annual report and accounts 2012 - RSPB

RSPB trustees’ report and accounts 2011-12
Lancashire - the only place in England where hen
harriers nested successfully in 2011. We have to do
more in partnership with companies, farmers and
other conservation charities and our fundraisers
are striving to come up with new and innovative
ways to fund more land purchases.
To help constrain the damaging impact on
conservation of sea level rise, we undertook
two major projects on the English east coast
during the year. The first one was at Wallasea
Island in Essex, where Crossrail and the
Environment Agency have helped to fund
the Defra-supported project to secure 155
hectares of saltmarsh and mudflat as
replacement habitat for that lost to “coastal
squeeze”. And secondly, with financial
support from the European Union, we have
improved the sea defences to protect
freshwater habitats at Titchwell on the
Norfolk Coast.
Still on the theme of water levels, further
inland, the drought in eastern England badly
affected wintering ducks and swans, whilst
breeding waders in the Fens had their nests
flooded out by the heavy spring rainfall.
Careful management of water levels to try
and reduce the risk to wetland wildlife and
improve drought resilience is a relatively low
cost way of achieving much.
Within the RSPB we have been doing a lot to
reduce our carbon footprint. We have used
green electricity at our sites for many years
and now have a number of new programmes
underway - including solar, wind, biomass
and heat-exchange. In the last year we added
rechargeable electric vehicles to our fleet and
plan more. All travel undertaken by staff is
monitored and we set ourselves a target of
reducing the carbon footprint by 3% per
person, per year – a target we regularly hit
but which becomes more difficult with every
passing year.
The amount we spend on Education and
communications has been stable for the last
couple of years but the amount spent
probably is not the best way by which to
judge the scale of much of our work. For
example, new technology is driving down
the cost of communication – which is a relief
given the rising cost of postage – so this
doesn’t mean we are doing less; we are just
doing it more efficiently. Our monthly e-
newsletter is a good example; we now have
more than 400,000 subscribers.
Trustees’ report
Turning to education specifically, we are
consciously investing in quality rather than
quantity as verified by the Government
sponsored Quality Badge – 14 of our sites
reached the standard of outstanding or very
good. And on the quantity side, we are very
pleased that more than 50,000 children visited
RSPB countryside classrooms in organised school
groups. Minsmere’s million pound makeover
(much of it funded by partners) sees a new
discovery centre designed for families and
children with a dedicated learning facility, Wild
Zone and wildwood adventure. We were taken
by surprise by the level of participation in the Big
Schools’ Birdwatch after widespread coverage on
TV. We sent out so many packs to schools that we
ended up with just eight left!
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg
because education, in its widest sense, needs to
engage every age group. With regard to new
technology mentioned earlier; we have just
made our debut into the world of Smartphone
technology by launching two apps: LoveNature
and LoveBirds.
Looking further afield, through BirdLife
International we work very closely with our
overseas partners. About 12% of our expenditure
supports overseas conservation but about half of
this is funded from money specifically donated
for the purpose (from the EU or KfW - the
German Development Bank for example).
Support for BirdLife Malta and Cyprus to save
migrant birds that use the flyway between Africa
and Europe is one of our top conservation
priorities. It is an issue that many RSPB
supporters care passionately about and, of
course, success isn’t just dependant on funding;
we have to change the behaviour of those
involved in illegal trapping and hunting too.
One the challenges we face is the pension deficit.
The RSPB, like all other responsible employers,
has invested considerable time and effort in
finding the best solution to the complex problem
of providing an affordable pension scheme for its
employees. We are committed to providing a
remuneration and reward package that attracts
and retains the quality of people we need to
deliver our conservation ambitions. We have
made a number of changes over the last nine
years to share the risk of pension provision more
equally between staff and the RSPB and we have
in place a long-term deficit recovery programme,
which is agreed with the Pension Trustees. The
latest triennial review is underway; in reaching
an outcome we will strike a balance between the
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