In 2021/22 the RSPB had revenue of £157 million, 2,200 employees, 10,500 volunteers and 1.1 million members (including 195,000 youth members), making it one of the world's largest wildlife conservation organisations.[4] The RSPB has many local groups and maintains 222 nature reserves.
History
Plaque at Fletcher Moss Park, Manchester, commemorating the foundation of the RSPB
The origins of the RSPB lie with two groups of women, both formed in 1889:
The groups gained in popularity and amalgamated in 1891 to form the Society for the Protection of Birds in London.[8] The Society gained its Royal Charter in 1904.[9]
The original members of the SPB were all women[10] who campaigned against the fashion of the time for women to wear exotic feathers in hats, and the consequent encouragement of "plume hunting". To this end the Society had two simple rules:[8]
That Members shall discourage the wanton destruction of Birds, and interest themselves generally in their protection
That Lady-Members shall refrain from wearing the feathers of any bird not killed for purposes of food, the ostrich only excepted.
At the time of founding, the trade in plumage for use in hats was very large: in the first quarter of 1884, almost 7,000 bird-of-paradise skins were being imported to Britain, along with 400,000 birds from West India and Brazil, and 360,000 birds from East India.[11]
In 1890, the society published its first leaflet, entitled Destruction of Ornamental-Plumaged Birds,[12] aimed at saving the egret population by informing wealthy women of the environmental damage wrought by the use of feathers in fashion. A later 1897 publication, Bird Food in Winter,[13] aimed to address the use of berries as winter decoration and encouraged the use of synthetic berries to preserve the birds food source. In 1897 the SPB distributed over 16,000 letters and 50,000 leaflets and by 1898 had 20,000 members.[14]
The Society attracted support from some women of high social standing who belonged to the social classes that popularised the wearing of feathered hats, including the Duchess of Portland (who became the Society's first President) and the Ranee of Sarawak. As the organisation began to attract the support of many other influential figures, both male and female, such as the ornithologist Professor Alfred Newton, it gained in popularity and attracted many new members. The society received a Royal Charter in 1904[8] from Edward VII, just 15 years after its founding, and was instrumental in petitioning the Parliament of the United Kingdom to introduce laws banning the use of plumage in clothing.[6]
At the time that the Society was founded in Britain, similar societies were also founded in other European countries.[15][which?] In 1961, the society acquired The Lodge in Sandy, Bedfordshire, as its new headquarters.[6] The RSPB's logo depicts an avocet. The first version was designed by Robert Gillmor.[16]
Today, the RSPB works with both the civil service and the Government to advise Government policies on conservation and environmentalism.[17] It is one of several organisations that determine the official conservation status list for all birds found in the UK.
The RSPB does not run bird hospitals nor offer animal rescue services.[18]
The RSPB entered into a partnership with UK housebuilder Barratt Developments in 2014.
Reserves
South Stack reserve, Anglesey, with Ellin's Tower, housing a visitor centreA webcam installed near Sumburgh Head lighthouse, Shetland. The cliffs are home to large numbers of seabirds and the area is an RSPB nature reserve.
The RSPB Medal is the Society's most prestigious award. It is presented to an individual in recognition of wild bird protection and countryside conservation. It is usually awarded annually to one or occasionally two people.[21]
Magazines
The RSPB has published a members-only magazine for over a century.
Bird Notes
Bird Notes
Cover of Autumn 1946 issue of Bird Notes, Vol. 23, No. 3
Advert for Bird Notes and News from the March 1934 edition of North Western Naturalist magazine. Note early logo.
Bird Notes and News ( ISSN0406-3392) was first published in April 1903.
The title changed to Bird Notes in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year (one for each season, published on the 1st of each third month, March, June, September and December). Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years. For example, volume XXV (25), number one was dated Winter 1951, and number eight in the same volume was dated Autumn 1953.
From the mid-1950s, many of the covers were by Charles Tunnicliffe. Two of the originals are on long-term loan to the Tunnicliffe gallery at Oriel Ynys Môn, but in 1995 the RSPB sold 114 at a Sotheby's auction, raising £210,000, the most expensive being a picture of a partridge which sold for £6,440.[22]
From January 1964 (vol. 31, no. 1), publication increased to six per year, (issued in the odd-numbered months, January, March and so on, but dated "January–February", "March–April", etc.). Volumes again covered two years, so vol. 30, covering 1962–63, therefore included nine issues, ending with the "Winter 1963–64" edition instead of eight. The final edition, vol. 31 no. 12, was published in late 1965.
Bird Notes' successor Birds ( ISSN1367-983X) replaced it immediately, with volume 1, number 1 being the January–February 1966 edition. Issues were published quarterly, numbered so that a new volume started every other year.
