It was good to see this story in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. The RSPB have a legal opinion from Nathalie Lieven QC, the environmental barrister, who has “ no doubt the draft NPPF lessens the policy protection for SSSIs”. I wrote in comments on this blog on 9 September the following: ‘Although European designations…
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Never seen that before
Last weekend I revisited one of the haunts of my youth – a place called Steart or Stert. And I’m going with Stert as I’ve always known it as ‘Sturt’ rather than ‘Steert’. As spotty teenagers at Bristol Grammar School we would, under the guardianship of masters Derek Lucas and Tony Warren, make two autumn…
Veggie
Today is world vegetarian day. Will that make a difference to you? I’ll be vegetarian today even though I am not vegetarian. But I am sticking to my self-imposed regime of four vegetarian days a week – and this year I think I am averaging closer to five rather than four. Why? Well the reason…
Ecocide
Today I am hoping to attend an event in London’s Supreme Court where there will be a mock trial for ecocide – a proposed new ‘crime against humanity’ Isn’t it an interesting idea – that a company or perhaps a government could be put on trial for destroying the natural environment? But wouldn’t we all…
Not too reserved
The latest annual RSPB reserve report is out – with a very attractive black guillemot on the cover. Right up front, the first article, is an account of the numbers of various bird species on RSPB nature reserves in 2010 and their target populations in 2012 – the year when this RSPB nature reserve conservation…
Untangling the tangled bank – 3
I am now a proud member of Buglife – why don’t you join too? I am going to write mainly about closer collaborative working in this blog but I do want to put in a word for mergers before I do that. Let’s take some of the smaller wildlife conservation organisations as examples. Let’s imagine…
Untangling the tangled bank – 2
There are some great comments on yesterday’s blog – do have another look at them if you first read the blog yesterday morning. One aspect of the work of wildlife conservation NGOs which needs considering is that of devolution. These days, and it’s been true for quite a while, decisions on most (not quite all)…
Untangling the tangled bank – 1
Peter Marren dropped a stone into the pond whose ripples continue to spread. His article in the Independent, followed by pieces (here and here) by the Independent’s Environment Editor Mike McCarthy, and aided and abetted by this blog, have opened up a debate on the tangled bank of UK wildlife NGOs – do we have…
Coach me
Last Sunday I was one of 33 mid-Nene RSPB Local Group members who set off from east Northants at 7ish for the delights of the RSPB nature reserve at Titchwell. And delightful it was, too. Heading across the Fens we hoped that the forecast rain wouldn’t arrive before we’d seen a few decent birds. Just…
Wildlife NGOs as football clubs
It’s Saturday, and although I no longer have a local football team to support since the demise of the mighty Rushden and Diamonds (which has been made worse by the fact that Kettering now use ‘our’ Nene Park ground – although they do have the good grace to keep up their tradition of losing there)…