Conservationists have said there have been some “huge victories for nature” this year, from the breeding success of spoonbills to the spectacular comeback of Britain’s largest spider.
Other gains for nature in 2024 include the closure of the sandeel fishery, which has given a “lifeline” to seabirds such as puffins, and the saving of one of the world’s rarest birds with the help of a species of hornet and international efforts to reverse antelope decline. Kazakhstan, RSPB reported.
The charity is highlighting some of the successes secured in 2024 to show what can be achieved in conservation, while warning of the challenges facing nature.
spoon type
With climate change, habitat loss and development taking a toll on wildlife, and with just five years left to meet legal conservation targets, the RSPB is calling on the UK Government to take action to protect species and habitats. It calls for urgent investment in action.
RSPB chief executive Bessie Speights will increase the UK farming budget to encourage farmers to practice more nature-friendly farming, and ensure that energy infrastructure development and housebuilding support nature and take place where it is already thriving. I asked him not to.
The RSPB highlighted some of the successes it has had this year on its reserves and further afield.
This includes the spoonbill, which was driven to extinction in the UK hundreds of years ago due to hunting and wetland drainage, but has increased in numbers in Europe due to conservation efforts to protect its habitat. , the RSPB said.
This wetland bird, with its distinctive spoon-shaped beak, nested for the first time since the 17th century at the RSPB’s Ouse Wash Reserve in East Anglia, and also breeds in numbers on Havergate Island, Suffolk, and Fairburn Ings, West Yorkshire. has increased.
lifeline
Another species making a comeback in the UK is the fenraft spider. It is one of the largest spiders in the UK that hunts prey on the surface of the water and is being helped by the introduction of new sites and the management of grazing wetlands suitable for highly unusual arachnids.
The RSPB said there may now be 3,750 females at Midyale Nature Reserve in the Norfolk Lakes region, where the spiders were first introduced in 2012.
The charity also said it had been campaigning for the closure of the sandeel fishery since 1996, as industrial harvesting of small fish threatened the survival of seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes, and in January it Fishing operations have been closed in all areas, including the Scottish waters.
But the EU is contesting the British government’s decision over the fish, which is targeted by European vessels for oil and use as feed for livestock and farmed salmon, and conservationists. They have started a campaign to “prevent the hard-earned catches from going back.” victory”.
“The closure of the industrial sandeel fishery is a lifeline for seabird species under pressure, such as puffins and kittiwakes, who rely on sandeel for food,” said Speight.
