Wildlife beyond nature reserves: RSPB thinks big to save UK wildlife

Radical new approach to conservation

May 2010: The RSPB is launching a fundamentally fresh approach to nature conservation to make space for wildlife in the 21st Century. Its radical new programme, dubbed Futurescapes, will see the RSPB working with others and reaching out beyond its traditional nature reserves to create landscapes where people and nature can co-exist.

JOINED UP THINKING: Saltmarshes at Wallasea Island in Essex. Picture: Ben Hall, RSPB

Futurescapes manager Aidan Lonergan said: ‘Nature reserves are vitally important - they are a refuge from where plants and animals can spread into the wider countryside. But that countryside is increasingly unfriendly to wildlife because of decades of habitat loss, which has robbed many species of food and shelter. Climate change threatens to add even further pressure. We need to turn that around'

‘We want whole landscapes where wildlife
can move and thrive'
Aidan added: 'Working with others, we can once again make large areas of the countryside rich in wildlife. We need to move beyond the nature reserve and create really big areas of land, whole landscapes, where wildlife has space to move and thrive.'

Futurescapes is the RSPB's response to the continued decline of the UK's wildlife and wild places. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, the date by which biodiversity loss is meant to have been halted. Instead numbers of many species continue to fall.

To showcase its new approach, the RSPB has chosen the Greater Thames; more than 1,000 sq km straddling the river from Tower Bridge, along the estuary and out into the North Sea. The RSPB owns or managers about 40 sq km of land for wildlife on the Thames and has invested more than £50 million regenerating land and opening up large areas for people to enjoy.

'We have some unlikely bedfellows - but everyone needs to pull together to make this happen'
It is also working with a number of organisations and companies to improve wildlife habitats near the capital. This includes working with DP World to make sure the new London Gateway Port results in new habitat and a net gain for wildlife as well as forging a partnership with the Port of London Authority to produce a conservation management framework. The RSPB has also joined forces with waste disposal firm Veolia to regenerate large areas of landfill, transforming them into wetlands and public space.

SAFEGUARD: The Futurescapes project aims to preserve wildlife such as the red-throated diver Picture: Mike Lane, RSPB

Aidan Lonergan said: ‘What's happening on the Thames is a fantastic example of what we want Futurescapes to achieve right across the UK. At first glance some of our partners on the Thames may seem unlikely bedfellows for the RSPB, but the transformation we want to see in our countryside is too big a job for any one organisation - everyone needs to pull together to make it happen.'

He explained the concept behind this new, inclusive approach: ‘This is a crowded island and we need to meet the needs of wildlife alongside human uses of the countryside. We need our land to do more than one thing. If we succeed, it will not just be wildlife that wins. By taking a landscape scale approach for wildlife, we can improve other natural services provided by the land, including carbon storage, water management, and recreation, alongside food production and other important economic benefits.'