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UK farming projectsThe RSPB works directly with and provides conservation advice to more than 3,000 farmers and crofters every year to find ways to improve yields of farmland birds. The large number of contacts we have in the farming and crofting community means that we can learn about the barriers that prevent them from taking action for wildlife and ensure that the advice we give is practical and realistic. Many of the projects we work on have already made a real difference, for species such as the stone-curlew, corncrake and cirl bunting. In addition to over 100 existing projects with farmers across the UK, we are committed to establishing many more. This is part of our continuing work with the farming community to ensure a healthy, viable, living countryside for people and for wildlife. Below are some detailed examples of projects we're working on with farmers.
Corn buntings once bred in every county in Wales. Now, following a survey in 2008, they are possibly extinct, or best described as occasional breeders, with singing males reported some years in the Bettisfield area. By working with farmers and landowners in this area to provide habitat for corn buntings, we hope to establish them once again as a breeding species in Wales. More... |  |
This partnership project in the Vale of Pickering aims to rehabilitate a nationally-important wetland landscape through sensitive farm management. More... |  |
The Cirl Bunting Project is a fantastic example of how the use of sound science and research can allow implementation of practical solutions for a declining species whilst also benefiting farmers. As part of Action for Birds in England (a conservation partnership between Natural England and the RSPB), government agricultural schemes have been used to help increase the cirl bunting population across the remaining habitat range in south Devon. More... |  |
The corn bunting is one of Scotland's fastest declining birds. Approximately 800 to 1,000 territorial males remain in Scotland, and several local extinctions have occurred during the last decade. Eastern Scotland now holds most of the remaining Scottish population, but even here, they are declining rapidly. More... | |
The natural return of wild choughs to Cornwall in 2001 was of great significance for Cornwall and Cornish people. Today, a walk around the spectacular Lizard and Penwith coastline is even more pleasurable because you are very likely to see and hear these elegant Cornish 'chows', back where they belong. More... |  |
Huge declines in Cornwall’s corn bunting population meant that in 2002 there were fewer than 50 singing males left, all confined to a small area of farmland along the north coast between Newquay and Pentire. Immediate action was necessary to protect the remaining birds and promote recovery in the county. More... |  |
The decline of breeding wading birds throughout Britain was highlighted in the 2002 Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows survey. This RSPB project is working with farmers to help stem the decline and start the recovery in numbers of breeding wading birds in Cumbria, by helping farmers to restore or re-create wetland habitat on their farms. Habitat management can be funded by agri-environment schemes, so much of the work is in liaison with Natural England. More... |  |
Durness, in the far north-west of Scotland, is one of the few mainland locations where corncrake still breed in the UK. Rugged hill ground flanks low-lying coastal crofts on which low-intensity cropping and stock rearing methods are used. Corncrakes benefit from the resulting mosaic of habitats, which provide them with long vegetation for cover throughout the breeding season. More... |  |
Farmers in the Dyfi, Dysynni, Mawddach valleys, working with the RSPB, Snowdonia National Park Authority and Tir Gofal, are making a big difference to yellowhammers and other seed eating birds by providing a source of winter food through growing wild bird cover or other seed rich arable habitats such as weedy stubble fields. More... |  |
The Twite is red listed as a species of conservation concern and is now included on the UK’s priority Biodiversity Action Plan Species List. Formerly breeding in the uplands of 12 English counties, colonies are now restricted to just four counties, all within the South Pennines. In 1990, the South Pennines population was estimated at between 400 – 500 pairs. An ongoing survey in 2008 confirmed a dramatic decline on both numbers and range. The 2008 population was around 100 pairs in some 15 colonies. More... |  |
The main aim of this project is to help reverse the decline in farmland birds by improving uptake of agri-environment schemes in the area, and by ensuring entrants into these schemes have chosen combinations of land management options which really work together to improve the lot of farmland birds. More... |  |
