Open letter to the new Chair of RSPB

Email to Sir Andrew Cahn, RSPB Chair

Dear Sir Andrew,

Congratulations on becoming Chair of RSPB Council, although I have to say that at the online AGM I voted against your appointment, not because I have anything against you personally but because I know practically nothing about you but I didn’t much like the look of your provenance. You appear to be a very establishment figure (from the information above) and that’s the very last thing the RSPB needs from its leadership (IMHO). Your WWF background is particularly unsuited to a land-owning and land-managing conservation body like the RSPB, and WWF is far too close to some rather nasty industries to my mind. But I hope you’ll be brilliant as RSPB Chair as the RSPB is becalmed in the doldrums right now.

I can’t imagine you know any more about me than I know about you so a few words of introduction. I’m an RSPB Life Member (although they are called Life Fellows which seems both pretentious and a tad gender-biased for these days) and I first joined the RSPB as a YOC member in c1970. I worked for the RSPB from 1986-2011 with the latter half of that period as conservation director. I write a blog (on which this letter to you will be posted, along with your reply), have written several books (my book Fighting for Birds (2012) will tell you more about the RSPB in the 1980s-2011 than most current staff could tell you) and my book Reflections (2023) is pretty complimentary about the RSPB and sets out my thoughts on the state of UK nature conservation. I am a founder and co-director of the campaigning organisation Wild Justice.

Enough about me, except to say that I am, I really am (I’m not just saying it), about to review my will and I will be considering charitable donations. My mother passed away this spring and I’ve inherited some money, some of which has already gone to local charities, national Alzheimer’s charities and one UK conservation charity (not RSPB) so this is your chance to impress me by your response to this missive.

By the way, I’ve seen some of the responses that others have received from you and heard how the recipients felt about them. It’s unclear whether you have  seen, let alone approved, the responses sent out. Maybe the RSPB could invest in an email address so that your name is attached to responses so that it is clear that you must take responsibility for their content? In the absence of such a technological fix, perhaps you might have a line in the response to this email which says something along the lines of ‘Sir Andrew has seen and approved this response’?

I’m not going to ask about the financial review being carried out, primarily but not exclusively involving expenditure on nature reserves, as I’m sure you already appreciate that a great number of RSPB members and supporters will be watching with great interest and current anxiety to see how that plays out.

Here are my questions.  I’ve limited them to 10 (although some have multiple parts).

1. When was the last time you were at the RSPB’s HQ, The Lodge? What are the plans for the complex there, buildings, gardens and the SSSI?
2. Does the RSPB intend to add an in-person AGM to the online version for 2025? I think you should.
3. Will the RSPB publish its response to the NPPF consultation on its website? Or will you provide full copies of the response to that and other consultations in the four UK nations to members on request? I’d like to see what RSPB says to government and decide whether or not I agree with it (I’m expecting that I will, but I’d like to be sure).
4. What plans does the RSPB have to row back on its sales of bird food? I ask because I think there is sufficient evidence for harm from disease transmission at bird feeders (and distortion of ecological balance) to warrant a change of RSPB position. If you don’t agree then please put me right on the science. If I spend £20 on bird food, how much of that is profit which can be spent on proper nature conservation – would £2 be a good guess?
5. I find that almost every RSPB communication I receive is trying to get me to spend my money (on bird food, on entry to a raffle to win a house worth millions of pounds, on Christmas gifts) but not to donate to land purchases or specific conservation projects. I am surprised at this. I am one of the declining number of RSPB members who is cause-led rather than a transactional member. If I am going to give you my money, and support you in many other ways, I need to be reassured by evidence that you will turn it into more nature on the ground. I am a conservation investor  looking for a conservation return on my investment.
6. How many Lapwings, Bitterns and Roseate Terns nested on RSPB nature reserves in each of the last 10 years? These figures (and those for many other species) used to be publicly available but I can’t find them anywhere now. Are these figures known to the RSPB or has their collection ceased or gone into decline? This type of conservation information is what a conservation investor, like me, would be keen to see and on which investment decisions could be made but they are also obviously and fundamentally the type of information on which the RSPB should be judging its own success. They ought therefore to be close at hand. They ought to be (and were) figures on which Council made decisions about future conservation investment.
7. How many foxes were killed on RSPB nature reserves in each of the last 10 years. These figures used to be publicly available but I can’t find them – perhaps they are well hidden but I’d like to know please. I’m not against predator control for nature conservation in the right circumstances – as conservation director I loosened the reins on predator control but on a case by case basis. I’m just wondering how things stand now.
8. Why did the RSPB not maintain an objection to the planning proposal in Caithness for the Hollandmey wind farm nor for an Adventure Hub in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. These are just two examples where it seems that the RSPB is less than a dogged defender of threatened wildlife.
9. How many new RSPB members were recruited in the 2023/24 financial year? I’m interested in the gross figure, not the nett figure.
10. Is there anything, anything at all, you’d like to tell me before I start to decide on how to address charitable donations in my will?

I’ve invested emotionally, professionally and financially in the RSPB for decades but I’ve now come to the point where I feel less confident than ever before that further investment in RSPB conservation is warranted compared with other offers in the conservation market. You should be assured that others are experiencing similar qualms. I look forward to your reply.

[registration_form]