annual report and accounts 2012 - RSPB

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RSPB trustees’ report and accounts 2011-12 Trustees’ report Protection of key sites and habitats Objective Achievement Future challenges We will press governments to adopt policies that protect the very best wildlife sites (including those at sea). Working closely with other wildlife NGOs, we gave evidence to the Government’s review of the implementation of the Birds and Habitats Directives in England. This helped Defra to show that the Directives’ essential roles, in protecting vulnerable species and habitats and providing essential services, underpin economic growth, rather than acting as a block to it. The Government’s report recognised the value of the natural environment and the importance of policy and regulation in protecting it. In more specific cases, we helped persuade the Government to reject large housing proposals at Talbot Heath, Poole and Hurstleigh Park, Berkshire. This maintained already hard won protection for the remarkable bird and reptile populations of the Dorset and Thames Basin heathlands. As part of a broad coalition, we secured strong environmental policies in the National Planning Policy Framework for England, improving the definition of sustainable development, reframing the “presumption in favour of sustainable development” to protect special places, and strengthening nature conservation policies to reflect the Natural Environment White Paper’s ambitions. Leading a broad coalition of NGOs, we convinced North Ayrshire Council to object to the proposed coal-fired power station at Hunterston and remove it from their local plan. We will strive to prevent any net loss of nationally or internationally important sites for birds. We will continue to press Government to complete the protected area network on land, and to create an effective protected area network at sea. In each UK country we will continue to advocate positive changes to the planning systems. www.rspb.org.uk 9
RSPB trustees’ report and accounts 2011-12 Trustees’ report Stopping extinction Objective Achievement Future challenges We will continue to try to reduce the risk of extinction for critically endangered species. We set up the International Species Recovery Group to oversee work on 32 species and four species groups. The Albatross Task Force showed that numbers of seabirds caught and killed in fisheries can be reduced to negligible levels, and we can now begin to manage recovery. Four endemic species benefited from a complex and costly (but fully funded) programme to eradicate rats on Henderson Island. Rats reached many such islands via shipping in the past, wreaking havoc on native wildlife. There was some success in tackling shooting of sociable lapwings in Syria. The critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper (there may be as few as 200 left) was the subject of a challenging co-operative programme of work. This included a breeding programme based at Slimbridge, involving transporting chicks across the globe; surveying and training local people in Myanmar; and working to effect changes under the Convention on Migratory Species. A Saving Asian Vultures from Extinction consortium should establish Vulture Safe Zones in India and Nepal. Captive breeding centres in India had a successful year, with 18 young vultures fledged. Diclofenac, the drug that has killed tens of thousands of vultures feeding on carcasses of treated cattle, is less readily available in retail outlets and levels in the environment halved. In the UK, ruddy duck numbers fell to fewer than 100 with the eradication programme to benefit the white-headed duck. Despite an increase in the St Helena plover population, there are increasing threats from airport and tourism development. Monitoring of the Montserrat oriole, following the calamitous volcanic eruption, must continue, as there is little chance of transferring the responsibility to local conservationists. Prospects are not good for the oriole, nor for the eastern population of the northern bald ibis in Syria, despite the arrival of a fourth bird in 2012. Overcoming the threats of electrocution and shooting will require a major effort, and the political situation adds to the challenge. 10 www.rspb.org.uk
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annual report and accounts 2012 - RSPB

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