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Martin Harper's blogI've been the RSPB's Conservation Director since May 2011. As I settle into the job, I'll be blogging on all the big conservation topics and providing an inside view of our conservation projects. I hope you enjoy reading it and feel inspired to join in thttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/atom.aspxTelligent Community 220.127.116.11190 (Build: 18.104.22.168190)2016-06-08T07:21:53ZWhy the RSPB is withdrawing support for the Hen Harrier Action Planhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/25/withdrawal-from-the-hhap.aspx2016-07-25T05:55:00Z2016-07-25T05:55:00Z
The voluntary approach of the Hen Harrier Action Plan has failed, leaving licensing as the only viable option.

I'm generally very patient. My natural preference is to build partnerships and work to make positive change from the inside with those who want to abide by the law and deliver progress.

However, sometimes that approach simply doesn't work and there can be no clearer example of that right now than hen harriers, where illegal killing of this rare bird remains its most significant threat.

The RSPB played a full part in the production of Defra's Hen Harrier Action Plan and despite disagreeing with certain points (notably brood management), welcomed its publication earlier this year. However, at the time, I noted the need for immediate progress to help build trust in the approach.

Unfortunately this has not happened.

Image courtesy of Shay Connolly

In 2015, we were all extremely frustrated by there being just six successful hen harrier nests from 12 attempts in England. 2016 is on course to be much worse, with only three nests at the time of writing, none of which are on grouse moors.

Some will argue that the weather or vole population is to blame, however, early returns from the national hen harrier survey suggest numbers away from intensively managed grouse moors in north and west Scotland have done ok. We remain convinced that the primary reason for the hen harrier's continuing scarcity remains illegal killing.

Simply put, hen harriers (and other birds of prey) are illegally killed on some estates because they eat grouse. Crimes are committed to increase the number of grouse that can be shot. This year, there have been a series of depressingly predictable incidents in England and Scotland, the disappearance of the hen harriers 'Chance' and '<a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/Highlander’" target="_blank">Highlander', the use of pole traps and the hen harrier decoy in the Peak District. And as well as hen harriers, it has also been a really bad year for red kites in North and West Yorkshire with several suspicious deaths. In addition, there are more cases working their way through the legal system.

All of this adds up to a picture which shows that the commitments made in the Hen Harrier Action Plan are not being delivered. People are still breaking the law and not enough is being done within the grouse shooting community to effect change.

Some will argue that we should be more patient as behavioural change takes time. But the hen harrier does not have time on its side and the longer hen harriers remain on the brink, the greater public antipathy towards intensive grouse shooting will become.

Hen harriers and other birds of prey in our uplands will not recover without a completely different approach.

We have therefore decided to withdraw our support from Defra's Hen Harrier Action Plan.

We have come to this conclusion because we believe that reform to protect the hen harrier will only come through licensing of driven grouse shooting where, for example, crimes committed on estates managed for shooting should result in the withdrawal of their right to operate.

A licensing system isn't about tarring everyone with the same brush, or blaming a whole community for the actions of the few. Quite the opposite: it is effectively a targeted ban that will stamp out illegal activity and drive up the environmental standards of shooting.

Law abiding estates have nothing to fear from this system and, indeed, I believe that it is in their own interests to champion such an approach. We believe that this is the only way to deliver a significant shift in attitudes and potentially secure a future for their sport. Licensing systems appear to work well in most other European countries, so why not here as well?

We fully support the current petition in Scotland and we would like to reinvigorate the call for Defra to introduce licensing in England too.

Of course, we will continue to work on the ground with our partners, especially raptor workers (who monitor and protect birds of prey), landowners who wish to see a progressive future, local people and the police to provide the most effective possible year round protection.

My preference is always for the partnership approach, but partnership requires action from both sides. In this case, that has failed. When shooting organisations are either unable or unwilling to lead the necessary change to rein in illegal activity, then reform must be delivered from outside. That is what we will now seek to do though promoting licensing.

I fully expect our critics (such as the grouse industry funded You Forgot The Birds) to push out a wearyingly predictable series of attacks on the RSPB in coming weeks. I can only imagine that this is designed to divert attention from criminal activity on some intensive grouse moors. But this won't shake our resolve to seek change.

An early opportunity to talk more about all of this will be at the Hen Harrier Day events. I'll be at the Hen Harrier Day North East event at the RSPB's Saltholme reserve on Sunday 7 August, while my boss Mike Clarke will be at the event at Rainham Marshes on Saturday 6 August. Other RSPB representatives will be at various of the other events too. I hope to see many of you there and hopefully many more will be able to attend other events across the country.

Together, we can and will save our hen harriers.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxVision for Nature: guest blog from Matt Williams, Associate Director of A Focus on Nature, the UK's youth nature networkhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/24/vision-for-nature.aspx2016-07-24T04:59:00Z2016-07-24T04:59:00Z

On the day that A Focus on Nature - the UK's youth nature network. - launch their Vision for Nature, I am delighted to host a guest blog from Matt Williams, their Associate Director. You can follow Matt on twitter @mattadamw and find out more about him on <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/mattadamwilliams.co.uk." target="_blank">mattadamwilliams.co.uk.

In 2013 the RSPB was part of a partnership of organisations that launched the <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/State%20of%20Nature%20report." target="_blank">State of Nature report. This unprecedented piece of partnership work showed that 60% of species we know about have declined in recent decades in the UK.

At the time, I had been involved with A Focus on Nature, the UK's youth nature network, for about a year. I <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/wrote" target="_blank">wrote then that as well as a State of Nature, we needed a Vision for Nature, to set out the path we wanted to be on and the future we wanted to see for the natural world. This vision, I argued, was especially needed for young people and future generations, and could even be put together by them. Indeed, I said that they of all people had the most legitimacy to write such a plan.

Since then, A Focus on Nature has spent the last two years working to put together young people's visions for the future of nature and wildlife in the UK. And today we launch our <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/Vision%20for%20Nature%20report." target="_blank">Vision for Nature report. You can follow the launch today and the conversations that follow this week using #VisionforNature. I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed in any way whatsoever to it, and also to use this blog as a chance to pay tribute to Lucy McRobert, the visionary, emerging young leader who founded A Focus on Nature four years ago.

The report uses not only policy analysis and recommendations, but also creative writing, photography and art to set out our vision, thereby trying to appeal to people's hearts as well as their heads. It covers a number of topic areas and was put together by gathering the views of over 200 young people through focus groups, surveys, interviews and social media.

But we also know that we're not alone. Polling that we've had commissioned and are also publishing today reveals that nine out of ten 16-34 year olds think it's important (quite important or very important) for politicians to take care of the environment.

The vision we have for the future is ambitious, some may even think it is unrealistic. We don't know where all the money would come from for our ideas. We'd like to work with NGOs like RSPB, businesses and politicians to figure this out. But it is the start of a conversation about the future we need and want for wildlife.

For example, the UK Government has just indefinitely postponed publication of its 25-year plan for nature. We think delay is not an option: nature urgently needs our help now. However, our top recommendation is for the development not of a 25-year plan for nature, but of a 250-year plan for nature. While we can destroy a creature or special place in the blink of an eye it takes decades for nature to recover and it needs to be safeguarded for many generations to come, not just one generation.

We hope the new Secretary of State for the Environment will take a look at our ideas and be open to meeting with us. Where has the consultation with young people, whose futures will be most affected by it, been during the development of Government's 25-year plan? The publication of our report today provides an opportunity for those conversations to begin where they have been lacking to date.

We also call for at least ten city national parks to be created across the UK; for all subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels to be redirected towards renewable energy; and for lots of land to be allowed to 'rewild' with lost species and large herbivores and omnivores reintroduced to help natural processes take hold again. We think these recommendations need to be adopted by all four governments of the UK. We'd love the opportunity to meet and speak with politicians, businesses leaders and NGO staff from across the UK to discuss our ideas.

This report does more than set out some recommendations though. It puts a stake in the ground for the UK's burgeoning youth nature movement. Thanks to the work of RSPB and others, we know that people, and the young in particular, are less and less connected to nature than ever before. This is bad for them, their health and their communities. It's also bad for nature, because if fewer people experience wildlife, then fewer people will protect and care about it.

But there is also a rapidly growing movement of young people who love wildlife who are using social media to create communities of support and enjoyment; and who are embodying the startup spirit to create events and projects of their own to reconnect with nature and wildlife. Groups like A Focus on Nature are being joined by others, such as Bristol and Sheffield Nature Networks and Action for Conservation, as well as initiatives in other countries like CoalitionWild and <a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/controlpanel/blogs/posteditor.aspx/Bioneers" target="_blank">Bioneers whom we are now building relationships with too. Slowly but surely, I think we are building an international youth nature movement not unlike the international youth climate movement that I was also lucky enough to be part of for a number of years. It is a very exciting time to be a young person who's passionate about nature.

