Buglife and ten other wildlife organisations have united together through Wildlife and Countryside Link to urge the public to apply pressure on their MEPs to vote for farming that supports nature.
8 March 2013
Over 40,000 people have already sent a message to their MEPs
Miles King, Buglife Policy Director said “Intensive farming dominates Britain’s countryside and depends on artificial fertilisers and pesticides, as well as land drainage and water abstraction. These make our countryside very inhospitable for bugs even though many crops depend on wild pollinators like moths and bees.”
“This is the first time that our elected MEPs can influence the Common Agricultural Policy which spends nearly half the EU budget. Please use our e-action to let them know you want them to vote for a CAP which pays farmers to protect bees, beetles and bugs and their habitats. “
The wildlife organisations are asking Members of the European Parliament to vote to:
1.Ensure all farmers and land managers undertake ‘greening’ measures that will help protect and restore nature in return for direct payments from the CAP
2.Reject double subsidies where a farmer or land manager would be paid twice for the same activity, to ensure that public money is not wasted
3.Ensure farmers and land managers have to comply with all relevant EU environmental and animal welfare regulations in order to receive their CAP payments, such as the Water Framework Directive which ensures our rivers are clean and healthy.
4.Provide dedicated support for nature-friendly farmers and land managers
It is the first time that the 73 MEPs in the UK will vote on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU-wide system of payments to farmers and land managers worth over £3 billion a year in the UK.
This action is supported by the following organisations:
•Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
•Bat Conservation Trust
•Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust
•Butterfly Conservation
•Bumblebee Conservation Trust
•The Mammal Society
•Plantlife
•Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
•Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
•Salmon and Trout Association
•The Wildlife Trusts
These organisations work together on this action across the UK through the Joint Links group.
