I don’t think that nature conservation, as a movement, comes out of 2020 very well. The economic challenges should have brought home to many nature conservation organisations that they have morphed too much into being part of the entertainment industry in recent years and have loosened their nature conservation and environmental roots.
When it came to setting a post-COVID agenda too often the response was ‘Green recovery – give me the cash’ and our NGOs were in the queue with the aviation industry, the pubs, fieldsports and everyone else pleading ‘We’re special – give us the cash’.
What do our major nature conservation organisations believe in? It’s very difficult to tell. I received an awful lot of emails asking me to buy things this Christmas and rather few telling me how the various organisations had saved anything. Bit depressing really…
Our wildlife NGOs do some good things – but not enough and their efforts are increasingly spent on sounding good and looking good rather than doing good. Time for change, methinks.
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In the past 6 years, I’ve had an unique front seat view of how these charities, nature organisations are run and managed, this farm as a Trust has underwriting cheques to some for large amounts of money. I have not changed my opinion and never will, – they need reform if we are ever going to put the brakes on the derogation of wildlife in these Isles.
When you consider there are nearly 10,000-linked nature charities in the UK all of them with their snouts in the funding gravy train. The conservation industry is overtly over-manned, we clearly don’t need that amount of CEO’s, Managing Directors, Finance Directors, goodness knows how many fundraisers they employ, add lots of plush offices, pension plans and expense accounts, and you can guess where the funding goes.
If you want a comparison for the conservation industry, then look no further to how football is run in this country. We have an elite 10 clubs in the Premiership that takes the lion’s share of the money and they waste millions to boot. Come down the leagues and you’ll find lesser clubs, which are financially better, managed and run as a business. It’s the same with our charities and a pretty good example was the recent article of the rewilding of a field in Yorkshire.
Charities can get too big, ending up as yet another corporate entities, loosing sight and purpose on what they were created for.
Thomas – thanks for that and thanks for all your comments here in 2020. Best wishes for 2021!
A very downbeat view, Mark! The RSPB is my NGO and I know exactly what they stand for, what they are trying to achieve, and that they need to raise money to do it. And they certainly don’t lack ambition. It’s all there on the website, in the blogs and the appeals.
As for being part of the entertainment industry, if you have to have an acre of tat (and I’m not saying children’s playgrounds etc. are tat) to attract families and help finance running 500 acres of nature reserve, I’ve no problem with that. By all means advocate for positive change, but don’t try and fix what’s not broke.
And many thanks for your good wishes for 2021. All the best to you for the new year too.
I have received zero e-mails asking me to buy chrimbo stuff.
RSPB and BTO member.
There’s always opt-outs for marketing stuff, Mr. Avery. Or there should be (it’s part of the law). Obviously the RSPB’s and BTO’s are working. For me at the very least.
One also has to look at how the whole landscape of finance has changed. Central public money into conservation has reduced quite substantially over the years. And that reduction hasn’t been matched by increases in private money/donations.
Primary objectives in conservation? After lockdown 1 was released various RSPB reserves remained closed due to (uncommon) birds nesting in places where they wouldn’t normally do. The birds nested in thee locations due to the lack of people. To open them up would have resulted in disturbance of those nesting birds. The RSPB kept those reserves closed. I’d say that was a demonstration of a primary objective.
Have a good new year (or tier). Stay safe. Or keep on staying safe.