Conservation Issues UK News
The last month has been a very busy time for those involved in Conservation Issues UK. Following the complete re-design of the site, I have spent most of my time on an ecology field-course in Brittany, where the wildlife is amazing by the way, and working to develop the appearance and content of the site so that it is more useful to its readers.
The most recent development on the Conservation Issues UK website has been the re-design of the CI-UK Links Pages, which are now easier to use and more comprehensive than before. There are still a lot of links that are missing though, so if anyone has a site that should be on the list please let me know and I will put it on.
In addition, I am nearing the completion of some new articles, including one on the grey squirrel and its impact on British biodiversity, and I have reviews in preparation for a number of books, websites and magazines. I have also been spending a great deal of time outdoors (when the weather has allowed) taking as many photographs as I can for the CI-UK Galleries, which are also being expanded by contributions from several other wildlife enthusiasts.
Another great image for the CI-UK Galleries! This image of a marbled white butterfly was taken by Neil Smith. © Neil Smith 2007.
As part of my work, I have also been re-developing another conservation website for the recently established Centre for Wildlife Assessment and Conservation (CWAC) at Reading University. CWAC aims to provide both practitioners and students of wildlife conservation with resources and facilities to assist their research and to create a link between conservation practitioners and university academics. CWAC believes that by facilitating these interactions they can help to identify and solve problems in wildlife conservation and ensure that appropriate research is carried out, that the results of this research reach the right people and, where possible, that on-site implementation of the findings occurs.
Conservation News
The two biggest conservation stories in the news this week have both been about birds and, although one was a good news story, the other certainly was not.
The RSPB have determined that one of Britain’s most critically endangered birds, the woodlark, is showing signs of making a dramatic recovery. In 1986 it was estimated that just 241 breeding pairs of woodlarks remained in the UK, but now an RSPB survey has recorded over 3,000 pairs.
The RSPB have attributed this astonishing recovery to the introduction of wildlife-friendly farming practices over that last decade under agri-environmental schemes such as DEFRA’s Environmental Stewardship programme. They do, however, temper their celebrations by pointing out that the re-intensification of agriculture for the production of biofuels would very quickly reverse this success and return the woodlark population to the brink of extinction once more.
In contrast to the woodlark, there is growing concern about sea bird populations around the coast of Scotland. Mid-breeding season reports from the RSPB are suggesting that many breeding colonies have been ‘disastrously’ affected by the abnormal weather that we have had this summer.
Common terns, guillemots and kittiwakes are among those species affected and Norman Ratcliffe, seabird ecologist with RSPB Scotland, believes that it is because the young in the nests are not getting enough food. He said:
“Some cliffs which should be packed with birds are just about bare as adult birds abandon the nest once their breeding attempt has failed. This is all linked to food availability, which can be disrupted for a number of reasons. We’re fairly certain that on the east coast, rising sea temperatures are leading to plankton regime shifts, which in turn affects fish like sand eels – a major food source for seabirds.”
The guillemot is just one species of sea bird that the RSPB are reporting to have had a disastrous breeding season around the Scottish coast this year. Image by M. Buschmann.
These two stories encapsulate the challenges that conservation practitioners face on a daily basis and illustrate how important it is that we continue to closely monitor our wildlife populations. Only through careful ecological evaluation and recording can we detect potential problems early enough to act, ensure that we implement the best intervention and demonstrate that our actions have been successful.
Learn more about Environmental Stewardship Scheme on the DEFRA Website.
Read the original woodlark story on the BBC Website.
Read the original Scottish sea birds story on the BBC Website.
