Breeding Waders: How did it come to this?

I think its safe to say that the UK as a country has one of the best networks of biological recording and species based surveys anywhere in the world. Compared to many other countries we have a pretty good idea of how species and habitats are faring on our little island. This of course begs the question, how did we let breeding farmland waders decline to the point where they are hanging on by a thread and local extinctions are happening?

There is no clear cut answer here, a whole rage of factors have at some point had there part to play. We have known about the decline of many wading birds for several decades now and the causes have also been understood for sometime (i.e. changing agricultural practices and fragmentation of remaining habitat). But why hasn't this knowledge translated into action? Well, in my humble opinion it seems to be that action is being taken, but only on a very local scale. Within Wiltshire several organisations have been carrying out surveys of breeding waders on there land and noting a decline but this hasn't been taken further to establish a countywide population trend or action plan. This mirrors the national picture where people have failed to join up all the dots and realise the seriousness of the situation.

Now we could spend time trying to point fingers and apportion blame, but I think that such actions are pointless and cause division when what we really need is to be untied. We simply don't have the time to waste right now. Everyone needs to work together, whether they are a land owner, part of a conservation organisation or a member of the public. Wiltshire's breeding waders are on a knife edge. Its now or never........