So this is our vision for the future, and we'd love to hear what you think of it and for you to be part of it. If you'd like to help us address the challenge of making it reality, please get in touch with us.

Image courtesy of Matt Williams

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxBrexit implications for wildlife friendly farming: long-term opportunity, short-term jeopardyhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/17/brexit-implications-for-wildlife-friendly-farming-long-term-opportunity-short-term-jeopardy.aspx2016-07-17T21:26:25Z2016-07-17T21:26:25Z
In the white noise of the past couple of weeks you may have missed the publication of the latest Breeding Bird Survey results which showed turtle dove numbers have hit a new low, declining by 93% since 1994. This trend is mirrored across Europe, with a decline of 78% between 1980 and 2013.

As many of you will know, this is a species that is facing threats on migration and on its wintering grounds, but it has, like many other birds, also been affected by agricultural changes on its breeding grounds. This is why through Operation Turtle Dove the RSPB and its partners are carrying out a range of targeted actions including promoting turtle dove friendly land management to farmers through agri-environment schemes (paid for through the EU Common Agriculture Policy).

From the recovery of species, to the creation of habitats, planting of trees, maintenance of iconic landscapes and action to mitigate flood risk and address water quality, these agri-environment schemes have been pivotal to terrestrial conservation efforts and broader environmental land management. They have engaged farmers in more sustainable models of production, demonstrated the potential for more effective approaches to farm support and provided value for money to taxpayers across the UK.

And yet, all of this has been called into question by Brexit.

Andy Hay's image of Hope Farm research trial (rspb-images.com)

As I wrote in my open letter to the new Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsom MP, on Friday, the uncertainty associated with Brexit means that these agri-environment schemes are now on hold as Defra and the Treasury figure out whether they want to carry 100% of the costs for these 5 to 10 years agreements once we leave the EU.

This demands urgent attention from the new Defra Ministerial team, which as of yesterday includes Therese Coffey MP, who replaces Rory Stewart MP as Biodiversity Minister. I am confident that the new Minister will grasp the seriousness of the issue given that she is species champion for the bittern and so no stranger to species conservation priorities.

Without incentives to encourage wildlife-friendly farming, governments across the UK will not just fail to meet their environmental commitments – such as those driven by the Convention on Biological Diversity or the country biodiversity strategies – they will go backwards. Farms will fall out of agreement, habitats will no longer be managed, and species conservation efforts will be fatally undermined. For species like the turtle dove that's teetering on the edge of extinction, this could sign its death warrant as a breeding bird in the UK.

In England alone, between now and 2019/2020, over 4600 Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements will expire. If the new scheme is effectively discontinued now, that's over 4600 farmers who have invested their time and effort let down, and millions of pounds of taxpayer's money wasted. It would undermine the confidence of the farming community in the concept of environmental land management, and scupper any chances of taking the opportunities that a post-Brexit agriculture policy could offer.

As a quick example, our farm – Hope Farm - in Cambridgeshire is in an Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) agreement that expires in September 2017, slap bang in the middle of a potential Brexit no man's land. Without Defra continuing with the new scheme in England, Countryside Stewardship, the management that has led to a 200% increase in breeding birds on the farm would be left unsupported. We'll of course carry it on, but for many farmers in a similar position, to do so would not be economically viable.

While I do see real opportunity for reforming agriculture policy once we have left the EU, there is real jeopardy now.

Thousands of farmers have completed or requested application packs this year. If we are not to derail all of the potential good work these applications represent, we need firm statements from governments across the UK that they are committed to these schemes for the foreseeable future. We don't have time to lose if the Government is to meet its manifesto commitment of restoring UK biodiversity within 25 years.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxAn open letter to the new Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom MPhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/14/an-open-letter-to-the-new-environment-secretary-andrea-leadsom-mp.aspx2016-07-14T21:46:04Z2016-07-14T21:46:04Z
Dear Secretary of State,

Welcome to the best job in Whitehall.

People love the landscapes and wildlife of this country but nature is in trouble: one in ten UK species are at risk of extinction and the pressures are growing.

You have the opportunity and responsibility to do something about it by fulfilling the Conservative Party manifesto commitment "to restore UK biodiversity within 25 years".

We appreciate you will arrive to a big "to do list", so here are our suggestions for what you might want to achieve within your first week, your first month and by Christmas.

This week

The most urgent issue in your in-tray will be to secure the backing of the new Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, to continue the Government's financial support for protecting nature through agreements with land managers and farmers, known as 'agri-environment schemes'.

These schemes have saved many species from the brink of extinction including cirl bunting, corncrake, stone curlew and supported re-introductions such as the short-haired bumblebee.

Andy Hay's image of an adult cirl bunting (rspb-images.com)

The immediate impact of Brexit has been to bring uncertainty over whether the UK Government will fulfil its commitment to existing and future agri-environment schemes and other critical environmental funding currently received from the EU. Given both the commitment in the Conservative election manifesto commitment to "spend £3 billion from the Common Agricultural Policy to enhance England's countryside" as well as your own statement in March this year that the "UK Government will absolutely continue in the short term to provide those subsidies whilst we think about what makes sense" we are sure that this will be your top priority too.

Keeping agri-environment schemes going across the UK - and cooperating with devolved administrations to do so - will be a key to maintaining our natural environment and protecting British wildlife. Certainty on this issue is needed now in order for farmers to have the clarity and confidence to proceed with applications that are currently sat waiting in the farm office.

Next month

The next urgent issue in your in-tray will be to consider the environmental implications of leaving the European Union – particularly with reference to the laws that protect nature which are derived from EU legislation such as the Birds and Habitats Directives (see our Defend Nature campaign) but also sectoral policies for agriculture and fisheries.

There is jeopardy and opportunity here for wildlife.

On the one hand the loss of the Habitat Regulations – proven to increase the populations of threatened species - would result in reduced protection of 80% of our finest wildlife sites. To fulfil the Conservative election manifesto commitment "to protect ... Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other environmental designations" you will therefore need to engage closely with the new Secretary of State for Leaving the European Union, David Davis, to consider how environmental protections and their implementation can be strengthened as we negotiate a new relationship with the EU27.

On the other hand, you have an opportunity to shape a public debate about how best to support land management that is good for farmers, good for people and good for the environment. We would encourage...

...a shift away from a focus on direct subsidies with few strings attached, towards a policy that supports progressive, innovative farmers, providing them with the certainty to engage in more sustainable production

...public money being focused on the environmental challenges that farmers are uniquely placed to meet, such as the conservation of species, restoration of habitats and natural flood risk management. This should build on the progress already made through agri-environment schemes and rural development programmes across the UK

...a transition period toward new arrangements that allows time for farmers and land managers to adapt, and for new policies to be piloted. This is particularly important for the most economically vulnerable farmers, such as those in our extensive livestock sector, who are often farming in marginal, but high nature value areas.

By Christmas

I hope that you will have begun to put flesh on the bones of your 25 year plan for the environment, demonstrating how land and sea can be well managed for both people and wildlife. There are many organisations including the RSPB that are keen to share their experience on what works. We are keen to help you develop a plan with the right mix of laws, incentives and public engagement so that you will be confident that you will be providing a legacy for future generations of ensuring life will be returning to our land and seascapes.

RSPB Haweswater, being restored with our landlord, United Utilities

This will also help you on the international stage as in December, you will have the opportunity to participate in the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It would be great for you and great for the UK to be able to report on progress that the UK has made in halting the loss of biodiversity at home, on our overseas territories and internationally. It is an opportunity to raise the political stakes for and inject much needed urgency into global action for wildlife.

And finally...

Please do take time out in your new role to see some wildlife. We would be happy to show you some of the work we are doing with others to put life, sound and colour back into our landscapes. Not only will this inspire you but it will also help you remain resilient when you face major challenges for which Defra is responsible such as disease, invasive species and floods...

Rest assured, the RSPB is here to help you be a success for nature.

I wish you well in your new role.

Martin Harper

Conservation Director, RSPB

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxAn English perspective on the new petition to license gamebird hunting in Scotlandhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/12/an-english-perspective-on-the-new-petition-to-license-gamebird-hunting-in-scotland.aspx2016-07-12T10:51:28Z2016-07-12T10:51:28Z
Yesterday, the Scottish Raptor Study Group successfully lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament calling for the introduction of a licensing system for gamebird hunting in Scotland. This is a good initiative and one the RSPB fully supports as it offers the potential for meaningful action to reform shooting.

