RSPB CHIEF VOICES 'INTENSE FRUSTRATION' OVER POLITICAL INERTIA ON FATE OF WILDLIFE

                                                               

Fixing 'broken farming system is a prerequisite'

 THE RSPB's head of conversation, Martin Harper, has hit out at the continuing lack of progress in tackling the  UK's "ecological emergency."

"There is intense frustration that inadequate progress has been made to put in place tangible measures," he says in his latest blog.

"What is more, it now seems efforts over the past 12 months in progressing important legislation may go unrewarded.  

"The  prorogation of Parliament and the possibility of a General Election being called means that any legislation that has not completed its passage through both Houses will fall. " 

That means  the  relatively friendly wildlife-friendly Agriculture Bill will probably be no more.

Mr Harper was writing after the RSPB's annual Westminster parliamentary reception held on  September 3 for MPs and peers.

His blog  continues: "We need politicians to be at their best to find a way safely through the Brexit impasse, especially avoiding a No Deal Brexit which would create extreme jeopardy for the environment. 

" We need them to use their political voices for nature.

According to the RSPB chief, " fixing our broken food and farming system is a prerequisite to addressing the climate and environment emergency".

He says : "The Agriculture Bill was a first tentative step in the right direction, promising to redirect funding for farmers toward ‘public goods’, such as the conservation of wildlife, natural flood risk management and public access.

"Introduced in September 2018, under normal circumstances the bill should have received Royal Assent by now. 

"We should be talking about how to enact its provisions and mapping out a just transition to a new system. 

"But these are not normal circumstances.

"We are now faced with acute uncertainty, with no clarity on when an Agriculture Bill Mark Two will make it back to Parliament. 

"At a time when we need to be sending clear signals to the farming community that nature-friendly, agro-ecological farming is the future, this current mess couldn’t be more damaging.

"We can only hope  that the demise of the Agriculture Bill is merely a ‘bump in the road’. 

"Defra must now come back with an improved, more ambitious bill that matches the scale of the climate and environment emergency that we face.

"Anything less will be a disaster for many progressive farmers and the wildlife that depends upon them."