This year has been difficult for our wildlife NGOs. Money is tight and the government is hostile to nature.
The Grasslands Trust disappeared from the Tangled Bank of wildlife NGOs and many others have had to cut their expenditure (and their staff).
There have been encouraging signs of NGOs working more closely together – most notably in the State of Nature report but also in some joint, or at least collaborative, lobbying between NGOs. There may be lots of collaboration below the surface but there aren’t many examples appearing above the landscape of competing NGO voices.
I worry about the RSPB. The brand-shift to an all-nature organisation is a good idea but has it been well-executed? Nice TV adverts may be bringing in the punters but it will take a couple of years before the RSPB knows whether those recruits are staying, and whether the more conservative supporters are staying in large enough numbers too. I hope the membership goes up as the RSPB is still, just, the best wildlife conservation organisation in the UK (in my partial and biased assessment).
Looking at the RSPB homepage yesterday it was dominated by items trying to get my money – bird food, rebuilding hides, online-store, buy our bird food, join online etc etc. You have to search out the conservation items – and when you find them they are mostly over 10 days old. Hmmm. I prefer the homepage of the Wildlife Trusts right now.
The RSPB has spent a year being a bit soft and cuddly – in the year when Defra marched off down country lanes arm-in-arm with the NFU to kill thousands of badgers the RSPB has said much more about hedgehog shelters than badger killing. Has the RSPB (rspb) brand shifted to all-nature or to cuddly-nature? On the weekend of the start of the grouse-shooting season, after a limp comment on challenging the grouse industry to do better, the RSPB promoted summer sleep-overs. If this is focus, then it isn’t a focus on nature conservation. It is too early to tell exactly where the RSPB’s heart and soul is at the moment but at least the RSPB did take a complaint to the EU over Walshaw Moor – I wonder what’s happening with that?
I think the Wildlife Trusts are stirring a bit, not quite enough, but there seems to be a bit more life and spark in them at the moment. It’s another ‘watch this space’ situation.
Two wildlife NGOs seem to me to have had excellent years: the BTO and Butterfly Conservation. Both have growing memberships and are using social media well. Their magazines and paper-based communications with members are just right for me, and, I guess, many others too. Each has had a major advantage this year: the BTO produced an Atlas and Butterfly Conservation benefitted from one of the best butterfly years for ages. However, if you are interested in birds or butterflies, and have a brain that is interested in nature rather than just soppy about it, then you should be a member of at least one of these two organisations (even if it means ditching a membership elsewhere).
Excellent line, “… a brain that is interested in nature rather than just soppy about it,”. My local RSPB reserve’s Facebook page is full of pictures of children making wildlife masks and Christmas decorations and nothing recently about the wildlife. Never a daily round up or a “what you might see on the rserve”. One of the wardens blogs about gulls but wouldn’t dare mention the presence of a Yellow -legged Gull on the FB page for fear of offending. The new activities and members are not actually interested in wildlife and I wonder how long they will stick around.
You don’t mention WWT, Mark. I think they use social media well and strike a perfect balance between ‘interested in’ and ‘soppy about’ with most of the latter leading to proper, science-based information.
Thanks for your informed and well-reasoned blog. I look forward to following in 2014. Happy New Year!
Ken – Many thanks and Happy New Year!
Mark – thanks for your excellent text. One aspect I would like to note is the lack of a strong international dimension or link to most of the work UK conservation NGOs do – this applies in particular to the RSPB, which never tweets on international issues, and never mentions them on their main page. Ironically, the RSPB once had a mighty international programme (where I have worked), and still does keep some international actions, but the emphasis seems to be refocusing on the UK bubble – and an isolated one! This, in my opinion, is a strategic mistake – as the BTO constantly tells us in their tweets, your cuckoos are in Angola, and thousands of UK-ringed birds are recovered across Europe every year. Also, your countryside is largely shaped by decisions taken in Brussels, and decisions carefully prepared in the boardrooms of the City often have a significant impact on biodiversity in Africa, Asia or South America. Not to mention the UK Overseas Territories, which hold far more globally endangered biodiversity than the British İsles themselves.
Jose – Welcome and hi there! The RSPB has obviously decided not to push its international conservation work very much. But it’s not because its UK conservation work is being promoted hard, is it?