The petitioning process in Scotland is very different to the one operating south of the border. In order for a petition even to be posted it needs to jumps through a few hoops. As a consequence, although the petition is only open until 22 August 2016, irrespective of how many signatures it gets, it will then be considered by the Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament and by the Environment Committee. They then propose recommendations based on their findings. Clearly we are hopeful that a concrete proposal to reform 'gamebird hunting' will emerge.

These petitions are really only open to Scottish residents so if you live in Scotland, please do considering adding your name.

South of the border, the political dust is still floating around Westminster following the EU Referendum. No-one seems particular sure how things will land - although we do at least now know that we shall have a new Prime Minister in Number 10 tomorrow night. But once the dust settles, we'll look for opportunities to push licensing in England as well.

Why do we think reform is necessary?

Image courtesy of Dom Greves

I have written extensively about the failure of self-regulation of driven grouse shooting as well as the environmental consequences of intensive grouse moor management (for example here, here and here).

Yet of all of the problems associated with grouse shooting, there is one issue that stands out above all others and that is the continued illegal killing of birds of prey.

Despite the best efforts of enforcement agencies, often supported by the brilliant RSPB investigations team, the current legal system has failed to end the illegal killing of birds of prey. For species like hen harrier, illegal persecution remains the primary reason for hen harrier's continuing scarcity.

This year, there have been a series of worrying incidents, such as the apparent use of hen harrier decoys in the Peak District and setting of pole traps in the vicinity of a hen harrier on another estate, the disappearance of the hen harrier 'Chance', as well as a series of further incidents of which we are aware and which are working their way through the legal system.

Despite lots of words spoken by those representing moorland shooting, there appears to have been no change in behaviour. This is why we need a licensing system to provide a more effective stick to bring those people who still persecute birds of prey to book.

I have previously outlined the principles of a licensing system. While there's a huge amount of detail that would need to go into drafting a new system, in essence it is really quite simple. What it says is "you absolutely can run your shoot as you see fit, but if you don't abide by the rules society sets, that privilege will be taken away". This seems to me absolutely fair and proportionate.

A licensing system isn't about tarring everyone with the same brush, or blaming a whole community for the actions of a few bad apples. Quite the opposite: it is effectively a targeted ban that will stamp out illegal activity and drive up the environmental standards of shooting.

Good estates have nothing to fear from this system and indeed I believe that it is in their own interests to champion such an approach. We believe that this is the only way to deliver a shift in attitudes and potentially secure a future for their sport.

As I write this, I can see a buzzard circling on a thermal outside of my window. Buzzards, like red kites and marsh harriers have experienced a remarkable recovery in my life time. While things may look bleak for hen harriers right now, experience demonstrates that change can happen and that the future can be different from the past. Licensing represents the best next step to helping hen harriers join the list of raptor success stories.

And talking of things looking bleak, in a moment of madness I have agreed to run this year's Great North Run on 11 September 2016. I shall be doing so to raise the funds for the RSPB's Investigations Team who work to tackle illegal killing of birds of prey. I will add 50% of any money raised, but will double the donation if I run it over an hour and forty five minutes. If you would like to sponsor me, you can do so here.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxRestoring Haweswater, inspiring the Lakeshttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/10/restoring-haweswater-inspiring-the-lakes.aspx2016-07-10T17:58:00Z2016-07-10T17:58:00Z
We'd spent the morning scrambling up a hill to look for holly fern (see below) at one of its few locations in England. En route, we'd encountered some upland specialities like bog asphodel, wood cranesbill, yellow saxifrage and alpine lady's mantle flourishing in the microclimate that the steep, rocky slope had provided away from the reach of grazing sheep.

This was only my second visit to our Haweswater reserve but my first in the sunshine. I was with my conservation leadership team and regional colleagues to see the progress that we have made with our landlord, United Utilities, in restoring upland habitats across the 3,000 hectare estate.

It was deeply impressive to see the speed at which the vegetation had responded to a change in the sheep grazing regime in the southern end of Mardale Common. Land managers like nothing more than seeing an early return for their efforts. It gives confidence to do more.

And that's what we're doing through a river restoration scheme in the Swindale valley.

The scheme (which is funded by a whole range of partners and shown in action below) is designed to improve the extent and condition of the hay meadow while also providing safe spawning grounds for migratory salmon (both the habitat and species are protected under the EU Habitats and Species Directive). This and other possible interventions are likely to improve our farming operation in the valley while also offering enhanced flood storage capability. The Cumbria floods has put a spotlight on the role of natural flood management and I think that it is right that land managers in the key river catchments do whatever they can to help reduce the risk of future flooding.

Our management at Haweswater is essentially a trial. We want to see how best to improve the wildlife and water resources in the catchment while helping to support the long term future of commoning in such an iconic landscape as the Lake District. It also offers us a great location to do diagnostic research on another of the Lakes' species specialities – the mountain ringlet butterfly. We've embarked on a three year research project to understand the habitat preferences of this rare and declining butterfly with a view to inform future management not only at Haweswater but also across the Lakes.

And that's the big prize for Haweswater, to transform the estate whilst also demonstrating the art of the possible to others.

The Lakes is a landscape that is much loved, but arguably underperforms from a wildlife perspective. While Brexit has created enormous uncertainty about the future support for hill farming and the regulatory regime that protects special places and species, I am confident that our work at Haweswater will demonstrate that it is possible to restore wildlife while respecting the special characteristics of the National Park.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxUK continues to show leadership on climate changehttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/03/uk-continues-to-show-leadership-on-climate-change.aspx2016-07-03T20:36:00Z2016-07-03T20:36:00Z
As we emphasised throughout the EU referendum campaign, neither wildlife nor the climate respect borders. Their protection requires every country to play its part, regardless of politics. That's why I was delighted to see that, despite all the turmoil of last week, the UK Government committed to adopt the UK's fifth carbon budget, setting a target to ensure that carbon emissions are reduced by 57% by 2028-32.

This is as an important milestone in ensuring the UK remains on a path to delivering a safer climate future, which protects wildlife and people alike.

Last month, the RSPB and NGO colleagues, produced a report showing how the UK risks getting left behind the rest of the world in delivering the infrastructure needed to secure a low carbon future. The fifth carbon budget therefore comes at a critical time for UK's business and investment sectors, providing much needed certainty.

The UK Government now has until December to set out the actions needed to deliver the budget in a Carbon Plan. The RSPB will be working hard to ensure that this Plan is not only robust in terms of protecting the climate, but also deliverable in harmony with nature.

Our ground-breaking Energy Vision provides us with the evidence platform to demonstrate how this can be done. It shows how the UK can deliver high levels of renewable energy including onshore wind and solar while avoiding sensitive sites for wildlife. It also sets out what other measures will be essential alongside this including: ambitious demand reduction measures like home insulation and better use of public transport plus investment in new technologies such as energy storage and floating offshore wind. These must be matched by a grid system that supports a new wave of renewables and helps us be 'smarter' about how we use energy.

Wind turbine at the RSPB's Headquarters (Paul Langshaw)

We won't achieve this without strong political leadership and economic incentives that work for nature and the climate. A road map for decarbonisation in harmony with nature would enable government to steer developers towards suitable sites for renewable energy development with low risk for wildlife. We have already demonstrated how this is possible in our report using pioneering and peer-reviewed mapping techniques. We hope to see these issues addressed in the Plan to deliver the fifth carbon budget later in the year.

The UK's Climate Change Act, under which carbon budgets are set, is a piece of national legislation of which we can be proud. It is not formally linked to EU climate legislation and as such it should not be impacted by the broader Brexit negotiations. It is clear that whilst negotiating the UK's future relationship with the EU is likely to cause real uncertainties and capture political and media attention for months or potentially years, climate change will not wait patiently in the wings while these negotiations take place. We must press on, reflecting the level of urgency, in order to protect both people and wildlife in the UK and globally.

Reflecting on Brexit last week, I argued that the UK must continue to be an international leader on climate change, building on its instrumental role in delivering a strong global climate treaty in Paris last year. The fifth carbon budget announced this week is a positive signal of this ongoing commitment, and we will continue to work with government and our NGO partners, in the UK and globally, to help keep the UK on this path.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxBrexit: early thoughts on priorities for naturehttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/29/brexit-early-thoughts-on-priorities-for-nature.aspx2016-06-29T21:11:00Z2016-06-29T21:11:00Z
I spent a cathartic weekend at the fascinating Knepp Estate exploring its re-wilding project. Following the referendum, time spent looking for turtle doves, purple emperor chrysalis' and amphibious bistort was a great way to clear the head.

