Threat of no deal Brexit looms over British pigeon racing season

Pigeon racing from liberation sites in France could become a logistical nightmare.  CREDIT: PAUL GROVER/PAUL GROVER FOR THE TELEGRAPH 

 James Crisp, brussels correspondent4 APRIL 2019 • 4:21PM

The British pigeon racing season is at risk from a no deal Brexit, after the EU warned it would impose strict checks on birds crossing the Channel.

Every weekend from April to September, thousands of British pigeons travel in convoys of customised loft-lorries to liberation sites in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

An estimated 16,000 individual birds travel to France alone during the season when weather conditions are safe for channel-crossing on the return flight to the home lofts, hundreds of miles away. 

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Brexit Could Threaten Penguins in the Falkland Islands

by: Judy M.

January 2, 2019

Questions are swirling about what will happen with the UK’s Brexit, now that Prime Minister Theresa May has postponed a crucial vote until January.

If May’s deal is voted down, which is the most likely outcome, no one is sure what will happen: She could switch to Plan B within 21 days, call a snap election, resign, be dumped by her Conservative party or participate in a second referendum.

According to Dr. Simon Usherwood, a reader in politics at the University of Surrey, if there’s no deal:

On 29 March next year, the UK would leave the EU and everything associated with that would come to an end. [A no deal] doesn’t stop the UK leaving but it means there is absolutely no clarity about what happens.”

Brits are fraught with worry about the uncertainty surrounding work and life in Britain. But is anyone worrying about the penguins?

Most people aren’t aware that the UK is responsible for more penguins than any other country, and wildlife protection groups are concerned about what will happen to them, as well as other bird species, after EU money runs out in 2020. There has been no commitment from DEFRA, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that it will replace the EU cash after 2020.

Politico reports:

It is a little-known fact that the U.K. is responsible for more penguins than any country on earth. The downside of that — for the penguins of Britain’s overseas territories, not to mention a host of other species — is that they too are affected by Brexit.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Falklands Conservation are both concerned the EU conservation program will not be replaced. In particular they worry that without grants from LIFE (Financial Instrument for the Environment) and BEST (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories overseas), world-leading conservation efforts for rare and unique species will be put under threat.

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RSPB says tourist tax could help rare birds post-Brexit

by Tom Peterkin

December 28, 2018, 6:03 am

A wildlife chartiy has suggested the introduction of a tourist tax would help make up for the loss of EU funding used to conserve Hebridean seabirds and other rare animals.

RSPB Scotland has identified loss of EU cash as a “key concern” after Brexit at a time when resources for conservation in Scotland are “inadequate”.

And in a document submitted to Holyrood, the charity suggests a tourist tax could help make up the shortfall.

The organisation is particularly concerned about losing out on the EU’s Life programme, which has has pumped £25million into environmental projects in Scotland, including many in the north and north-east.

Since the Life Nature fund’s inception, Scotland has received 21% of the UK total available cash, which has been used for more than 25 projects.

These have worked to protect Atlantic salmon, the freshwater pearl mussel, the corncrake, the Flow Country peatlands, Caledonian pinewoods, upland invertebrates, the red squirrel, machair grasslands, seabirds on

Canna and the Shiants, the Celtic rainforest, the harbour porpoise and the hen harrier.

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Bitterns, curlews and lapwings at risk as vital wildlife funds dry up

Bird experts call on ministers to plug gap left by EU grants worth millions of pounds

Robin McKie

Sat 8 Dec 2018 16.00 GMT

They are some of the most elusive birds to nest in the UK. Indeed, they hide so well in their reedbed homes that ornithologists can only estimate bittern numbers by counting the sources of the booming sounds made by males in summer. It is a census that has produced alarming results. Only 11 booming bitterns were counted across the country in the 1990s.

But since then the bittern has begun to bounce back – thanks to a remarkable system of EU environment awards called Life grants. One of these, worth €3.9m (£3.5m), has helped ecologists restore the bittern’s reedbeds in South and West Yorkshire and rebuild bittern numbers.

Other threatened species to benefit from Life grants include stone curlews, golden plovers and lapwings, and plants such as the sundew.

But that Life grant system is now under threat itself, and unless a replacement is found a critically important mechanism for saving endangered species will be lost.

“This is an extremely worrying development,” said Alistair Taylor of the RSPB. “The Life fund has played a vital role in holding back destruction of the environment and loss of endangered species. If we lose them, it will make it much harder to stop the rot.”

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