Thread: Wildlife recovery stopped in its tracks

News from the RSPB site

A wildlife success story could fail within a year if more farmland is cultivated reducing food and shelter for farmland birds, the RSPB is warning.

The rare stone-curlew, one of England's most elusive birds, has thrived on farmland called set-aside, which has also helped declining skylarks, yellowhammers, lapwings and barn owls.

Set-aside – land on which wheat, barley and other food crops cannot be grown – will be scrapped next year but the government has no plans to replicate its benefits despite its 2020 target to reverse farmland bird declines.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn will today consider conservationists' pleas for replacement measures. The RSPB fears he will choose to ignore them.

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