As politicians across the UK decide their next steps, the news has been dominated by when and what sort of Brexit deal will be struck and what it might mean for all of us. At the RSPB, we have been thinking through what it might mean for nature.

We are not coming at this cold. The IEEP report published in March outlined the implications for environmental law and for sectoral policies such as agriculture and fisheries. What's more, in the run up to the vote, various politicians from the 'Leave' campaign, including George Eustice MP, made statements about how they would rise to meet the environmental challenges if we left the EU.

But, talk during the campaign needs to be translated into action in government. And, here uncertainty remains as it will be for the next Prime Minister to decide what future relationship the UK wants with Europe (although the First Minister in Scotland may also have views on this).

Given that most of our environmental laws have over the past forty years evolved in parallel with the European Union and the dominant land and sea uses have been governed by common agriculture and fisheries policies, the final arrangements could have major implications on nature conservation across the UK. Indeed, our own conclusion before the referendum was that, on balance, it was safer for nature for the UK to remain a member of the EU.

Now the UK has voted to leave the EU we will continue to seek action for nature both internationally and at home. As my boss, Mike Clarke, wrote in his response to the referendum on Friday, we are a nation (or a set of four nations) that love nature. The public will expect high standards of nature protection and indeed the Conservative Party won a general election with a manifesto commitment to restore UK biodiversity in 25 years.

So, working alongside our eclectic and active NGO community, our priorities in this period will be to:

Ensure existing levels of protection are maintained or ideally bolstered

Guard against intensification of land and sea use by adopting smart new agriculture and fisheries policies

Expect international leadership from the UK Government for action to halt biodiversity loss and tackle climate change

Below, I offer some early thoughts on what this means in practice.

1. Ensuring existing levels of protection are maintained or ideally bolstered

View of RSPB Cliffe Marshes at dusk (David Broadbent, rspb-images.com)

Whatever the outcome of the negotiations that will follow the UK's referendum on membership of the EU, existing international and national commitments to species and sites remain (through the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi targets and other agreements such as the Ramsar, Bonn and Bern Conventions).

A coherent network of well managed protected areas on land and at sea, combined with targeted and effective conservation measures in the land/seascape and species protection legislation, is fundamental to our efforts to maintain or restore wildlife populations. It is therefore vital that any emerging legal protection for our most special places for wildlife across the UK is consistent with international best practice, and at least equivalent to that currently provided by the EU Nature Directives (which have also successfully improved the populations of threatened species).

Without the protection that the Nature Directives currently provide, we would lose the legal framework that guarantees no net loss of the most important places for wildlife, and the protection afforded to c80% of the UK's best sites for wildlife would be diminished.

This is why we will argue to retain the Habitat Regulations for England and Wales and their equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

2. Guard against intensification of land and sea use by adopting smart new policies for agriculture...

Harvest mouse on wheat (Ben Andrew, rspb-images.com)

The RSPB has spent many years campaigning to reform the Common Agriculture Policy. Agriculture has been a major driver of wildlife declines and we have long argued that the CAP could do more to support wildlife-friendly farming. So, we believe that our withdrawal from the EU should trigger a public debate about what farming can deliver for society. What is clear is that some public investment will continue to be needed if we are to secure a food and farming sector across the UK that is good for people, for wildlife and is fair to farmers.

This investment should reward the many vital public services that agriculture can provide (such as clean water and an attractive countryside rich in wildlife), and build on the great work many farmers are already doing through rural development programmes. It should help shape more sustainable food and farming businesses by encouraging farming practices that benefit nature and help tackle climate change.

Clearly times are tough for some farmers. We need a new policy framework which works much harder to improve the return they receive from the market and increases transparency about where money goes in the supply chain. This will help ensure farmers are profitable whilst allowing them to deliver for nature in addition to food and other services. The RSPB will be looking to engage the public to support these changes and make nature/environmentally friendly choices in the way people eat and live.

So, what might a future policy look like in practice? Without diving into too much detail, I think we should be looking for...

...a shift away from a focus on subsidies with few strings attached, towards a strategic policy framework that supports progressive, innovative farmers, providing them with the certainty to engage in more sustainable production

...public money being focused on the environmental challenges that farmers are uniquely placed to meet, such as the conservation of species, restoration of habitats and natural flood risk management. This should build on the progress already made through agri-environment schemes and rural development programmes across the UK

...a transition period toward new arrangements that allows time for farmers and land managers to adapt, and for new policies to be piloted. This is particularly important for the most economically vulnerable farmers, such as those in our extensive livestock sector, who are often farming in marginal, but high nature value areas

There needs to be a new sense of direction in food and farming policy focusing on combined solutions to different but connected problems. We need to make sure that it allows farmers the space to make a meaningful contribution toward restoring wildlife and improving the overall sustainability of the sector. With this in mind, in 2015 we, alongside our partners in Wildlife and Countryside Link in England, set out our vision for Farming Fit for the Future, and we will continue to work with others to widen the debate about agriculture policy, and make the case that this issue is of central importance to people's lives, and their wellbeing.

...and fisheries

The Common Fisheries Policy of 2013 didn't give us everything we wanted but, with the UK acting as the leading advocate for change, it delivered a lot for the marine environment (including fish which people often forget are also part of biodiveristy). Reforms included...

...unprecedentedly strong compliance of fishing to environmental legislation (including an ecosystem approach to fisheries management)

...an ambitious target to fish all stocks at sustainable levels

...a Landing Obligation (the so-called 'discard ban') – formerly discarded fish must now be landed and be counted against quota

...'regionalisation' which essentially means devolving decision-making to the Member States around a given sea basin (e.g. North Sea) to get away from Brussels micro-management/command and control.

The UK particularly championed reduction of seabird bycatch and is developing a UK Seabird Plan of Action. So our Brexit ask for fisheries is simple: we want Defra to commit to developing a national fishing policy with measures equivalent to these in the reformed CFP.

3. International leadership from the UK Government for action to halt biodiversity loss and tackle climate change

As Mike Clarke wrote on Friday, Brexit will not dent the RSPB ambtion to cooperate with our BirdLife International partners to address trans-national challenges such as protecting our migrating birds and tackling climate change. Equally, we shall expect the same from the UK Government. As it has done for decades, we need the UK to continue to look beyond its own borders and use its voice for action on global priorities such as halting the loss of tropical forests.

My closing thought is this - in this time of huge flux, opportunities as well as threats will emerge. In the short term, things will continue until they are actively changed. But we shall monitor political developments carefully and will be prepared to work tirelessly (and innovatively) with our supporters and partners to ensure our politicians secure a Brexit deal that works for nature.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxA reaction from the RSPB's Chief Executive, Dr Mike Clarke, to the result of the referendum on the UK membership of the European Unionhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/24/a-reaction-to-the-result-of-the-referendum-on-the-uk-membership-of-the-european-union.aspx2016-06-24T06:42:00Z2016-06-24T06:42:00Z
The UK has voted to leave the European Union.

The RSPB has always believed that, because nature transcends national boundaries, it needs cross-border co-operation to protect it and a common set of international standards that enable it to thrive.

That is why, now the UK has decided to leave the EU, the RSPB believes the UK must continue to act internationally, and look to forge comprehensive international agreements for nature conservation and the environment.

But we also need action at home.

David Tipling's fabulous image of two turtle doves - our fast declining migratory bird

There are millions of people in the UK who love nature – just think about the viewing figures of BBC Springwatch. We need clean air and water, and we want an attractive countryside rich in wildlife.

It is essential that we do not lose the current, hard won, level of legal protection. Given the current state of nature, we should be looking to improve the implementation of existing legal protection and, where necessary, to increase it.

It will now be down to the governments in Westminster, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff to make this happen.

As the new constitutional settlement is negotiated over the coming months (and years?), the RSPB will continue to be a voice for nature, raising the importance of environmental issues that has an impact on people, wildlife and the economy. We will provide a constructive challenge to all governments across the UK where necessary, and give credit where it is due; just as we always have done.

And, of course, trans-national challenges such as protecting our migrating birds, tackling climate change remain, which is why we shall work internationally, as we have done so for over a hundred years, and will continue to act across Europe with our Birdlife International partners to tackle the many challenges facing nature.

In short, we shall continue to do whatever nature needs.

Finally, I hope that all those that have invested so much in this campaign take time to recover. We need our leaders to be at their best as they make sense of this result and to rise to meet the challenges we and nature face. Given that contact with nature is good for the soul, I recommend a visit to a local nature reserve this weekend.

