Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

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Simon Barnes

Bees and harriers: the unlikely alliance

by 12 Comments

Last weekend I was in Edinburgh to give the keynote speech at the AGM of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. I’ll spare you the whole thing — it went on quite a bit — but here’s the general idea.

Conservation badly needs a boost up the political agenda, because most people in positions of power are far too busy and important to be worried by trivial things like the future of the planet. And I have hopes that this could happen by means of an alliance between hen harriers and bumblebees. Between them they supply a potent mixture of anger and worry.

There is room for 300 pairs of hen harriers in England (Defra figures) and in 2013, precisely none managed to breed. This year we were up to a dizzying total of four. This shortage of hen harriers has come about because they are systematically and illegally killed to protect the interests of the grouse-shooting industry.

Anger at this is spreading beyond the usual conservation organisations. People are asking: whose countryside is it anyway? Do we all have a share? Or is it just for the fun of a few very rich men?

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll found that the shortage of bees was the most worrying environmental issue that confronted the people of this country. We are deeply disturbed by the idea of a world without bees — it would mean that the globe’s stopped working, nothing less. People are beginning to realise that we really should be running our planet a bit better.

It’s my hope that this combination of anger and worry will force people in power to take environmental issues more seriously.  Thus a small, specialised organisation, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, finds itself dealing with issues right on the cutting edge. It’s a huge task they’re lumbered with: a huge opportunity to change the way we think about the world we live in.

 

Comments

  1. Rienk Slings says

    Strange that hen harriers have also vanished from their Dutch breeding haunts in the same period. No grouse shooting there and no big ground predators (they breed on fox-free isles.

    Reply

  2. Delphine Spilsbury says

    One reason I would like Scotland to become independent is that it might take back ownership of managing its environment. So far the new first minister seems to be going in the right direction to find out who actually owns land and to take it back – but I am concerned that this is to be done in the name of development for the human species – not necessarily sustainable development for all species. Also a pity they continue to support fishing rights for large corporations that endanger spawning and the environment. I will never buy farmed salmon – which means I don’t consume any salmon.

    George Monbiot writing in the Guardian is pushing hard for the UK gov. to stop subsidising the recreational game industry here. What with subs for that and growing wind turbines its cake and jelly all day! As a New Zealander I have no truck with any subsidies in farming – if you can’t afford to farm your land without subsidies then it is not economically viable. Continuing high country farming in NZ is under pressure and hopefully becoming a conservation effort rather than a farming effort. Getting rid of the wasteful attitude people have to food is a better means of improving the efficacy of food supply.

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    • Simon Barnes says

      A lot of good sense here, and thanks for saying some important things. I remember visiting a kauri forest restoration project in New Zealand. It was based on a 1000 year time scale, seems the right sense of proportion to me.

      Reply

  5. Mike says

    Keep up the good work. We need more people like you to raise the alarm.
    Somehow the next generation needs to learn fast.

    Reply

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