even without any additional food being provided. However with the provision of food either through natural means (fruiting/seeding plants) or via feeders, a garden will become much more attractive to birds. The same principle applies on farmland as overwinter stubbles, areas planted with wild bird seed plots or areas of unharvested crop will all increase the attractiveness of the area to birds, many of these options are available through agri-environment schemes.

Summer bird monitoring starts again in April, here’s hoping for a better summer both in terms of weather and the subsequent fortunes for many of the birds that call Hope Farm home.

Fieldfare: Kaleel Zibe (rspb-images.com)

Final stretch for CAP reform but fears over green credentials

jenhegarty — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:00:00 GMT

The last few months have seen a flurry of activity on CAP reform and the next few months should see the deal sealed. But what has actually happened and what are the prospects for a ‘greener’ policy?

March was a particularly busy month. Almost 18 months after the European Commission released its proposals for reform, both the European Parliament and Council (where Member States’ Agriculture Ministers represent national interests) finalised their negotiating positions.

Sadly, in virtually every area, both the Parliament and Council seek to water down the Commission’s proposals. In fact, they risk taking the policy backwards from an environmental point of view.

On the subject of money (top of many people’s minds at the moment) this round of reform will effectively see the end of the steady and pan-EU transfer of funds from Pillar 1, which pays for direct payments, into Pillar II, which pays for wider rural development measures and targeted environmental schemes, including agri-environment. Member States will still be able to move money in this way, but it will be optional and few have voiced their commitment to using it. Indeed, the UK’s chief CAP negotiator, Owen Paterson, is one of the few to do so, and his remit in this area only covers England (the decision to shift money in this way is devolved). Worse still is the proposal to allow Member States to move money from Pillar II into Pillar I, completely reversing the trajectory of 20 years of CAP reform. Both Parliament and Council voted to significantly increase the amounts Member States could move in this way too. This is likely to result in even less money being made available for conservation and environmental improvement on farmland in the next 7 years – even though we know we need to spend much much more….

On the hotly debated subject of ‘greening’ Pillar 1 payments, both Parliament and Council want to reduce the level of ambition initially proposed: of most concern is the reduction of the ‘Ecological Focus Area’ requirement from the Commission’s 7% to 3-5%. Even more worrying are proposals to allow virtually everything to count as EFA land, regardless of its environmental value. The Council’s position is worse however, with stark examples of ‘green wash’ including exempting farms with more than 75% grassland from any greening requirement, regardless of how that grassland is managed. Apparently, some EU Agriculture Ministers do genuinely think the colour green = environmentally green…

It doesn't get much cheerier over in Pillar II of the CAP. There’s a huge question mark over whether the current obligation for each Member State to spend a set amount on environmental measures (such as agri-environment) will make it into the new CAP – such a measure is a vital safety net for such schemes and without it we’re likely to see many countries spending less on measures to benefit wildlife on farms, failing not only wildlife, but the wildlife-friendly farmers who’ve made such schemes a core part of their business. Both Parliament and Council also rejected a modest change in wording which would help channel much needed support to High Nature Value farming systems, which include many of our own upland livestock farmers and crofters.

So all in all, the outlook is not looking rosy for a great leap forward in CAP reform. In fact, the challenge is to protect what we currently have and ensure that environmental delivery doesn’t slip backwards across the EU. And we must meet this challenge if we are to stand any chance of meeting our environmental commitments, and continue to reward those farmers and land managers who want to do the right thing for wildlife and the environment in return for public support.

So what happens next? April and May will be tremendously busy months in Brussels with ‘trilogue’ negotiations taking place between key representatives from the Parliament, Council and the Commission. Areement is expected by the end of June and the RSPB will be working hard with its BirdLife partners to ensure the final deal doesn't fail the environment.

But while there are many concerns over the green credential of the next CAP there are some key areas where Agriculture Ministers will have the flexibility to do the right thing. We are already looking to Owen Paterson, and his counterparts in Wales, Northern Ireland and Wales, to commit to 3 things: moving as much money as they can from Pillar I into Pillar II; ensuring targeted environmental schemes form the centrepiece of Rural Development Programmes and that they design their Pillar I 'greening’ schemes in a way which genuinely benefits the environment. Anything less will fail farmers, wildlife and the public who pay for the CAP.