Ben Hall's image of RSPB Arne at dawn (rspb-images.com)

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxAn update on the review of the EU Nature Directiveshttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/20/european-shenanigans-ongoing-resolution-in-sight.aspx2016-06-20T18:57:00Z2016-06-20T18:57:00Z
As we enter the final week of the EU Referendum campaign, I thought I would offer a brief update on the future of the the Birds and Habitats Directives (the Nature Directives).

In May, I reported here that the overdue findings of the Fitness Check of the EU Nature Directives had still not been published. Since then there have been further developments, but still not sign of a resolution. Regular readers will know that the Fitness Check is intended to be an evidenced-based review of whether the Nature Directives are fit for purpose, although politics has played a significant part from the off.

That said, I remain confident, not complacent, that the Directives will remain in place. More than half a million people have used their voices to defend the directives, and both the European Parliament and the Environment Council (EU Ministers of Environment) have pledged their support.

This latter group is meeting today are meeting, and although the Fitness Check is not on the agenda, given their support we expect several Ministers to raise this topic. Pictured here showing their support for the Directives outside the Luxembourg Council buildings are Carole Dieschbourg, Minister of Environment for Luxembourg, and Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety for Germany.

The results of the Fitness Check were originally scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2016. By January 2016 this was looking ambitious, and so the Commission promised a report in time for discussion during the Netherlands presidency of the EU. The EU presidency is held in turn by all Member States for 6 months on a rolling basis.

Regular readers will remember that the Netherlands government have paid very close attention to the Fitness Check. The Saving Special Places blog reports here on a recent visit by Dutch parliamentarians to RSPB's Wallasea Island Wild Coast project to find out more about how the UK implements the Nature Directives, with a view to informing implementation in the Netherlands.

Given this level of interest, it was hardly surprising when the Netherlands scheduled a major conference on the Nature Directives, titled "Future Proof Nature" to discuss the eagerly anticipated results of the Fitness Check. The conference was scheduled for next week, and looked set to bring together civil society, government ministers, officials from the Commission and Member States, and businesses to discuss the results, and what should happen next. I say was, because just last week the Netherlands Government decided to cancel the conference.

The Commission's promise to publish the findings in time for the conference has not been fulfilled. Last week EurActiv, an online news service on EU affairs, reported here on the cancellation of the conference and the delayed publication of the results. Of course, the delay might be justified if work was ongoing on the final report, but Euractiv had secured a leak of a draft of the Commission's report, dated 4th January 2016, suggesting the results could have been published in time for the Netherlands conference.

You can read the draft report here, if you have the time and inclination to wade through 584 pages of detailed evidence and analysis, but to spare you this, let me summarise; the Nature Directives are fit for purpose. The findings are unequivocal, "The majority of the evidence gathered across the five evaluation criteria shows that the legislation itself is appropriately designed and that, over time, implementation has improved, bringing important outcomes and impacts".

This is welcome news, but of course these findings have not yet been published, the Commission has not yet come up with a better implementation plan, and nature is still in trouble. Birds, habitats, wildlife, all are desperately in need of the conservation measures set out in the Nature Directives, but not yet fully delivered by Member State governments across the EU28. Meanwhile President Juncker's office is delaying progress for no apparent reason.

The day after the EurActiv article appeared, the European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans attended the European Parliament's Environment Committee to answer questions from MEPs. Frans Timmermans found himself in the unenviable position of defending an indefensible decision that was not his own. In relation to the findings of the Fitness Check and the future of the Nature Directives he clearly stated, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", but many of the MEPs were not fully convinced, describing the delays as "unacceptable", and pressing the Vice-President to commit to a publication date.

During Frans Timmermans' excoriating hearing in the European Parliament, one MEP, Danish Green Margrete Auken, gave him the benefit of the doubt, praising his acknowledgement that if the Nature Directives are working they should not be revised, and acclaiming, "there is more happiness in heaven over one sinner that repents, than over ninety-nine just persons". Timmermans has seen the light, maybe it's time that Commissioner President Jean-Claude Juncker opened his eyes to the evidence, and the 520,000 Europeans calling for something to be done for our beleaguered nature.

Next week the European Commission returns to the Environment Committee for an "exchange of views with the Commission" on the follow-up to the European Parliament resolution on the mid-term review of the EU's Biodiversity Strategy, which I commented on here. The Nature Directives are key to the delivery of several targets under the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, and the longer uncertainty over their future is allowed to continue, and action to achieve full implementation is delayed, the bigger the task of bringing Europe's wildlife back from the brink will be.

Meanwhile a Freedom of Information request has been put submitted to the Commission by WWF for access to the final report of the Fitness Check consultants, on which the Commission's report will be based. A response to this request is expected in the next weeks.

We live in exciting times.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxThe conservationist's dilemma: an update on the science, policy and practice of the impact of predators on wild birds (3)http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/20/vert-control.aspx2016-06-20T05:00:00Z2016-06-20T05:00:00Z

I spent half-term with the family in the sun in the Cairngorms National Park. As we have two of our most iconic reserves there, Abernethy and Insh Marshes, I was keen to pay a visit. It was great to hear that the number of lekking male capercaillie at Abernethy has increased this year but alas, we failed to see any on our (very) early morning drive. We wait with trepidation to see how the June weather turns out as our research shows a strong correlation between poor productivity and wet Junes. At least Scotland seems to have had the better of the weather this month.

The visit to Insh Marshes was my first. Lying on the floodplain of the River Spey, the site is special for its breeding waders (snipe, curlew, lapwing, redshank), rare plants (eg string sedge) and invertebrates. It's a magical place. The floodplain still has many characteristics of a naturally-functioning system and, as I saw on site, in the wet winter of 2015 one of the tributaries has cut a new path, creating dynamic wet features alive with wildlife.

It's an interesting year for Insh as we are undertaking a study of lapwing productivity. In recent years we have noted a decline in their productivity but previous research has not been able to identify the main cause. This year we have a dedicated researcher monitoring the nests and the chicks to find out what happens. The initial results show that many early nests were lost during the night with significant fox activity identified on the trail cameras and badgers also present. We are now actively considering whether we need to start fox control there next year as the flood regime means it isn't practical to install an anti-predator fence.

As always, our approach to the issue of predation is based on evidence and guided by our Council agreed policy.

Our 2007 review of the evidence of the impacts of predation on wild birds concluded that generalist predators, such as foxes and corvids, can sometimes reduce the population levels of ground-nesting birds (such as waders, seabirds and gamebirds), and a more recent (soon to be published) review confirms these findings. By contrast, the evidence that breeding songbird numbers are limited by predation is weak. Rather, there is compelling evidence – some of it experimental – that changes in farming practices have led to the declines of many farmland songbirds, and emerging evidence that numbers of some woodland songbirds have declined due to long-term changes in woodland structure.

Deciding to use lethal predator control is something we never take lightly.

Our approach means that we seek evidence of a problem, check whether there is a non-lethal solution, make sure that the killing of predators would be legal, effective and not harm their own conservation status. If we can satisfy ourselves of all these things then we can make a decision. As in previous years (see here and here), I have included tables below which show the lethal vertebrate control undertaken on reserves (which now number 210 sites covering more than 150,000 hectares across the UK). Some of the numbers are higher than in previous years as the dataset covers a longer period (17 months) due to a change in the annual reporting schedule.

Finally, it is worth remembering that non-lethal approaches, although not realistic in some circumstances, can be very effective. To illustrate this point, I have included a graph to show how well anti-predator fences are performing. We now have fences at 28 reserves protecting breeding waders over 874 ha. At sites with anti-predator fences, lapwing productivity has been consistently above that necessary for population maintenance (0.6 chicks fledged per pair), even though at most sites only a proportion of the suitable habitat is protected by the fence (Fig. 1).

This is a fantastic result and a great return for the effort invested by our ecologists and reserve teams.

==============================================

Vertebrates controlled on RSPB reserves in 2014-15

Below are tables summarising the vertebrate control undertaken by RSPB and our contractors on reserves during the period 1 April 2014 to 31 August 2015. The recording period is longer than in previous years as we altered our annual reporting timetable. The extended period means that larger numbers of vertebrates were killed than in the previous 12 month reported period. Only reserves where control was undertaken during the year have been included. Vertebrate control commissioned by third parties as part of existing rights is not included here.

a) For conservation reasons

NB Feral means released birds outside their normal range.

b) For other reasons

Fig. 1. Mean lapwing productivity at RSPB reserves with anti-predator fencing, at which productivity has been regularly monitored. Bars show + one standard error. The figures above the bars show the number of reserves with anti-predator fencing, at which productivity has been regularly monitored.