The Heads of the Valleys area has been identified as a Key Area for lapwing, supporting approximately 10% of the Welsh population. Reclaimed coal tips, characteristic of the area, have provided ideal nesting habitat for these birds. However loss and disturbance of breeding sites is now putting the future survival of the species at risk. More... |  |
A four-year project to try to reverse the decline of one of Wales’ most important upland populations of breeding lapwings and to demonstrate the approaches required to achieve that. Two seasons of breeding monitoring and habitat management undertaken to date. More chicks need to fledge to sustain the population. More... |  |
We're working with farmers and partners within agreed landscape scale wetland target areas within the Lake District National Park to bring about wetland restoration (plus hay meadow restoration and arable pockets) for breeding waders and BAP habitat. The Lake District Breeding Wader Project focuses on three main target areas within the Lake District National Park-Morecambe Bay (Duddon, Rusland) - part of the Morecambe Bay Futurescapes; Wet Sleddale (east) and Bassenthwaite (North) part of the North Lake District Upland Futurescapes. More... |  |
Lapwing Landscapes is a pioneering project, which has set targets to double numbers of breeding wading birds across the Upper Thames Tributaries over a ten-year period, working hand-in-hand with farmers, landowners and partner organisations. More... |  |
The project involves 37 farms throughout Northern Ireland, all of which have lapwings breeding on grassland. More... | |
The Long Preston Wet Grassland Project focuses on a 760 hectare target area which is located on the River Ribble floodplain between Settle, Wigglesworth and Long Preston. We're working with farmers and partners within an agreed landscape scale wetland target area at Long Preston near Settle in North Yorkshire to bring about wetland restoration for breeding waders and BAP wetland habitat. More... |  |
The wetland fringes of Lough Neagh are an important habitat for tree sparrows in Northern Ireland. We are investigating the best ways of expanding the tree sparrow population into the wider countryside around the lough. The results will help us guide conservation efforts for the species in the future. More... |  |
This project is one of three sister projects that will focus on six key nationally declining arable species: lapwing, grey partridge, turtle dove, yellow wagtail, tree sparrow and corn bunting. More... |  |
This project works directly with the farming community across Nottinghamshire and lowland Derbyshire. This is a nationally important farmland bird hotspot, and the project helps farmers in this area create and positively manage key habitats for species such as the corn bunting, grey partridge, lapwing, tree sparrow, turtle dove and yellow wagtail. More... | |
In 2004, the RSPB launched Operation Tree Sparrow in the north west of England. This popular and colourful farmland bird declined in the UK by 93% between 1970 and 2006. More... |  |
'Pastures for Plovers' was a three-year initiative operating in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which covers parts of County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria. More... |  |
January 2007 saw the start of RSPB Cymru’s four-year Lapwing Recovery Project in the Hiraethog area, a 330 square kilometre area of mostly upland grass farming systems, located within Conwy, Denbighshire and the Snowdonia National Park. More... |  |
Wading birds need wet areas in which to find food. We are creating these conditions at the RSPB Geltsdale reserve in Cumbria. More... |  |
Breeding wader surveys in 2000 and 2005 confirmed that the Strathspey wader populations are among the most important in mainland Britain but indicated a 35 per cent decline in wader numbers in the five year period. More... |  |
The RSPB is offering farmers the chance to avail of a completely free, no-strings-attached service, which could help increase their income while protecting farmland birds. More... |  |
Originally using money from the European Union, the National Assembly for Wales, agri-environment schemes and Woodland Grant Schemes, the project helped to restore the diversity of mixed land use of moor edge, rough grazing and woodland in the uplands of Wales supporting a black grouse population. More... |  |
This project has several parts: focusing on working with farmers to restore coastal land to make it good for choughs, farmland birds and BAP habitat, but also looking at access, landscape and the socio-economic benefits. More... |  |
The Yellowhammer Recovery Project has two main aims - to demonstrate if the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's (DARD) Countryside Management Scheme (CMS) arable options support more farmland birds, especially priority species, than land not in arable options. More... |  |
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