Brussels budget cuts threaten to silence UK countryside

Birdsong in the UK and European countryside could fall silent unless secret plans to scrap funding for wildlife-friendly farming are averted, warns the RSPB, Europes largest wildlife conservation charity.

The RSPB is concerned that the European Union is considering scrapping payments to farmers to protect vulnerable species on their land. The RSPB estimates that the future of some of the UKs most-loved farmland birds will face an uncertain future, or even extinction, if these plans are realised.

The threat has surfaced in the run-up to the latest EU budget, which is due to unveiled on June 29.

Martin Harper is the RSPBs Conservation Director. He said: Our countryside has faced many threats, but this would be really savage: were staggered. Rewarding farmers for protecting threatened wildlife has provided a lifeline to many sensitive species, which would otherwise have ebbed away. If the EU continues with this plan, there is no doubt that wildlife will suffer, with the possible ultimate UK extinction of some threatened species, including the turtle dove and cirl bunting.

Safeguarding Species is a 2010 RSPB assessment of the 100 top bird conservation priorities in the UK. Almost one third of these species (29) are dependent on the threatened European Union payments for their future recovery. The RSPB is most concerned about the future of those species which are reliant on farmers and have benefited from funding paid to farmers to protect them. The list includes: turtle dove, cirl bunting, stone-curlew, black grouse, black-tailed godwit, twite and corncrake.

However, it is not just wildlife which will be irreversibly hit if this funding is cut. The hedges, stone walls and archaeology, that give our landscapes character, will suffer, along with the environmental quality of rivers and lakes.

President Barroso has to oversee a tough budget round, but leaks suggest a leaning towards cutting the CAP budget, by toppling the so-called Pillar 2, which provides funding for measures to improve Europes countryside, including: wildlife conservation.

Martin Harper added: Slashing funding for farmers who take action for wildlife would be a devastating blow to the environment and the long-term future of farming. Last year the European Union, under President Barrosos leadership, pledged to halt the decline in wildlife by 2020. If he approves this budget, the President risks erasing wildlife from the map of Europe, breaking promises and undermining decades of conservation effort, which has spared the greatest wildlife losses. Cuts to agri-environment funding would be totally unacceptable.

Across Europe, from Portugal to Cyprus and from Ireland to Finland, a wide range of wildlife will be affected, including the great bustard, which is already facing the threat of global extinction.

The RSPB is working with its European BirdLife International partners to lobby the President and the European Commission to remove these potentially devastating cuts from the budget.