And where are the awards for wildlife conservation and nature? Is the farming course in Cambridge, that William’s doing, wildlife friendly? I do so hope so but doubt it.
Linda – I smiled at that too!
The RSPB gets more like the National Trust every day. Most reserves seem to focus upon the shop, cafe, playground with a bit of habitat bolted on. I know that this isn’t the reality and that a massive amount of real conservation work is going on all of the time but this is the perception. And anyone who has worked in customer facing work will know that perception is everything.
I want to see the RSPB shout louder, complain more and be much more of a campaigning organisation. Is it becoming too much part of the establishment itself? I don’t know but fear that it is.
I’ve been a member for 40 years and don’t intend that to change, but I do worry about its direction at present.
Alf – you sound like me! Actually, it doesn’t have to be the RSPB which shouts louder, but i would prefer it if it were. But someone should, and they will get my support.
Alf – I think you make a great point about the increasing ‘national trust’ isation of the reserves.
Of course, arguably, given their land holdings the NT ought to be one of the biggest and most influential wildlife NGO’s, but in my experience much of the estate – i.e. the bits that are behind the public fences is increasingly falling into good old fashioned benign neglect (an accusation I’d happily throw at the Forestry Commission as well, whose entire maintenance and ranger budget now seems to be focused on running something more akin to a list of small municipal parks than working forests – wandering five minutes off the path at Alice Holt or Dalby gives you a very different story)
Much as public access carries conservation negatives with it, I’d much rather see a more open access policy, facilitating getting people out of their cars and away from the car park and cafe so that people can begin to experience and bond with nature, rather than another theme park
“getting people out of their cars and away from the car park and cafe so that people can begin to experience and bond with nature”
Wry laugh.
If only that were possible. Even better, if people weren’t completely counter-productively using private cars in the first place but walking to their local reserve and showing real care for nature, shock! Or at least using public transport or car-sharing.
Roll on the benign neglect, a lot of the time wildlife could take care of itself very well if only human rapaciousness could be kept in bounds. After all, how did all these species come to be here without us humans to manage them and their habitats? Just fine thank-you.
Serena – Happy New Year!
HNY to all: here’s to the challenges and the opportunities 2014 is sure to bring the natural environment and ‘conservationists’. Here’s hoping that collaboratively we can rise to them in their many guises?
Natural England will get Kie’s vote then if it’s simply open access that is sought. See Nick Bee’s most illuminating comment on Boxing day. Ironic perhaps or maybe …. ‘many a true word said in jest’?
This isn’t restricted to just one or two, but all the publically owned NNRs, so what happens to the sensitive species or habitats and does it really matter? Cranes have failed to fledge and recruit into the population since NE publicised their return to the Humberhead Levels in the national press. Perhaps additional visitors might help combat the deer poaching or will it put the public at greater risk?
The ‘NGOs’ under discussion in today’s blog have, sadly been deafeningly silent on the matter. So is it, understandably, the risk of funding cuts from NE they fear? £150m for NE in 2014 – 15 and £400m for agri-schemes to be administered by them, rather sums up priorities? Maybe they are too busy, but we all are and many of them receive our support in the naive belief that they take principled stance in such matters as due regard to process. It is a difficult issue to take a stand on, OA can be a good thing, conversely excessive ‘development’ can damage and destroy.
Just a shame that the statutory agency, once described as the ‘guardians of natural environment’ appear to have side stepped the legislative requirement in terms of the Habitats Directive need for an Appropriate Assessments (now restyled as ‘Nature Conservation Assessments’: has anyone come across these ‘documents’ before?). Despite being a Government Agency, a public body the process could not be described as either open or transparent.
Perhaps as a Government Agency they get a ‘by’ in these days of reduced regulation? See Ralph’s excellent cartoon 28 December.
Bog-trotter – Happy New Year!
Firstly I’d like to say how good the new atlas is and what a fantastic resource for those trying conserve our wildlife it will I’m sure prove to be. It was of course a BTO led project, that is what BTO is so good at, getting us ornithologists to contribute to important science and that is hugely important. RSPB do other things but there are many of us out here who are good friends of the organisation who feel they are currently not always on the ball. We are in the process of loosing Hen Harrier, if it hasn’t already gone, Short-eared Owl is following the harrier and yet currently the response is too polite and certainly not loud enough, remember this is a criticism by a friend. Staff on the ground and at the battle front have nothing but my admiration and respect but they need more inspirational leadership or thats how it looks from here.
