Mark Avery: RSPB doesn’t know its subject very well
Wildlife advocate turns his guns on his former employer, questioning its future and suggesting the revered charity is now in ‘serious decline’.
Former conservation director for the RSPB, Mark Avery, has publicly reiterated that the charity could be in “serious decline”.
Over the past 12 months, the charity has faced mounting criticism from rural groups for “ransoming the future” of key bird species, using jargon to hide “fundamental conservation failures” and receiving “unjustified grants”.
In addition to these accusations, the charity — which turns over £160million per year and employs 2,200 people — has faced staffing and spending reviews, closed numerous RSPB shops and is looking to sell off a number of its smaller reserves.
In light of these issues and others, Dr Avery, who is also the co-founder of the anti-shooting campaign group Wild Justice, has questioned the value of membership to the organisation.
Dr Avery, who worked for Britain’s largest nature charity for more than 25 years, said that despite his long association with the organisation, it was with “puzzlement as well as sorrow” that he found himself wondering whether the RSPB was, as he put it, in serious decline.
In Dr Avery’s open letter, which first appeared in Birdwatch magazine, he says it appears to him that “RSPB communications are no longer written, checked or approved by people with much bird or conservation expertise”.
Dr Avery also echoed the criticism from rural lobby group, Campaign 4 the Protection of Moorland Communities (C4PMC) that there “is a lot of management speak and emotive language” in RSPB press releases and communications, “but not much about conservation and far too many factual errors which suggest that the RSPB doesn’t know its subject very well”.
The letter cites feedback from RSPB staff saying many of them feel “undervalued, kept in the dark and ignored.”
Dr Avery encourages those who give money to conservation charities to view memberships, donations and legacies as investments in nature conservation. He advises members of the public to donate where they believe their money will produce the most wildlife.
He concludes: “I have always unhesitatingly recommended RSPB membership; now, I’m less convinced. It’s up to the RSPB to convince us all that they are a blue-chip conservation stock that deserves our investment.”
RSPB council chairman Sir Andrew Cahn has responded to a number of specific queries from Mark Avery and he referred us to them on Dr Avery’s website (markavery.info). Shooting Times has also approached Dr Avery for further comment.
