annual report and accounts 2012 - RSPB

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RSPB trustees’ report and accounts 2011-12 Trustees’ report Securing the most important sites abroad Objective Achievement Future challenges We will help to increase the number of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) that are legally protected in countries in which we are working with BirdLife partners. IBAs are sites which are the most important for the conservation of birds and other wildlife. Over 11,000 have been identified around the world but they are increasingly under threat. Latest information indicates that each of 1,084 (of 2,073) IBAs had more than 75% of their area legally protected by 2010, against 1,006 (out of 2,040) a year earlier. We supported our BirdLife partner, the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan, and the Government of Kazakhstan to designate a sensational 900,000 hectares of new steppe and wetland protected area in Altyn Dala. To our great relief, G4 Industries pulled a proposal to grow 28,000 hectares of jatropha in the magnificent Tana River Delta in Kenya, following pressure from our BirdLife partner with strong RSPB support. IBA site support groups are growing across Europe, Africa and Asia, and grew most significantly in India with a 35% increase. In EU member states, there has been clear progress in new site designation and this is slowly moving into active management work. In non- EU countries however, there has been virtually no change to the number of IBAs designated as protected areas or the management of those sites. We must continue to support our BirdLife partners to help communities in developing alternative livelihoods and to strengthen their advocacy capacity to achieve sustained IBA protection. Futurescapes Objective Achievement Future challenges We will work towards the 2020 target of 10 “Futurescapes” of large contiguous blocks in the UK, in total covering up to 550,000 hectares, each giving sustainable land management via a mosaic of appropriate land uses to benefit nature. We secured support from the EU Life Communications fund. A €2 million grant will help recruit eight Futurescapes staff and many people engagement staff to work on the programme. Local management and governance arrangements have been established across the UK to help facilitate conservation on a large scale. Advocacy work was rewarded with the establishment of 12 government sponsored Nature Improvement Areas in England. We need to be more innovative to extract the most from existing sources of money and to identify and use emerging funds. We need to broker and maintain relationships with a range of partners including governments, other NGOs and landowning interests to create landscape scale conservation across the UK. www.rspb.org.uk 11
RSPB trustees’ report and accounts 2011-12 Trustees’ report Improved marine environment Objective Achievement Future challenges We will continue to conserve important populations of seabirds through a network of marine protected areas. We continued to work hard to see a coherent network of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) designated, including sites for seabirds. MPAs in Scotland should benefit seabirds. Sites for black guillemots have been discussed, as well as some to protect sandeels, which many seabirds eat. With other NGOs in the Northern Ireland Marine Task Force, we were encouraged by a Marine Bill for Northern Ireland in 2012. This is a fantastic achievement after years of hard work, but we will continue, via the Task Force, to improve and strengthen the Bill as it is debated. We must see effective implementation of marine legislation throughout the UK, including the designation of seabird MPAs. We will call on Government to be more ambitious in the designation of such sites, to fulfil the EC Wild Birds Directive and other international obligations. Our advocacy through the English regional Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) projects succeeded, with six sites for seabirds included in the final network proposals for English MCZs. Our work with the Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment project continues to uncover exciting information about the distribution of seabirds at sea, through satellite tracking. As more information comes to light, we will continue to advise on MPAs for seabirds. There is an urgent need for more marine survey and research work to help site selection, and we must reconcile the need for greater marine protection with the planned expansion of marine industry and development (in particular marine renewable energy schemes). Rainforest destruction prevented Objective Achievement Future challenges We will help protect 240,000 ha of tropical forest with our BirdLife partners. Our rainforests work has been brought together under one programme. With our BirdLife partners we are now conserving or restoring approximately 238,000 hectares in eight countries. The President of Sierra Leone launched the 71,000 hectares Gola Rainforest National Park in December 2011: an important milestone in the conservation of Gola. Our researchers found one species of frog and three species of butterfly previously unknown to science, exciting discoveries that reinforced the importance of Gola for biodiversity. Restoration at Harapan Rainforest (98,000 hectares) is proceeding well, with plant nurseries producing more than 2.5 million seedlings per year. More than 250,000 were planted. Illegal encroachment by loggers and settlers continues to be a severe challenge, with a new front opening up during 2011. We are working with the Indonesian Government to overcome this taxing problem. Our work with BirdLife partners in Liberia, Montserrat, Tanzania, Thailand and Uganda protected additional rainforest sites in these countries. The year culminated in the launch of the Together for Trees partnership with Tesco, raising awareness of the plight of rainforests with the UK public, and aiming to generate income through corporate and customer donations for our rainforests programme. We have to tackle increased illegal encroachment at Harapan. We must ensure long-term sustainable financing for our flagship projects at Harapan and Gola. We will strengthen the cohesiveness of our project work, and develop a new area of work with Tesco to address sustainable consumption of tropical commodities related to deforestation. 12 www.rspb.org.uk
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annual report and accounts 2012 - RSPB

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