Environment 
In the run up to Earth Day, Mark Isherwood MS, looks at the urgent need to protect one of Wales’ most endangered birds – the curlew.
It is deeply worrying that Wales scored just 51% on the United Nation’s Biodiversity Intactness Indicator, ranking 224th out of 240 countries assessed. The Welsh Government has failed to introduce legally binding targets for nature recovery, leading to the decline of species in Wales. One in six species in Wales are at risk of extinction. 70 per cent of butterflies are in long term decline, and the number of bird species in Wales that are on the red list has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
When I became Wales Species Champion for the Curlew in 2016, I warned that we had only 15 years left to prevent their extinction as a breeding population in Wales. Seven of those years have now gone and urgent action is needed to save this iconic and culturally important species, and its ethereal voice in the Welsh landscape.
The UK regularly hosts up to one quarter of the global curlew breeding population and the curlew is now considered the most pressing bird conservation priority throughout the UK.
It is extremely concerning that we are in this position and, speaking in the Opposition Debate on Climate and Biodiversity in the Welsh Parliament in June 2021, I emphasised the need for the Welsh Government to work more closely with the UK Government on the response to the climate emergency and nature recovery.
More recently in the Senedd Chamber, I have called for the Welsh Government’s target for woodland planting to take account of the fact that woodlands provide an ideal habitat for the apex predators which target curlew nests and chicks. I stated:
“Trees provide numerous environmental, social and economic benefits, and tree planting is widely considered to be one of the most important ways to combat climate change and poor air quality. However, the decline in the curlew is strongly associated with increased amounts of woodland near breeding sites”.
The management of Wales’ apex predators is vital to the conservation of ground-nesting species like the curlew. The vast majority of people in Wales want action to tackle the nature emergency. We face a stark choice – extinction of multiple further species, or a range of urgent intervention measures to reverse biodiversity loss.
In my role as Wales Species Champion for the Curlew, I am privileged to have worked with Gylfinir Cymru /Curlew Wales since its formation as a coalition of expert organisations working together because they have a shared passion and determination to secure the future of curlew as a breeding bird in Wales.
Gylfinir Cymru has published a Wales Action Plan for the Recovery of the Curlew, which we hope Welsh Government will implement. It identifies the most important curlew areas in Wales and emphasises the importance of a well-designed, well-funded Sustainable Farming Scheme so that farmers can do the right things for curlews in these places.
Speaking at the launch of the plan in November 2021, I stated that ‘the Review of the Wider Biodiversity and Ecosystem Benefits of Curlew Recovery and Applicability to Wales’, commissioned by Natural Resources Wales, states that a literature review of 62 scientific papers provided a diverse array of evidence showing that Curlew recovery would benefit multiple species, both directly and indirectly, and furthermore underpins our understanding of the Curlew as an indicator species.
With time rapidly running out, it is vital that the Welsh Government works with the Gylfinir Cymru coalition to deliver the emergency intervention required. As the Chair of Gylfinir Cymru, has said:
“The loss of biodiversity is far-reaching, complex, and challenging, but it is considered by many that the loss of breeding Curlew from Welsh landscapes will be a loss of biodiversity too far.”