The Autumn 2013 edition, dated August–October 2013, being vol. 25 no. 7, was the last.[23]
In Winter 2013 Birds was replaced by a new magazine, Nature's Home. The editor was Mark Ward. The magazine had an ABC-certified circulation of 600,885.[24]
The RSPB Magazine
With the Summer/Autumn 2022 issue, the magazine has been re-titled.
Junior divisions
The RSPB has two separate groups for children and teenagers: Wildlife Explorers (founded in 1943 as the Junior Bird Recorders' Club; from 1965 to 2000 the Young Ornithologists' Club or YOC[6]) and RSPB Phoenix. Wildlife Explorers is targeted at children aged between 8 and 12, although it also has some younger members,[25] and has two different magazines: Wild Times for 0-7-year-olds, and Wild Explorer for 8-12-year-olds. RSPB Phoenix is aimed at teenagers, and produces Wingbeat magazine, which is primarily written by young people for young people.[26] The RSPB is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services.[27]
Big Garden Birdwatch
RSPB organises bird record data collection in annual collective birdwatching days in Britain. The RSPB describes this as the "world's biggest wildlife survey" and helps inform conservationists to gain a better knowledge on bird population trends in gardens in Britain.[28] The Big Garden Birdwatch was launched as a children's activity in 1979, but from 2001 it encouraged adults to partake as well. In 2011, over 600,000 people took part, only 37% of whom were RSPB members. This event usually takes place in the last weekend of January. From the start of this annual survey records for house sparrows showed a decline of 60%, while starling populations declined by about 80% from 1979 to 2012.[28]
In 2022, nearly 700,000 people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, counting more than 11 billion birds.[29]
The RSPB is funded primarily by its members; in 2006, over 50% of the society's £88million income came from subscriptions, donations and legacies, worth a total of £53.669million.[32] As a registered charity, the organisation is entitled to gift aid worth an extra £0.25 on every £1.00 donated by income tax payers.[33] The bulk of the income (£63.757million in 2006) is spent on conservation projects, maintenance of the reserves and on education projects, with the rest going on fundraising efforts and reducing the pension deficit, worth £19.8million in 2006.
Advertising
It was reported in an article in The Daily Mail on 2 November 2014 that claims that the charity "was spending 90 per cent of its income on conservation" by the UK Advertising Standards Authority were incorrect. The article claimed that the true figure was closer to 26%. The Charity Commission investigated the claims, and contacted the RSPB to get it to clarify its web statement. The RSPB complied, with the clarification that 90% of its net income (after expenses, not gross income as received) was spent on conservation, and that conservation activities were diverse, not limited to spending on its own nature reserves. This was accepted by the Charity Commission.[34]
Boardman, Robert (2006). The International Politics of Bird Conservation: Biodiversity, Regionalism And Global Governance. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN978-1-84542-403-9.
The Wildlife Trusts, the trading name of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, is an organisation made up of 46 local Wildlife Trusts in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Alderney. The Wildlife Trusts, between them, look after more than 2,300 nature reserves, covering around 98,500 hectares. As of 2020, the Trusts have a combined membership of over 870,000 members.
The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is an international wildfowl and wetland conservation charity in the United Kingdom.
Ouse Washes is a linear 2,513.6-hectare (6,211-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest stretching from near St Ives in Cambridgeshire to Downham Market in Norfolk. It is also a Ramsar internationally important wetland site, a Special Protection Area for birds, a Special Area of Conservation and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. An area of 186 hectares between March and Ely is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire and another area near Chatteris is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust manages another area near Welney.
In the United Kingdom, a gamekeeper is a person who manages an area of countryside to make sure there is enough game for hunting, or fish for fishing, and acts as guide to those pursuing them.
RSPB Dearne Valley Old Moor is an 89-hectare (220-acre) wetlands nature reserve in the Dearne Valley near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It lies on the junction of the A633 and A6195 roads and is bordered by the Trans Pennine Trail long-distance path. Following the end of coal mining locally, the Dearne Valley had become a derelict post-industrial area, and the removal of soil to cover an adjacent polluted site enabled the creation of the wetlands at Old Moor.
Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. Wildlife management can include wildlife conservation, gamekeeping and pest control. Wildlife management draws on disciplines such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, ecology, climatology and geography to gain the best results.
Ham Wall is an English wetland National Nature Reserve (NNR) 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Since the last Ice Age, decomposing plants in the marshes of the Brue valley in Somerset have accumulated as deep layers of peat that were commercially exploited on a large scale in the twentieth century. Consumer demand eventually declined, and in 1994 the landowners, Fisons, gave their old workings to what is now Natural England, who passed the management of the 260 hectares Ham Wall section to the RSPB.
