UK's Wild Bird Population Continues to Decline

The number of wild birds in the UK is still falling despite efforts to protect them by changing farming practices. Conservationists have urged the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, to use the money newly available from the EU's common agricultural policy to step up protection measures.

Since 2003 there has been a 13% decline in the population of farmland birds. In the five years to the end of 2012 the decline was 8% overall. The decline has slowed according to the Wild Bird Indicator statistics released by the government last Thursday and some species are in better health than they were in the 1970s when data began to be comprehensively collected. However, conservationists (including me) are concerned that the drop in numbers is continuing with a halving of farmland bird numbers in the past 40 years. Woodland bird numbers are down 17%.

Turtle Doves have had their lowest level of sightings since records began. Lapwing numbers are down by nearly two thirds since 1970, while Corn Buntings are down 90% in the same period and the number of Skylarks is down by well over half. These are truly alarming statistics.

Farmland birds suffer from intensive agriculture as farmers often remove or drastically cut back the hedges and trees where many of them live. Pesticides can leave them with less prey and a lack of wide field margins cuts down on habitat.

The decline in farmland birds has slowed and wildlife friendly farmers who put conservation measures in place on their land are to be congratulated for their hard work. But funding must be there for these measures to continue. Under reforms to the CAP that were agreed this summer our government has the ability to divert some of the millions of pounds available (which come ultimately from taxpayers) to environmental stewardship schemes to reward farmers for good practice. Needless to say, Owen Paterson has still not said how he intends to allocate the funding and given the governments freedom of action under the new rules, much of it could go to farmers not based on their practices but on the amount of land they farm, as other subsidies are.  Without Paterson's help farmland wildlife will continue to struggle along with those farmers trying to help.