And to close, here's another gratuitous picture of the stunning Insh Marshes (credit Andy Hay, rspb-images.com)

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxIn praise of Springwatchhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/17/in-praise-of-springwatch.aspx2016-06-17T12:51:47Z2016-06-17T12:51:47Z
I had a strange conversation about Springwatch when I was at the Cereals Show yesterday in Duxford. I was there alongside our advisors talking about wildlife friendly farming (and anything else that cropped up - mainly Brexit or football). In passing, someone said that their son was obsessed with Springwatch and was distraught at the prospect of the show finishing. I empathised, my children get distraught when the latest series of The Next Step finishes.

Later, I went along to be in the audience for the final recording of Springwatch Unsprung - to be aired tonight. I have to be honest, I rarely get the chance to watch the show and was there mainly to be supportive of the great work that our Minsmere team have done, led by the brilliant Adam Rowlands. But, it was also a bit of voyeurism as I was keen to find out what it takes to put on a show like Springwatch.

Minsmere last night was looking its best and the Bittern Hide kindly delivered a bittern and a marsh harrier in the 15 minutes I had before the show.

We watched the main show, oohed and ahhed as the sparrowhawk chicks hatched. Then, as we queued to go into the Unsprung shed, I found myself chatting to a family about how enthralled they had been by the series and how it had motivated them to get active. Seeing the incredible Chris Packham in action and observing the response from the audience (both in the room but also those interacting from home), I think the penny finally dropped: this programme is doing a fantastic job of inspiring people to get interested in nature but also to get active through their Do Something Great Campaign.

So, unlike some other TV nature programmes, I left feeling confident that not only has Springwatch been doing nature a great service by inspiring action but also that those young people distraught by the programme leaving our TV screens will find productive ways of filling the void. I am sure that many will become the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

Applause, applause to the Springwatch team (and, of course, to the wildlife Mecca that is RSPB Minsmere).

Inside the Springwatch Unsprung Shed before filming started. Everyone livened up when Chris Packham turned up - especially entomologist George McGavin seen here sitting on the sofa.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxTo fish or not to fish in the EU? A guest blog from Dr Euan Dunnhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/14/cfp.aspx2016-06-14T20:25:26Z2016-06-14T20:25:26Z
There has been a lot of codswallop said during the course of the EU Referendum campaign and some of it has focused on the Common Fisheries Policy. So on the eve of Nigel Farage leading a pro-Brexit flotilla up the Thames, (see here) I am delighted to welcome a guest blog from Dr Euan Dunn MBE, Principal Marine Advisor for the RSPB. Euan has huge experience of understanding and influencing the interactions between fisheries and marine birds, nationally and internationally. So, when it comes to assessing the implications of the the EU Referendum for fisheries and the marine environment, Euan is well placed to help us separate fish-fact from fish-fiction.

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The sight of a flotilla of UK vessels sailing up the Thames to highlight fishermen's support for leaving the EU and its Common Fisheries Policy may stir the hearts of a nation with a visceral attachment to the sea and to the British staple of fish and chips. On the face of it, there's a simple logic to repatriating our fishing waters and unhitching ourselves from a Brussels-crafted policy described by the House of Lords European Union Committee in 2008 as having, 'one of the most dismal reputations of any EU policy'.

But much has changed since the Lords' recommendations for making the CFP fit for purpose. With its 2013 reform (spearheaded by the UK), the CFP is heading in the right direction and our hard-working fishermen are benefiting, along with those of other Member States. After decades of overfishing, North Sea cod is recovering strongly and the majority of assessed North Atlantic stocks are now considered to be sustainably fished.

Fishing boats off the Isle of Skye waiting for the outcome of the EU Referendum? (Credit, Euan Dunn)

The new CFP also made an unprecedented shift away from regarding our waters as just a factory floor for the fishing industry, towards managing them as a marine ecosystem. The obligation to lighten the environmental footprint of commercial fishing, such as tackling the needless bycatch of seabirds in fishing gears, has been written into statute.

But, if the EU marine cake is looking healthier, many UK fishermen still crave a bigger slice ie a larger quota of fish. The UK's current share is the result of a settlement dating back to the dawn of the CFP in 1983. And in fact we came out of it pretty well with some 30% of the EU's total catch, even though we only have 13% of the total EU sea area. This quota is then divided between the big offshore operators and the small-scale inshore boats, with the latter rightly crying foul that they get too little, but this inequality is purely in the gift of the UK Government to remedy, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Brussels.

So the fundamental question arises: would UK fishermen be better off if we left the EU and ring-fenced our own waters? Part of the answer lies in the fallacy of 'ring-fence'. As is often said, fish have no passports, crossing borders with impunity. The western mackerel stock undertakes a formidable migration from the Iberian peninsula to the arctic, while herring, cod and other species are also highly mobile 'straddling stocks'. So it's fanciful to think that UK waters, unlike an isolated outpost like Iceland, translate into bespoke UK fish that we can herd for our own use. To enjoy the access we have to fish today, a UK outside of the EU would have to negotiate bilateral access agreements with a host of Member States as hard-headed as we are about securing a, let's say, "squid pro quo". And the time taken to broker this would create major uncertainty for the industry and its market. The tortuous agreement the EU negotiates annually with Norway would have to be replicated by the UK with all its fishing neighbours.

Moreover, a scenario of UK waters for UK fishing vessels poses an immense challenge of policing our fishing limits, this at a time when our enforcement agency, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), has suffered swingeing budget cuts (see here). We would have to aspire to Norway which invests heavily in its fisheries control and penalises malpractice heavily, so much so that our skippers fish warily in its waters. Norway, like Iceland, is also part of the European Economic Area (EEA) which a post-Brexit UK would have to seek to re-join (if the rest of the EU agreed). This just piles the pressure on our fishing industry which exports 45% of its catch, four-fifths of which goes to EU countries.

Commercial fishing is a dangerous trade; working the sea calls for a special kind of commitment. In many ways, our fishermen have been the victims of decades of mismanagement but the multi-national waters they ply are showing healthy signs of recovery under an ambitious new CFP. As the flotilla steers a course up the Thames, its crews might well reflect that arguably greater hidden dangers lurk in the stormy waters they are supposedly leaving, were they to cast adrift from their EU shipmates.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxWelcome news from the National Trust about birds of preyhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/09/welcome-news-from-the-national-trust-about-birds-of-prey.aspx2016-06-09T17:40:50Z2016-06-09T17:40:50Z
In April, the report of a man with a gun located close to a hen harrier decoy attracted media interest, a lot of emails and widespread criticism. The incident took place on National Trust land. As was reported at the time the Trust was taking the matter very seriously and had launched an investigation.

I referred to this incident in my recent update on England's hen harriers in 2016.

Today's announcement by the National Trust that they will be revoking the shooting tenancy on this estate citing that they no longer have confidence that the tenant is committed to their vision for the land is welcome news.

We work closely and productively with the National Trust in the Peak District (as we do across England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and support their High Peak Moors Vision. In this context we welcome their commitment to seek a new tenant who shares their ambition and that they have explicitly linked this to increasing raptor populations – we look forward to continuing to work with the Trust in the future.

 The National Trust's public statement is reproduced below:

The National Trust has today given notice that the current shooting leases at Hope Woodlands and Park Hall in Derbyshire will end in April 2018.

The charity said it had taken the decision to exercise a break clause in the lease to end the relationship four years early.

Andy Beer, National Trust's Director for the Midlands, said: "We have a clear vision for land management and wildlife restoration on the High Peak Moors, which was developed in full consultation with our tenants and other key stakeholders".

"All our tenants have signed up to deliver to the vision and understand their responsibilities. We work very closely with our tenants and support, consult and discuss any issues relating to the plan on a regular basis.

However, in this case we have decided, after a meeting with the tenant, that we should revoke the lease four years early as it became clear that we could no longer have confidence that they were committed to the delivery of our vision for the land."

"We have given the tenant 22 months' notice and will start the process of looking for a replacement in 2017, when we will be happy to receive applications from partners who can demonstrate how moorland management and shooting can deliver great nature conservation in a way that is compatible with public access.

We remain committed to the High Peak Moors Vision. As with all our conservation aims, we review and evaluate progress periodically. When considering renewals of individual shooting leases in future we will take into careful account the extent to which our objectives have been met, in particular relating to increasing raptor populations."

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspxCelebrating ten years of conservation success for the Albatross Task Forcehttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/06/08/celebrating-ten-years-of-conservation-success-for-the-albatross-task-force.aspx2016-06-08T06:21:53Z2016-06-08T06:21:53Z
To mark World Oceans' Day, the RSPB and Birdlife International are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Albatross Task Force. This is one of our most successful conservation programmes and serves as a powerful reminder of what can be achieved through hard work, expertise, creativity and the generosity of our supporters. It also provides hope that we can tackle some of the most intractable global conservation problems.

