RSPB calls for licensing of gamebird shooting across the UK

Illegal bird of prey killing must end, urges RSPB Birdcrime report The Birdcrime report, which reviews the past 15 years, reveals 1,344 birds of prey were illegally killed between 2009-2023, with crimes continuing to emerge. These criminal acts target threatened species including Golden Eagles, Goshawks and Hen Harriers. The majority of incidents are associated with…

RSPB press release – Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction 

Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction  One of the world’s rarest birds, Wilkins’ Bunting, has been handed a much-needed lifeline by a small species of parasitoid wasp.  Only found on the remote Nightingale Island in the South Atlantic, the bunting’s food source was threatened by an invasive alien scale insect.  Conservationists…

Dear Mr Reed, 5 – who you should hear

Dear Mr Reed,  I’m sure you have heard lots of views and advice since you were appointed shadow secretary of state about a year ago. They can’t all be right!  How do you decide who is talking nonsense? I remember a meeting with Ed Miliband when I was one of a group of NGO people…

Dear Mr Reed, 4 – your five priorities

Dear Mr Reed, welcome to your new job. It all gets real now. Yesterday you set out your five priorities for Defra; clean rivers zero waste economy food security nature recovery reducing flood risk These are good as headlines and demonstrate more strategic thought than we have seen from the Tories in 14 years. Everybody…