This paper is in the current (November) issue of British Birds and it’s a thorough review of the successful conservation of this globally threatened species in the UK, based on science, largely RSPB science and largely led by the author.
I think it’s becoming fashionable these days to ignore species conservation as a bit easy and old hat, and maybe even unimportant. A thoughtful reading of this article would make you think again if you got into that habit.
Given the choice between reversing the upwards trajectory of climate change and reversing the downwards population trajectory of the Corncrake (no Corn Crake for me, thanks) most of us would choose the climate option. But that never is, never was, and never will be the choice. In the last decade the RSPB seems to have given up highlighting successes in species conservation and instead majors on those bigger issues which it has proved incapable of influencing very much.
Successful species recovery projects always look easy in retrospect but rarely if ever in prospect. If it was so easy to save species then why haven’t the Wildlife Trusts tackled government-sponsored Badger slaughter and why hasn’t the GW(C)T managed to make the Grey Partridge common again? But there was a time when nearly every species the RSPB tried to conserve really did get conserved (Bittern, Stone Curlew, Cirl Bunting, Roseate Tern, White-tailed Eagle, Asian vultures and many albatross species are good examples (Capercaillie less so, and arguably Hen Harrier not at all)).
So read this account with those thoughts in your head.
But this is an account of a huge amount of field research and how that was translated into alterations in farming practice through a combination of advice, education and grants for changes in behaviour (of which the most important of these was the last). This was a truly science-led conservation success story (see Fig 14 in the paper for a graphic illustration). When the RSPB/SNH Corncrake initiative was introduced a strong and persistent decline in population was immediately turned into an even steeper population increase. Further progress was made by an introduction of more widespread agri-environment schemes which included Corncrake-friendly management options (but those schemes have become a bit less less effective in recent years because they have drifted from what Corncrakes really need).
If you are a long-term RSPB member you should be pleased that a very small proportion of your membership subscription turned around the fortunes of a globally threatened bird in the UK over a remarkably short period based on sound science.
It’s good to see this story written down (this paper could have been twice or thrice as long to include more parts of the story) and the author and British Birds deserve credit for documenting it here in a lasting and accessible way.
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I’ve never had the faintest doubts about species – quite apart from the value of the species themselves, they are crucial in telling you what is happening to the environment – including whether your management is or isn’t working. Having lived through the era of ESA schemes carefully set to get farmers the money without actually going so far as to achieve the scheme objectives I think this is really rather important. Species are talking to us all the time – Nuthatch going north as the climate warms, Great Spotted Woodpecker benefitting from the opportunities in ‘neglected’ woodland, whilst Nightingale which should be heading north too fades as their woodland habitat either grows up and away from them and/or is eaten out by deer.
And I think we’d be better at influencing events if we talked more about species – one of the reasons conservation is losing influence is because it is not using real examples nearly as well as it could do. Lets put the birds back into new landscapes – the extensive flooding meadows we urgently need to protect our towns and cities are where Curlews should live – and, of course, Corncrake.
I cannot watch a Marsh harrier or a Bittern without remembering where they’ve been – to the very brink of UK extinction – or the fantastic efforts – science, management, imagination that have meant they can hit my daylist without the hours of frustration of my early birdwatching. Not only a cause for celebration but also the reason to dig in hard for future species.
We’re supposedly intelligent. Therefore concentrating on more than one thing simultaneously (i.e. not choosing one over the other) shouldn’t be a big problem.
Before the COVID19 pandemic hit a lot of the human world the UN were saying the human world could afford to tackle climate change. I expect some interests to now actively challenge view that due to the financial impact of the pandemic.