Check out Martin's blog today

Heather G — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:32:27 GMT

... To find out our views on the Environmental Audit Committee report on ‘Pollinators and Pesticides’ which was published this morning – and to share your views with us too.

A warm welcome, and a hearty thank you

Heather G — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:00:00 GMT

By Christina Taylor, Conservation Monitoring Officer

I have been very privileged to have worked as a project officer for the RSPB’s Volunteer and Farmer Alliance (V&FA) for the past two and a half years, initially based in Scotland and latterly in North East England. Not least because I have had the opportunity to get to know some of the hundreds of dedicated project volunteers who have given their free time to carry out farmland bird surveys over the past dozen or so years, giving farmers quality and timely advice about conserving their farm wildlife.

Over the past three years RSPB has been able to roll out this successful project across the whole of the UK thanks to funding from the European Union’s Life + scheme. However, with a fresh, more targeted, approach to RSPB’s advisory work coming online this year, I wanted to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to some of the V&FA farmers and volunteers who I have been lucky enough to work with in the North East.

So it was with a heavy heart that I looked outside a few Saturdays ago and saw the snowy conditions outside because I was due at New South Farm, Mainsforth, County Durham for the first of two V&FA thank-you events arranged for that weekend. But I needn’t have worried, my colleagues and I, the speakers and most of the invited guests (V&FA farmers and volunteers) made it through the snow.

We set off around the farm in somewhat of a blizzard, hoping to demonstrate some of the agri environment options that Alan and Shirley Hindmarch adopted at the farm as part of their Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement, following their V&FA survey in 2011. We particularly wanted to see the extensive areas of wild bird cover, included in their agreement to provide over winter food and nesting opportunities during the breeding season, especially for corn bunting. Although it was blanketed in snow, we were delighted to see that the wild bird cover had attracted hundreds of buntings - yellowhammer, reed bunting and, happily, a lone corn bunting, all demonstrating perfectly what an important food source this option can be during harsh weather.

Images: Ivan Dunn, Limestone Landscapes Partnership, 2013

After a delicious home-made hot lunch we were treated to a trio of interesting talks from local projects/partnerships – all providing opportunities for willing volunteers to continue to contribute their talents and spare time to conservation in the area.

The next day dawned much brighter and we set off to Hunting Hall near Berwick, Northumberland, owned by Tom and Karen Burn. Hunting Hall also entered into a HLS agreement, following a V&FA survey, and have adopted suite of wildlife friendly agri-environment options such as field margins and wild bird cover. However, Karen and Tom were also keen to share their farm with the wider community and we had the opportunity to experience their fabulous new education room, community orchard and wheelchair friendly path around the farm to name but a few of their educational access developments.

Images: Janet Fairclough, Elisabeth Charman, RSPB, 2013

And so after a farm walk, another delicious lunch and an afternoon of talks we were able to say another round of thank you’s to our hosts, speakers and invited guests, but I want to leave the last word to Karen Burn who sums up beautifully what an influential and important project the Volunteer and Farmer Alliance has been .....

“The RSPB Volunteer and Farmer Alliance Scheme has been tremendously important to Hunting Hall Farm. Our RSPB volunteer, Roger Manning, completed an invaluable, comprehensive survey enabling us to focus our wildlife management plan to provide food and habitat where it would be most effective. Recommendations included a bird hide and scrape; areas now part of our farm’s Higher Level Stewardship educational access programme. This has helped us introduce more people to the natural world and the work farmers do for wildlife. The RSPB Volunteer and Famer Alliance Scheme has been vital in the shaping of Hunting Hall as it is today and we would like to offer a huge thank you for all the help and guidance we have received.”

Karen Burn, Hunting Hall Farm, March 2013

Neonics: the saga continues

Ellie Crane — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:18:00 GMT

Back in February (over on Martin's blog) we announced our revised policy on neonicotinoid insecticides. Martin also mentioned that EU Member States were due to vote on whether to temporarily ban these chemicals on crops that attract pollinators. This partial ban was proposed by the European Commission in response to the evidence that neonicotinoids pose a threat to bees.

I was hoping to be able to give you the joyful news that the ban had been approved and our bees had one less thing to worry about... but sadly that's not the case. When the vote finally happened (it was put back until 15th March), Member States were unable to reach agreement. In technical terms there was no qualified majority either in favour of or against the proposed partial ban.

