European budget threat to UK birdsong

Birdsong in the UK and European countryside could fall silent unless secret plans to scrap funding for wildlife-friendly farming are averted, warns the RSPB, Europe’s largest wildlife conservation charity.

The RSPB is concerned that the European Union is considering scrapping payments to farmers to protect vulnerable species on their land. The RSPB estimates that the future of some of the UK’s most-loved farmland birds will face an uncertain future, or even extinction, if these plans are realised.

The threat has surfaced in the run-up to the latest EU budget, which is due to unveiled on June 29.

Lifeline

Martin Harper is the RSPB’s Conservation Director. He said: “Our countryside has faced many threats, but this would be really savage: we’re staggered. Rewarding farmers for protecting threatened wildlife has provided a lifeline to many sensitive species, which would otherwise have ebbed away. If the EU continues with this plan, there is no doubt that wildlife will suffer, with the possible ultimate UK extinction of some threatened species, including the turtle dove and cirl bunting.”

Safeguarding Species is a 2010 RSPB assessment of the 100 top bird conservation priorities in the UK. Almost one third of these species (29) are dependent on the threatened European Union payments for their future recovery.  The RSPB is most concerned about the future of those species which are reliant on farmers and have benefited from funding paid to farmers to protect them. The list includes: turtle dove, cirl bunting, stone-curlew, black grouse, black-tailed godwit, twite and corncrake.