Wales Species Champion for the Curlew and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has warned Welsh Government Ministers that unless immediate action is taken, the Curlew will be gone forever.
Speaking in Tuesday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood called for a Welsh Government Statement on funding to rescue the Curlew from imminent country-level extinction, emphasising that there are only nine years left to prevent it.
He said:
“Last Thursday, 21st April, was World Curlew Day, shining a light on the dangers that Curlews face as a result of shifting factors, primarily loss of quality habitat and increasing predation. Last Thursday was also the feast day of St Beuno, the Patron Saint of Curlews in the traditional Welsh calendar.
“Curlews and their ethereal call are iconic in Wales, central to culture, history and belief. When I became Wales's Species Champion for the Curlew, however, I warned here that we had only 15 years left to prevent their extinction as a breeding population in Wales, and six of those years have now gone and been lost.
“Well, on World Curlew Day last Thursday, Mick Green - Welsh Ornithological Society and member of Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Cymru - also wrote to the Minister for Climate Change personally and publicly asking her to live up to her promise given at the launch of the Wales Action Plan for the Recovery of Curlew last November, where she pledged to work with Gylfinir Cymru and to ensure that ‘we can finance it and get it up and running’—quote—an Action Plan with multiple and multi-species benefits.
“Mr Green continued, 'We now only have nine breeding seasons left to save this iconic species from its projected extinction. Please instruct your officials to work with Gylfinir Cymru to find an urgent way of getting funding directly to Curlew action’. He concluded, 'Please, on World Curlew Day, can you assure me that direct funding will be available to save the Curlew from extinction and that Welsh Government ensures its own projects do not further jeopardise this species?'
“The time for talk is over. If we don't act, they're gone. I call for a Statement accordingly.”