Last night on local TV there was the local (YWT) wildlife trust on a piece about what a disaster HS2 will be for the reserves it will impact, its the first time I’ve agreed with Rob Stoneman, more of it please Rob and where are all the other NGO’s this will impact? The route looks a disaster for conservation, could this be another of those issues all should be together on?
All in all the NGOs do a great job in difficult circumstances with the political elite either ignorant or couldn’t give a sh-t, money is tight and most of the public, however loud we are, is in blissful ignorance or not interested. We need to make the most of those with an interest through the NGOs. I started by praising BTO they are a prime example of how its done and I hope to see much more of it from others, given the state of much of our countryside it is vital.
I could double the RSPB’s membership in a very short time but like every thing in life it is a gamble. I am sure they have looked at it but chickened out as money always comes into it. This new membership figure would finally start to worry Westminster and then this present government would never have come up with ‘Buzzard gate’ or Andrew Sells would never have been put forward as the New Natural England boss whose back ground is making money for himself out of everybody else. But surely wildlife is worth that gamble!!
I guess I could be a member of the Alf and Mark club too!! In a way I think the RSPB is being a bit dishonest with us all. They’ve announced changes but without any real explanation of what their future objectives are, other than providing for wildlife. Not enough in my view and something I feel quite annoyed by.
How about they make available a “Planning for Future Change” document. The State of Nature report is a tremendous piece of work , but what of the consequent actions that are actually being committed to. Such could apply to other conservation organizations too and allow one to chose where to direct an annual subscription.
And where are the RSPB’s seminal, strong campaigning themes of yesteryear? Replaced by half-hearted, even weak, commentary offering precious little it would seem. It begs the question of whether a strong PR staff member needs to act centrally as opposed to endless Blogs with an analytical bias appearing. The educational aspects of these are excellent for readers , but where are the consequent intentions for action?
So, yours disappointed! It seems to me that 2014 needs to be the year RSPB is far more “open” about such intentions or it will lose members. I don’t think it realises the amount of current background chatter that surrounds this subject and the extent to which people are losing patience! Sad really given what has been achieved.
BTO and butterfly conservation were my favourite stands at bird fair. Staff were very approachable, knowledgable, dedicated and passionate about what they do.
Dave – welcome and thank you.
Mark
Indeed; less sop, more hardcore – incl a little personal sacrifice. My Times letter today (free to view) http://www.scribd.com/doc/194664398/Spinning-nature-differing-techniques-by-National-Trust-RSPB-Times-letter
Best
@blackgull
Rob – Happy New Year!
I too agree with your sentiments Mark. The BTO and Butterfly Conservation are impressive operations and I am a member of both. I am also a member of The RSPB, but I too would like to see them buck their ideas up next year. I sense 2014 will be a defining year for them one way or another.
I received your ‘Fighting for Birds’ and Oliver Rackham’s ‘History of the British Countryside’ for Christmas. I look forward to getting my teeth into them before long.
I shall continue with a strong conservation message within my articles for Bird Watching in 2014. Wishing you a Happy New Year Mark and hoping we meet soon!
I hadn’t seen the Wildlife Trusts website lately, and I agree that it and that of Butterfly Conservation are amongst the best out there.
We need to see some powerful response to a government and establishment that seem to think that conservation and science come second to economic growth.
There was a time when we were defined by our readiness to draw a line when treasured parts of our environment were threatened.
I
Bob – welcome and Happy New Year!
There appears to be a lot of dislikes on this thread to comments that The RSPB should raise their game, yet no one has spoken out defending the organisation.
Are these spineless trolls or do they actually have a voice?
Ed- Happy New Year!
These buttons are giving trolls a bad name
The need for NGOs to work together and speak as one – and at all levels – is crucial IMO Mark.
Until the autumn, the various wildlife NGOs and groups in Derbyshire all trod their separate paths, hardly ever speaking to each other, let alone cooperating and all keeping their heads well below the parapet most of the time.
