EU LIFE+ Project - Securing the future of the stone-curlew in the UK
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Working with farmers and communities, we are working to reduce the stone-curlew's dependence on intervention from conservationists, making it more sustainable.
Stone-curlews' love of bare stony ground on short grassy heathland and downland, and their sensitivity to disturbance put them at risk in the 20th century. We've worked with farmers and landowners for 30 years to successfully recover the stone-curlew population, by protecting vulnerable nests on farmland. Now we need to reduce the stone-curlew's dependency on our intervention so that we can release funds to help recover other threatened species. By providing advice and support, and raising awareness, we hope to increase the amount of safe nesting habitat such as semi-natural grassland and nest plots on farmland. By the end of the project we hope three quarters of UK stone-curlews will be nesting on these safe habitats. This project covers two areas, for more details on the project's activities near you, please go to the Wessex Stone-curlew Project or Eastern England Stone-curlew Project pages links on the right.
Project objectives
- Provide information and advice on stone-curlews to a wide audience including farmers, land managers, local residents, decision makers and other organisations, to enable them to take action.
- Double the carrying capacity of short grass-heath and downland (semi-natural habitats) for nesting stone-curlews by developing management plans.
- Improve the deployment of, and develop better management advice for fallow plots on arable farmland, to provide effective safe nesting habitat within arable crops where nests could be destroyed.
- Work with Natural England to develop and strengthen the new Countryside Stewardship scheme, to ensure practical options are available to benefit stone-curlews, enabling more safe nesting habitat to be created cost efficiently on farmland (both arable and semi-natural grassland).
- Reduce the long term need for annual interventions and intensive population monitoring, by supporting/developing innovative ways of monitoring the population and protecting nests on cropped land.
- Raise awareness of the importance of the three Natura 2000 sites designated for stone-curlews: the Breckland, Salisbury Plain and Porton Down Specially Protected Areas (SPAs), and gain more support for site protection.
Progress so far
- Over 100 nest plots on arable land were entered into new stewardship scheme agreements during the project bringing the total to nearly 300.
- A new team of 26 volunteers is carrying out stone-curlew monitoring and nest protection where needed across the country.
- Many more landowners are managing their own monitoring and nest protection.
- Stone-curlews are re-colonising areas of restored grass heathland, with a pair taking up residence on an area not used for 40 years in 2015.
Work planned or underway
This project was completed in March 2017. To find out more about work undertaken view the downloads below or click on the regional project pages on the right.
Downloads
Who to contact
Dr Andy Evans
Head of Nature Recovery
E-mail: andy.evans@rspb.org.uk
Nick Tomalin
Wessex Farmland Project Manager
E-mail: nick.tomalin@rspb.org.uk
Tim Cowan
Brecks Project Manager
E-mail: tim.cowan@rspb.org.uk
Partners
The project’s objectives are supported by Natural England, and we will be working closely with other organisations, landowners and land managers including the Ministry of Defence and Wildlife Trusts.
Funding
Funded by EU LIFE+, Supporting the implementation of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, and Natura 2000 network of protected sites.