Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect and help encourage curlew and lapwing habitats.

Rory Stewart

Both lapwings and curlews are priorities for conservation action. For example, the Government’s agri-environment schemes have been designed to encourage habitat management to promote their conservation in targeted areas, specifically to provide suitable nesting and foraging conditions.

Many of the most important sites for nesting lapwings are managed as nature reserves by Government and non-government organisations. In such cases highly specialised management can lead to high numbers breeding in relatively small areas. Success has also been achieved through agricultural schemes such as the Peppering Project on the Arundel estate.

Curlews are more widespread and their specific requirements for breeding are less well-understood. Natural England, together with the RSPB, is conducting research to better tailor upland land management to the specific needs of curlews and to support lapwing breeding.

As part of Defra’s programme of monitoring agri-environment schemes, Natural England has commissioned a survey of breeding waders (including lapwings and curlews) in upland areas in England to measure the effectiveness of these schemes.

As with all wild birds, lapwings and curlews are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.