However, Derby City Council’s proposal to build a super douper cycle track adjacent to its new £26 million velodrome – but also right on the city’s only bird reserve (also a designated Local Nature Reserve) – has galvanised twelve groups (including the WL trust, the local RSPB group, the bird club and other natural history groups) to form a coalition to work together to oppose this development. The council submitted their Planning Application just before Christmas, so the coalition is now hell bent on getting as many people (and organisations) to object to it within the 21 day consultation period – whether they live in the city and have been to the LNR or not.
Whatever happens (and the political will to build the track is enormous) the hope is that this coalition will remain and work together in the future to speak up for threatened wildlife sites in the county, and to do so more robustly than in the past. Certainly there are stirrings afoot here and ones which involve a radical change away from a certain complacency and defeatism to a much more assestive, campaigning and outspoken style….and a cooperative working pattern.
This planning application cloud may just have a silver lining….
Nick
I’m lucky to have Minsmere as my local reserve.
The staff there are really good, but it feels like a theme park at times, having to walk through the gift shop to get in and out, and the reserve is dotted with colourful sculptures.
The website hasn’t had a proper “recent sightings” update since 20th Dec.
As I type, the main RSPB home page has a total of one picture of a bird, and that’s a robin. Even the “join” button is a picture if a stag!
Mark – youa re lucky indeed. I am looking forward to visiting Minsmere next week.
Seasonal Greetings to All
Mark just a few observations:-
You say “Money is tight”- correct! “and the government is hostile to nature” What a stupid thing to say!
What about “The RSPB DEFRA and NFU walked hand-in-hand” – and with RSPB’s ‘hedgehog shelters’ less of them are eaten (alive) by badgers -(surely a good idea).
RSPB Sleepovers? Hedgehog-shelters?
Don’t you see? The RSPB is “in bed” with DEFRA – welcome to the real world !!! They have taken the Queen’s Shilling! Lie low!
The Wildlife Trusts are only ‘stirring’ because other bodies (ie the RSPB) ain’t – the WT is obviously a more accurate reflection of the grass-routes – unlike the corporate politically cute RSPB!
Trimbush – Happy New Year! Thank you for all your comments in 2013 – though many have been nonsense, of course.
Mark – thank you – but you are mistaken if you presume that the knowledge, experience and intellectual capabilities of Trimbush are lower than your own! Next!
With friends like you lot, who needs enemies? Can wildlife charities do conservation if they don’t bring the money in? Is it easier to bring the money in by talking about hedgehog houses or hen harriers? I assume you bring people in on the hedgehog ticket, then start talking to them about hen harriers once they’re more up to speed. I feel like the RSPB finally has a strategy to build the organisation but that is sure to take time. I hope they stick with it and don’t lose faith after reading comments like a lot of those on here.
Ian – couple of thoughts. How long do the 1.1million already bought in on the Hen Harrier ticket have to wait for another few tens of thousands to catch up? You can’t talk to different audiences very easily these days – the TV adverts are seen by the Prime Minister too. Twitter is seen by everyone who follows you. Thank you for your comment. Happy New Year!
Mark,
I agree that the BTO has had an(other) excellent year, and not just because of the Atlas publication. After all, the Atlas has been in gestation for years, Atlas volunteer surveyors have been gainfully and happily employed throughout and can take great pride in their achievements, as could the volunteers and surveyors who contributed to the original and updated previous Atlases. Roll on the next (paper-based) Atlas……
And in the meantime there have been woodcock and winter thrush surveys, long-running Wetland Bird & Garden BirdWatch surveys, Nest Record and ringing schemes and of course the new-fangled BirdTrack system and app for the technically savvy amongst us.
It seems to me that the BTO has been truer to the quintessentially British past-time of amateur, non-political, bird-watching and contributory citizen-based science than other bodies. I suspect this is behind their success, and current appeal to the traditional amateur bird-watching and ornithological community. Long may they prosper!
Keith – long may they prosper indeed! The BTO is helped in not being a conservation organisation where politics is of the essence (sometimes, at least). Happy New Year!
Mark – Happy Hogmanay!
The big problem that all organisations face is that for the most part good conservation work doesn’t make headline news. To get news coverage charities need to be opinionated and campaigning for change.