All is not lost, however: Commission can now take this matter to an Appeals Committee, giving Member States a second chance to debate the proposals. If this committee also fails to reach a decision, Commission can go ahead with the partial ban.

To the disappointment of the RSPB and many others (like the 12 NGOs, us included, who wrote to Owen Paterson urging him to support the ban), the UK abstained from the vote. Defra officials are saying that the government does not yet have enough evidence to make a decision, and they are awaiting the results of further field trials. We hope that this new information will be enough to allow our government to come to a decision on neonicotinoids - and that it will be available in time to influence the appeals committee vote.

Watch this space...

Grazing in the uplands - new report

Ellie Crane — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:19:00 GMT

Posted on behalf of Abi Burns, Senior Agriculture Policy Officer

Our uplands are special. They provide nearly three quarters of our drinking water, their deep peat soils hold more carbon than any other habitat in the UK and they provide an escape for millions of people who visit these iconic landscapes each year in search of inspiration and a sense of solitude. But while the forces of nature are particularly evident in the uplands, these are lived-in landscapes which have also been shaped by man over millennia. As a result, some of our most treasured upland wildlife is dependent on human management and some level of grazing is essential to creating the habitats of many threatened upland birds such as curlew, black grouse and whinchat.

Historically, an increase in livestock numbers – largely driven by CAP-based production payments – led to environmental damage and many upland areas (including specially protected areas such as SSSIs) still bear the damage of past inappropriate grazing. However, with public subsidies now largely ‘de-coupled’ from production and upland livestock production often of marginal economic viability, there is now concern that there is insufficient grazing in some areas to maintain important habitats. Often the debate has been polarised with farmers and conservationists disagreeing about the right number of livestock, though in reality, other details of farming practice such as the type and timing of grazing can be just as important as numbers. To better understand these issues, we commissioned new research - involving a range of farming and conservation experts from across the UK - to draw together data on how livestock numbers have changed in the uplands across the four countries. Through a survey of specialist opinion and in-depth case studies, the researchers then considered the potential implications of these changes for habitats and species. The full findings can be seen at http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Final_Report_tcm9-340975.pdf along with the case studies which centre on the Uists and the Croick estate (Sutherland) in Scotland; the Cambrian Mountains and Snowdonia in Wales; Fermanagh and the Antrim Hills in NI, and Dartmoor and Limestone Country (Yorkshire Dales) in England.

One of the most striking findings is the major differences in changes in cattle and sheep numbers between regions. The greatest decreases in grazing pressure have occurred in the North of England, South Wales, the Western Isles of Scotland and the Western part of Northern Ireland, but some regions have experienced an increase in grazing pressure and the picture varies considerably at the local level with notable differences between the balance between cattle and sheep. Alongside changes in livestock numbers, there have been a number of other trends in upland grazing regimes in recent years which had important impacts on wildlife. These include fewer cattle and less mixed grazing, a greater use of continental breeds, more intensive use of the in-bye and less common land grazing. Less cattle and mixed grazing is contributing to the spread of ranker grasses, rush, scrub and bracken. Experts highlighted a proven need for the use of cattle with hardy traits, but the research also highlighted that not all traditional herds have these traits, illustrating the importance of careful stock selection. The research clearly identified a polarisation between unenclosed areas, which have experienced a reduction in grazing pressure, and improved areas which have been more intensively used and managed. A move from traditional breeds to continental or improved breeds with higher nutritional requirements has led to intensification in management of in-bye and marginal land, resulting in a loss of habitats as well as nutrient enrichment. Reductions in grazing pressure on unenclosed land were found to have been broadly positive, with upland habitats such as blanket bog recovering as a result of reduced grazing by sheep in particular. However, undergrazing is now occurring in some areas, with adverse impacts for some species.

For me, one of the most important messages from the report is the need to consider the whole farming system, rather than focusing on the ideal grazing regime in isolation. With the typical upland system losing money on its livestock production, it is vital that environmentally valuable farms receive a better package of support to allow the benefits they provide for society as a whole to continue. This research has helped us develop our understanding of grazing in the uplands and its central role in securing the future of some of our best loved wildlife and habitats. Many upland farmers in the UK are failed by the current CAP approach – for example, the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) in Scotland results in higher payments going to more productive, less disadvantaged areas in the LFA, rather than being targeted to the most vulnerable farming areas. It is surely time to reward good upland stewardship much more positively.

Abi Burns