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What the Birds Directive has achieved
Under the Birds Directive, bird liming will stop in Cyprus and Malta when they join the EU
Protecting birds
The Birds Directive gives protection to most species and outlaws
their mass and indiscriminate killing.
Adopting the Directive made less difference to bird protection
in the UK than most other European countries, because it was based
on the British Protection of Birds Act 1954. However, it did lead
to strengthened legislation, in the form of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981.
In Northern Ireland, bird protection legislation was
fundamentally changed through the Wildlife Order (NI) 1985. The
Directive has also been successful in raising standards of bird
protection across Europe. Spring hunting, ‘liming’ (using a kind of
glue to trap birds on branches and posts) and trapping have been
greatly reduced in many places.
The accession of Cyprus and Malta to the EU is good news for
Europe’s migrant birds because, as elsewhere, better wildlife
protection laws will have to be introduced – and eventually
enforced. The RSPB and our BirdLife International Partners are
committed to ending illegal killing.
Protecting habitats
The Directive’s most important achievement has been to
establish a network of around 3,000 protected areas across
Europe.
From May 2004, these will stretch from the grasslands of Spain
and Portugal to the marshes of Poland and from the forests of
Finland to the seabird colonies of Ireland.
In the UK, they include coastal sites such as the North Kent
Marshes, which the RSPB successfully defended against the proposal
to build an airport at Cliffe, and Dibden Bay, in Hampshire, where
we await the result of a public enquiry over port
development.
Protecting human interest
Developers sometimes portray the Directive as favouring
birds over people. This is not true.
The Directive does not block all development; it provides the
minimum safeguard necessary to ensure that Europe’s biodiversity is
taken properly into account when planning decisions are
taken.
Projects can proceed in those rare cases where there is no
alternative and there are imperative reasons of over-riding public
interest; but then damage to the site has to be offset by the
creation of compensatory habitat. In such cases, the RSPB will work
constructively with all parties to secure a positive outcome for
wildlife and people.
Sadly, these provisions are sometimes used inappropriately. In
such cases, the RSPB maintains its opposition to schemes, and may
take legal action to uphold the Directive.
Last modified: 02 April 2004