Charities that venture to disagree with Government often come under attack from those who oppose them and sometimes also from those who support the Government of the day. The Chaity Commission are often very uncomfortable when caught in the middle of one party saying what it thinks is for the public good and a Goverment that thinks differently. Charity Trustees are often tempted and sometimes are actually advised to take the line of least resistance. Hence why some are so quiet in the face of current Government and DEfRA policies. They should be braver.
Douglas – thank you. Happy New Year!
Well I think the hierarchy at the rspb have lost the plot,the only reason I still belong is the wonderful work staff on the ground particularly on Mull do.
If friends cannot criticize it is a poor outfit and they will try very hard to stop criticism I assure you.
They could do worse than take a leaf out of Mark’s book when at rspb,he always allowed criticism and if he thought it was not justified would reply in no uncertain manner.
Dennis – thank you for this and all your other comments through 2013 and may I wish you a very Happy New Year!
Certainly a good year for the BTO and BC.
Not a bad one for Buglife either.
Some highlights from a very successful year delivering a better future for bugs and people have been:-
• The partial ban on neonicotinoids across millions of hectares of land
• B-Lines spreading across various parts of Britain
• New website launched
• Dozens of MSPs signing up to be champions of beetles, molluscs and other animals
• New work on Brownfield sites – and report showing that over six-year period 51% of biodiverse Thames Gateway lost, damaged or in immediate threat
• First projects in Wales
• Fantastic Staff Survey results – 96% of scores higher than sector average and 100% of staff enjoy the work they do and working with Buglife people
• Buglife’s first nature reserve established at Canvey Wick with RSPB and Land Trust
• State of Nature report shakes the decision makers
• First European rhinoceros beetle found in UK
• Brand refresh can new style guide produced
• Getting 12,500 followers on Twitter
• Saving populations of Crayfish
• Finding a lost population of Wartbiter and strong populations on three other sites
• Sector gives Buglife the highest impact per pound rating of any independent environmental charity, twice as high as the next charity.
There is so much to be proud of!
Of course little of this is achieved by Buglife alone and so I would like to wish seasons greetings and best wishes for 2014 to all our partners both inside and outside the conservation sector.
We may not quite have made Mark’s review of 2013, but I was pleased and amused that Buglife’s work formaed part of the October headline of Charlie Brooker’s review of 2013 broadcast the other day on BBC 2.
He takes the right line on the False widow spider media debacle and the Buglife perspective (or at least a carefully cropped clip!) is included!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUSwhdp7j48&t=48m38s
Furthering conservation means reaching beyond the usual partners and in this case we struck up an innovative partnership to combat these scare stories – http://www.buglife.org.uk/news-%26-events/news/mental-health-and-invertebrate-charities-join-forces-expose-spider-scare-stories
Happy New Year
Matt
Matt – you would have been third on my list. You could do with a decent blog or two! Happy New Year!
Can we give a round of applause to Buglife in 2013 please. As most of our wildlife depends, one way or another, on invertebrates, that these have a first class voice to speak on their behalf is critical. Despite being small, not very cuddly and sometimes rather scary – we must stop drenching them in toxic poisons at every opportunity.
Stella – Happy New Year!
Mark,a happy and prosperous new year to you and all your correspondents,been a privilege to know you through your blog and feel sure we will have lots of interesting blogs in 2014.
And …. Buglife have taken a principled stance on planning issues & damage to SSSIs where others have ignored appeals for assistance. Well done & thanks Matt, Craig & crew! Keep up the good work & here’s to moor!
I think we must all have missed the latest policy announcement from the RSPB: http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2013/12/28/rspb-to-focus-efforts-on-saving-angry-birds/
And I am pleased to say BugLife will be one of the first UK conservation bodies to ‘crowdfund’ for a conservation project. If you will allow me to Mark, I will post the link when they start fundraising. Although crowdfunding will not solve all funding issues it will help by adding a new dimension by using social media to bring in much needed funds for conservation projects. Perhaps an idea here for a blog?
Happy new year – I very much enjoy your blogs – keep up the good work!
Pete
Pete – I’ll be interested to see that. Am planning on some crowd-sourcing myself. Watch this space later in the year.