The Wild Justice Badger e-petition is heading for 60,000 signatures. I always think that’s a more useful milestone than 50,000. At forty-something thousand, people think you’re halfway there, and at 50,000 you are, and then at fifty-something thousand it still feels as if you are ‘about halfway’. But at 60,001 there are ‘only’ 39,999 signatures…
Category: THE WILDLIFE NGOs – RSPB, Wildlife Trusts Wild Justice, BSBI etc
The RSPB and lead ammunition
The RSPB’s statements at the weekend have wrapped up within them a return to a publicly prominent position on lead ammunition. This must partly be because Debbie Pain is now an RSPB Council member. Since Debbie and I (in our previous existences) wrote to the Labour ministers in 2009 calling for a review of the…
The RSPB and burning in the uplands
The RSPB believes that; … new laws backed up by tougher enforcement will be needed to end … vegetation burning on peatlands. These practices are entirely incompatible with the imperative to address the climate and ecological emergency and there are perfectly practical alternatives. https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/outcome-of-the-rspb-s-review-of-gamebird-shooting-and-associated-land-management DEFRA is dragging its feet on this matter and the long-awaited England Peat Strategy…
What the RSPB says now
The RSPB statement on gamebird shooting – click here to read it. It’s written in black and white and yet already there are some who are giving it their own interpretation. Driven grouse shooting Critically RSPB says; We will provide an annual assessment of progress and review our position within five years. Failure to deliver effective reform…
Gamebird shooting today
The most controversial aspect of gamebird shooting is whether you call its unwilling participants gamebirds or game birds. Aside from that it is widely agreed that things must change. But mass shooting of gamebirds has become a habit, a bad habit, and the macho so-called leaders of the shooting industry are so stuck in the…
RSPB position on gamebird shooting
As just announced at the smooth, inspiring and excellent RSPB AGM the RSPB has a new position on gamebird shooting. It’s not massively different, but it does represent a ‘Gloves off‘ moment as a commenter on this blog asked for. Well, maybe we should regard it as a ‘Gloves off, but it will take us…
RSPB Medal winner – Dr Ram Jakati
RSPB honours influential conservationist who saved India’s vultures Today (Saturday 10 October), the RSPB is presenting Dr Ram Jakati with the prestigious RSPB Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Nature Conservation. In the 1990s India’s vulture population was pushed to the brink of extinction due to the use of the veterinary drug, diclofenac, given to cattle…
Tomorrow’s RSPB AGM – what would Etta Lemon think?
There will be lots of interest in tomorrow’s online RSPB AGM. Is the RSPB going bust? Who gets the RSPB Medal (see this blog at 1130am tomorrow to find that out). What is the RSPB new policy on gamebird shooting? I think the RSPB has handled the latter matter slightly wrongly judging from the number…
RSPB press release – Roseate Terns
Record-breaking year for roseate terns A record-breaking 130 pairs of breeding roseate terns on Coquet Island have been recorded this year. Coquet Island off the Northumberland Coast is home to the UK’s only colony of breeding roseate terns. This year, the RSPB celebrates 50 years at Coquet Island with the RSPB taking over management of…
Update: Andy Langley’s fundraiser for World Land Trust
… is doing well. Thank you to all who have supported this appeal to protect the Ecuadorian Chaco Forest. Andy’s fundraiser is such a great deal: your £1 unlocks a further £3 that has been promised by Andy’s employer, Ecclesiastical insurence, and other potential donors that WLT has lined up. Andy’s trying to raise £5,000…