As Wales Species Champion for the Curlew, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has today called on the Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs Minister to provide emergency support for conservation measures to safeguard the threatened species.
Speaking in the Chamber this afternoon, Mr Isherwood expressed concern that two funding bids for conservation measures had been unsuccessful and emphasised the urgency of the situation.
He told the Minister that without urgent conservation action, the curlew population is expected to become extinct in Wales.
He said:
“Curlew is listed as globally ‘Near-Threatened’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species and is a Red-listed Bird of Conservation Concern in the UK. Minister, you may be aware that the 'State of Birds in Wales' report 2018 indicated that more than three quarters of the Welsh curlew population has disappeared over the last 25 years and will probably become extinct entirely, as a regular breeding species within the Welsh landscape, within 20 years without urgent conservation action.
“However, we learned last week that both ‘Collaborating for Curlew’ bids for the Welsh Government's ‘Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being in Wales’ (EnRAW) Grant, by the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology, were unsuccessful. Well, as the Species Champion in Wales for the Curlew, I work closely with ‘Gylfinir Cymru’ - the ‘Curlew Wales’ coalition - and I share their concern about the bird's future.
“What consideration, therefore, will the Welsh Government give to providing emergency support for curlew conservation measures, so that we don't lose this species for good?”
The Minister replied: “Mr Isherwood may be aware of the Camlad valley project in Powys that was funded through our sustainable management scheme, and that's a farmer-led collaboration that is undertaking the restoration of traditional lowland wet grassland habitat. And that delivers a healthy and resilient diverse ecosystem to help ground-nesting birds, and the curlew is an indicator species for determining the success of that project.
“We've also got the Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being in Wales grants, and two of the applications that we've received are specifically related to conservation activity in relation to the curlew. Unfortunately, neither of them met the minimum threshold for funding at this stage, but I have asked officials to work with the applicants to see if there's anything further we can do to help them, because I do recognise that we need to take some really active work in this area.”
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