Black-browed Albatross, (photo courtesy of Grahame Madge, rspb-images.com)

Here's the backstory...

Peter Prince and John Croxall of the British Antarctic Survey began systematic monitoring of albatross populations at Bird Island, South Georgia in the 1970s, continuing work started by Lance Tickell and Ron Pinder back in 1958-64. These studies of age, reproductive performance and survivorship started showing declines by 1979.

By the late 1980s evidence was emerging of high bycatch levels in tuna fisheries off Uruguay and Brazil. In 1990 John and Peter were able to demonstrate statistically significant declines in wandering albatross at South Georgia and at the same time the Nigel Brothers from Australia revealed annual mortality levels associated with the Japanese tuna fleet were in the order of 40,000 albatrosses.

Albatrosses became one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world with 19 out of the 22 species of albatross at risk of extinction (appearing in the Red List's top three categories of risk: Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable). The declines were primarily driven by huge numbers of birds being accidentally caught on longline fishing hooks and trawl cables: an estimated 100,000 albatrosses were being killed this way every year.

In the early 2000s, conversations started within the RSPB and Birdlife about what action we could take to deal with the crisis. We needed to influence policies that governed regional fisheries but we also decided we needed to employ people to work with fishermen to train them catch fish rather than seabirds. The Albatross Task Force was formed in 2006 and since then the results have been spectacular.

For example, there has been a 99% reduction in albatross deaths in the South African hake trawl fishery through the introduction of bird-scaring lines, a simple solution which prevents seabirds from interacting with fishing equipment (shown below). Experimental trials demonstrate at least 85% reductions in seabird bycatch are possible in six other fisheries where regulations that require the use of bird-safe methods on their boats are now in place.

Bird-scaring lines in action off the coast of South Africa (photo courtesy of Gwyn Williams)

Thanks to the work of the Albatross Task Force, seven out of the ten fisheries originally identified as seabird bycatch hotspots have now adopted regulations to protect seabirds during fishing.

But most importantly, we have improved the conservation prospects of four albatross species (including black-browed albatross shown above) which no longer appear in the top three extinction risk categories.

Today, I would like to applaud the incredible work that the RSPB/Birdlife team has done over the years. They are a remarkable group of people who now operate in eight countries including Argentina (hosted by Aves Argentinas), Brazil (Projeto Albatroz), Chile (CODEFF), Ecuador until 2013 (Aves y Conservación), Namibia (Namibia Nature Foundation), Peru (ProDelphinus), South Africa (BirdLife South Africa) and Uruguay (Proyecto Albatros y Petreles de Uruguay).

I have confidence that they will do what it takes to improve the conservation prospects of all albatross species.

Their efforts give us belief that we can tackle other twenty-first century conservation problems whether it is stopping the decline in Afro-Palaearctic migratory birds, restoring farmland bird populations across Europe or even ensuring birds of prey can fly free from harm over our countryside.

MartinHarperhttp://www.rspb.org.uk/community/members/MartinHarper_5F00_3/default.aspx