The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an internationally important protected area in Norfolk, England. The SSSI is a long, narrow strip of coastal land that starts between Old Hunstanton and Holme-next-the-Sea, and runs east for about 43 km (27 mi) to Kelling. The southern boundary runs roughly west to east except where it detours around towns and villages, and never crosses the A149 coast road. It has an area of 7,700 ha (19,027 acres), and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Scolt Head Island and the coast from the Holkham National Nature Reserve to Salthouse are a Biosphere Reserve.
Margaretta "Etta" Louisa Lemon was an English bird conservationist and a founding member of what is now the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). She was born into an evangelical Christian family in Kent, and after her father's death she increasingly campaigned against the use of plumage in hatmaking which had led to billions of birds being killed for their feathers. She founded the Fur, Fin and Feather Folk with Eliza Phillips in Croydon in 1889, which two years later merged with Emily Williamson's Manchester-based Society for the Protection of Birds (SPB), also founded in 1889. The new organisation adopted the SPB title, and the constitution for the merged society was written by Frank Lemon, who became its legal adviser. Etta married Frank Lemon in 1892, and as Mrs Lemon she became the first honorary secretary of the SPB, a post she kept until 1904, when the society became the RSPB.
Dingle Marshes is a 93-hectare (230-acre) wildlife reserve on the North Sea coast of the English county of Suffolk. The reserve is located between Dunwich and Walberswick, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Southwold. The marshes make up part of the Suffolk Coast National Nature Reserve along with reserves at Walberswick and Hen Reedbeds. They are owned jointly by the RSPB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust and are managed by these two organisations and Natural England. The site is in the Dunwich Heaths and Marshes Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, the Minsmere-Walberswick Ramsar internationally important wetland site, the Minsmere to Walberswick Heaths and Marshes Special Area of Conservation, and the Minsmere-Walberswick Special Protection Area under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.
Emily Williamson, was an English philanthropist. She was co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) with Eliza Phillips in 1891. The society started as the Plumage League; it became the Society for the Protection of Birds, and was granted 'Royal' status in 1904. In 1891 she also established the Gentlewomen's Employment Association in Manchester.
Eliza Phillips was an English animal welfare activist and co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She was the RSPB's vice president and publications editor.
Wildlife law in England and Wales is the law relating to the protection of wildlife in England and Wales. Much of existing UK law dates from pre-Victorian times. Wildlife was viewed as a resource to be used; phrases such as "game" or "sporting rights" appear. Public opinion is now much more in favour of protection of birds and mammals rather than the landowners’ interests.
Stephen "Steve" J. OrmerodFCIEEM, is a professor of ecology and former Chair of the Council of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Europe's largest wildlife conservation charity.
The Selborne Society or Selborne League is Britain's oldest national conservation organization and a registered charity. It was formed in November 1885 to "perpetuate the name and interests of Gilbert White, the Naturalist of Selborne", and followed the philosophy of observation rather than collection. Its object was the preservation of birds, plants and pleasant places.
The Mongolian Ornithological Society), was founded in 1999 in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. It is non-profit environmental organisation dedicated to the research and conservation of birds and their habitats, and also other wildlife in Mongolia. It publishes a peer-reviewed annual scientific journal, Ornis Mongolica, and other bird-related books, guidebooks and papers on bird research works and conservation activities in Mongolia and other countries. The Society raises funds for conservation and educational activities by arranging bird watching and wildlife tours to different parts of Mongolia. The society puts great emphasis on educating young researchers and raising public awareness on conservation. Its board members consist of well-known ornithologists, biologists and ecologists from Mongolia and other countries. In collaboration with the Ornithological Laboratory at the National University of Mongolia, a total of more than 30 scientific theses by bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. students have been supervised by members of the society.
Forsinard Flows is a national nature reserve (NNR) covering much of the area surrounding Forsinard in the Highland council area of Scotland. It lies at the heart of the Flow Country, a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland that makes up almost 5% of the world's blanket bog. The reserve is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and is designated a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Much of the NNR overlaps with the designated area of the Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation.
Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury and Feminism – Women's Fight for Change is a 2018 book by Tessa Boase about Etta Lemon and her campaign against the use of feathers in millinery which led to the foundation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This campaign is compared and contrasted to Emmeline Pankhurst's campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, which it pre-dated. Ironically Etta Lemon was an anti-suffragist and anti-feminist.
Catherine Victoria Hall was an English animal welfare activist. She was a co-founder and the first treasurer of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She was also a supporter of the Women's Police Service and a pioneer of the Homes of Rest for Horses and Dogs at Battersea.
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£157.7 million GBP (2022)
