People say that the world is speeding up, but some things take quite a while. I remember work starting on this paper, whilst I was still working at the RSPB in 2010: Twenty years of local farmland bird conservation: the effects of management on avian abundance at two UK demonstration sites, by Nicholas Aebischer, Chris…
Category: Farming
Farmland birds still bumping along the bottom
In 2014 the numbers of farmland birds (as measured by overall trends in 19 species – see below) were at the second lowest level of the last 45 years (since, almost, records began). Guess what? The lowest level was in 2013! This is not a record of which any politician can be proud. The farmland…
Lord Krebs on Badgers
My old boss, Prof Lord Krebs, was on Farming Today (8 mins in) being interviewed by Anna Hill on Wednesday morning. Lord Krebs provided a masterclass in sticking to the facts, despite some niggling questions from Ms Hill, and getting the message across very clearly. The message was that the ‘too-early-to-tell-really-but-the-figures-are-out-there’ results from the Badger…
Defra – a shameful department (2)
George Monbiot’s article in today’s Guardian reinforces the view that Defra has sunk to about as low as it can get. He points out that Defra announced the impacts of NOx pollution on human mortality and a consultation on how to fix it on the Saturday just before the media were swamped with the news…
Farming fit for the Future?
This is the vision document for farming launched at the Wildlife and Countryside Link event yesterday lunch time. It’s certainly worth a read. The Wildlife Link organisations which signed up to this document (including the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, WWF, FoE and many others) would like to see farming which is: Better…