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Samsonite Eye Mask With Ear Plugs
|$7.00 & FREE Shipping
- Free Shipping on All Orders from Samsonite.
- Lightweight, Eye Masks
- 2.00 pounds
- Exterior Dimensions: 8.25" X 5.00" X 1.50" inches
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+ Free Shipping
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Product Description
Helps decrease ambient light Expands to fit most head sizes Lightweight and washable cotton/polyester blend fabric Earplugs mold to shape of ear for decreased noise penetration Weight: 2.0 ozs.Body Dimensions: 8.25" x 5.0" x 1.5"
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Date first available at Amazon.com: February 3, 2011
- #236 in Health & Personal Care > Health Care > Sleep & Snoring > Sleeping Masks
- Average Customer Review:
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
I used the earplugs for part of the trip, too. The earplugs work fine to block out a lot of airplane noise, though earplugs were no match for a very chatty woman with a slicing voice in the row just behind me (twice). They blocked out everything but do leave you with a hallow sound and feeling in your ears. That's a personl comfort thing. The plugs allow full compression and return to original shape after being used. The earplug holder on the mask is convenient, too, After use, you probably want to clean them and/or put the whole thing in a ziplock bag.
This one is far and away the best. It is sensibly designed, the weight and padding are well thought out and it uses appropriate, comfortable materials. The ear plug holders are a plus (and amusing). I'm happy to say that Samsonite has paid attention to the details and gotten it right.
What this means in practice is no matter how tight you wear it, this mask is going to slip up your face overnight. I've found it on my forehead too many nights in a row to bother with it anymore, so I'm going to see if I can return this one (might be too late for me). I briefly considered bringing it to a tailor to move the strap an inch up, but this isn't an option because the strap is sewn underneath the piping around the edge of the mask, not on top of it where it could be adjusted.
This is only barely clearing a 1-star rating due to the quality of the product. But unless your eyes are hella high up your forehead, I'd recommend avoiding this one.Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Earplugs are nice touch and the mask is well made but it let in too much light around the sides. I ended up getting Mindfold mask.Published 11 months ago by AmyX
Not the best. A bit flimsy. The best one I've found is made by Spa Comforts, 12 bucks.Published 14 months ago by Claire Barsic
Lightweight and inexpensive. I wear mine every night! It's total black out. My husband can come to bed later and I never know the light is on. Great for sleeping in too! Read morePublished 14 months ago by Rosemary D Wilson
GreatSeller,ItemPerfect,Emails,FastShipper & trustworthy-that'sImportantPublished 16 months ago by Joanne C. Lynch
Nice but it tore when I took the tag off. Once I sew it it will be fine.Published 16 months ago by Natalie
Great, but the straps do not fit comfortably over the ears (you have to wear them on top of your ears).Published 18 months ago by Charles
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Used Dodge Viper for Sale in Saginaw, MI
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What a noise! Great fun although sat on the wrong side! What more can i say! Not my first choice of super car but wouldn't say no if i was offered one! Lots of torque, shame it couldn't handle all of it!
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From Christianity to Islam: Egypt between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Selected papyri from the University of Michigan's Papyrology Collection illustrate the government, society, and religious culture of Egypt during its transition from Byzantine Christian to Arab Islamic rule (4th to 8th centuries AD).
Event Information
- Dates
- January 18th through May 4th
- Location
- Hatcher Graduate Library, 7th Floor Exhibit Space
- Location Information
- Event Type
- Exhibit
Journal Editors' Tea: Effectively Managing Submissions and Workflows
Is your inbox overflowing with journal submissions? Want to learn about better options for managing editorial workflows? Join us for our quarterly Journal Editors' Tea. We'll discuss various platforms and tools for effective version control, editorial tracking, and submission management.
Event Information
- Date & Time
- November 2, 2015 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
- Location
- Presentation Space, West end of Clark Library, 2nd floor Hatcher South
- Event Type
- Panel Discussion
Religion and American Antislavery: From the Politics of Conversion to the Conversion to Politics
Ben Wright, Clements Library Upton Foundation Fellow and Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas, discusses how material at the Clements library reveals the intimate connection between expectations of religious conversion and the development of American antislavery thought.
Event Information
- Date & Time
- October 8, 2015 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
- Location
- Hatcher Graduate Library, Clark Library Instruction Space (2nd floor Hatcher)
- Location Information
- Series
- Clements Library Brownbag Lecture
- Event Type
- Lecture
Dining Out: Menus, Chefs, Restaurants, Hotels, & Guidebooks
This wide-ranging exhibit, curated by historian Jan Longone, celebrates the history of the eating out experience.
Event Information
- Dates
- August 20th, 2015 through January 19th
- Location
- Hatcher Graduate Library, Clark Library (2nd floor Hatcher)
- Location Information
- Event Type
- Exhibit
Curiouser and Curiouser: Exploring Wonderland with Alice
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, this exhibit includes a copy of the 1865 first edition as well as diverse 20th and 21st century materials inspired by Alice and her curiosity.
The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Event Information
- Dates
- August 25th, 2015 through December 17th, 2015
- Location
- Hatcher Graduate Library, 7th Floor Exhibit Space
- Location Information
- Event Type
- Exhibit
Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive
Hatcher Graduate Library
913 S. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
A collection of American culinary history: cookbooks and other materials from the 16th through the 21st century
We are not just what we eat, but how we eat — not to mention when, where and with whom. Cookbooks, menus, advertisements, manuals of table etiquette and the like may not be written to preserve the history of everyday life, but that's exactly what they do. And this is what makes the library's Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive (JBLCA) so valuable. Containing more than 25,000 items including ephemera publications, it paints a rich and unique portrait of American life over the centuries. In the context of the collection, American culinary history is defined broadly to include both influences upon American foodways and the influence of American culinary practices elsewhere.
Food preparation and consumption offers a doorway to explore how people saw themselves, their neighbors, and their larger communities. Through the culinary archive one can explore changing attitudes towards diet and health, homemaking, commercial dining and the industrialization of food production. It also reveals historical ideas about race, class, and gender. And food continues to be an important part of our culture — contemporary discussions about organic produce, fast food, dietetics and diet fads, concentrated feed lots, vending machines in schools and the merits of vegetarianism all stem from historical contexts chronicled in the archive.
The collection is shaped by the donation of a rich assemblage of cookbooks, menus, and other material collected over many years by Jan Longone, an adjunct curator in the U-M Special Collections Library, and her husband U-M Emeritus Professor Daniel T. Longone.
Not so long ago, even the concept of American culinary history was met with skepticism.
"[Critics] said America had no cuisine or culinary history to speak of; all we ate were hamburgers," Jan Longone wrote of attitudes at an Oxford University food symposium in the 1980s. Yet today the archive is recognized as a premier collection for the study of American culture as it relates to food and home life.
Writing in the Boston Globe, renowned chef James Beard called an exhibit of works from the collection "an unequaled feat of culinary scholarship."
"Not all the cookbooks are good cookbooks, but they are all interesting and the authors, mainly women, were an amazing group who did a great deal to influence American history," Beard wrote in the 1984 column.
And the collection has only continued to grow and evolve since then. Formerly held at U-M's William L. Clements Library, it was transferred to the U-M Library in 2013 where its potential for teaching and scholarship can be fully realized.
Hatcher Library Ask a Librarian Desk
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Joseph A. Labadie Collection
Hatcher Graduate Library
913 S. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
A collection documenting the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present
In the 1930s, the U-M Library's Joseph A. Labadie Collection — the oldest publicly accessible archive of its kind in America — was called "probably the most complete record of the social unrest of our times that has ever been assembled."
Since then, the collection has only grown, expanding from its original focus on anarchism to also encompass antheism and free thought, anti-colonialist movements, anti-war and pacifist movements, civil liberties and civil rights, labor and workers' rights, LGBTQ movements, prisons and prisoners, New Left, Spanish Civil War, youth and student protest, and many more.
The collection is named for Detroit labor activist and anarchist Joseph Antoine Labadie (1850-1933), who in 1911 donated the books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, manuscripts, and memorabilia he had assembled over the years.
Today, the Labadie Collection is the most widely used of all of the library's special collections and serves as a unique and important resource for students and researchers at U-M and around the world.
"This is a collection that documents history from below," says curator Julie Herrada. "We are preserving, and making available to the public, the activities of under-represented groups, people whose ideas are considered marginal or dangerous."
Labadie Collection materials have been used in numerous publications and exhibits. A single poster from the collection, for example, was recently sought out for inclusion in an art book, as well as displayed in exhibits at Cornell University and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia.
And new materials are being added to the collection all the time. "Not long ago we received a large donation of transgender rights research materials that greatly add to our existing strength in LGBT topics," she adds.
Along with physical access to rare and unique archival materials, a host of materials are available digitally including scans of anarchist pamphlets, historic photographs,more than 1,000 political "pin-back" buttons and over 2,000 posters on topics we cover.
Because of the collection's breadth and depth, several finding aids and guides to its holdings are available, including to many of the uncataloged manuscripts and letters.
"Melba Joyce Boyd, a well-known author and Wayne State University professor, says that an activist is a person with a certain level of consciousness who then incorporates that consciousness into what they do. So, I see my work as a curator as a kind of activism," says Herrada, who has overseen the collection since 2000.
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Study Spaces
Open, individual study spaces abound across the library. We also offer a range of group study spaces — many of which may be reserved in advance.
Shapiro Undergraduate Library and Shapiro Science Library
For Spring/Summer 2016 room reservations in the Shapiro Library will be available on a "first come first served" basis. An updated room reservation system will be in place for Fall 2016.
- 12 study rooms on the second floor.
- 5 rooms on the first floor including the Winberg Presentation Practice Room and the Perlstein Editing Room.
Hatcher Graduate Library
- Study carrels can be reserved weekly and by the semester. Contact the Hatcher Graduate Library Circulation for more information.
- 18 study rooms on the second floor. Request a room.
Library Administration
University of Michigan
818 Hatcher South
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
Phone: 734-764-9356
Fax: 734-763-5080
James L. Hilton, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, Vice Provost for Digital Educational Initiatives, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and Professor of Information
Laura Burnham, Executive Assistant
Laurie Alexander, Associate University Librarian for Learning and Teaching
Michelle Mosley, Administrative Assistant
Jane Blumenthal, Director, Taubman Health Sciences Library & Associate University Librarian
Mary Casey, Administrative Assistant
Rebecca Dunkle, Associate University Librarian for Library Operations
Tom Hubbard, Administrative Support
Donna Hayward, Associate University Librarian for Budget and Planning
Cyndi Beaudry, Project Manager
Bryan Skib, Associate University Librarian for Collections
Julie Nichols, Administrative Assistant
Charles Watkinson, Associate University Librarian for Publishing/Director, University of Michigan Press
Christine Butchart-Bailey, Administrative Specialist
Elaine Westbrooks, Associate University Librarian for Research
Jukie Wilson, Administrative Assistant
Maurice York, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology
Marian Leon, Administrative Assistant
Library Administrative Units
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Except where otherwise noted, this work is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. For details and exceptions, see the Library Copyright Statement.


text:
On their debut album, Dying Stars, Seattle band Evening Bell pours a razor sharp blend of classical training and unadulterated passion into eight psychedelic-country tunes. It's the kind of album you might expect to come from Ennio Morricone and David Bowie watching Twin Peaks together. A collision of cosmic country and spaced-out psychotropic melodies. Cinematic lyricism meets Seattle barroom honky-tonk.
Fort Collins based Hog Magundy recently released their debut album and Grateful Web sat down to talk about the album, some of their favorite festivals and their recent additon to the Nimbleslick Entertainment Agency.
GW: Thanks a lot for chatting with us. You guys recently dropped a new album, can you tell us a bit about making the album and what can you fans expect from this release?
HeadCount, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that stages voter registration drives at concerts, announced that it is throwing a pair of invitation-only music events at the Presidential nominating conventions.
Billboard and GRAMMYs on the HIll® are the lead sponsors of the events.
Just yesterday, just two days ahead of their Red Rocks debut, Brooklyn's Pimps of Joytime release their lighthearted new music video for "Dance Cardia."
Directed by Jean Shepherd, the video was shot on location in the band's hometown of Brooklyn, NY. It reveals frontman Brian J as "The Hustler" versus his childhood foil, "The People's Champ", as they converge for a climactic game of Jenga by the train tracks.
Progressive bluegrass wouldn't be the same without Sam Bush. Though the mandolinist might have been slightly proceeded by the guys in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in exposing the bluegrass and rock 'n' roll combo on the radio, it was Bush who truly bent the sound toward unlikely use of acoustic instruments in genres thought irrelevant to country or bluegrass.
The INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS have announced plans for an exciting two-night Halloween extravaganza at Denver's Fillmore Auditorium entitled BIG TOP HALLOWEEN. Set for Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29, the shows will feature special guests funky METERS and The Magic Beans (Friday night) and Keller Williams' Grateful Grass and The Lil
New Orleans Suspects will release their third full-length studio recording, Kaleidoscoped, on September 16, 2016, on Louisiana Red Hot Records. The release date for the vinyl edition is September 30, 2016.
Aloha from Honolulu! If you are in need of a little island breeze this summer, look no further than Dave's Picks Volume 19: Honolulu, HI, January 23,1970. Our very first release from Hawaii, this one sees the Grateful Dead riding the great wave of change, with a fresh take for a career-defining new decade. Witness as they smoothly transition from the "Sound of 1969" and its chaotic psychedelia with their cohesive country-tinged, song-oriented harmonies.
Comin' at you September 9 straight outta Nashville: The Time Jumpers' radiant third album, Kid Sister, on Rounder Records. This treasury of 14 tunes—new and classic—is both a sweet tribute to the band's late "girl singer," Dawn Sears (the "Kid Sister" of the title), and a sparkling celebration of western swing and traditional country music.
The Prelude Implicit, KANSAS' intensely anticipated new studio album due out September 23rd, 2016 is now available for pre-order.
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