Action must be taken to reverse the decline in farmland birds which have seen a 7% decrease in numbers since 2015, according to the UK Forestry Statistics published today.

Danielle Dewe, Chief Executive of the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT), said: “It is concerning to read that farmland birds have declined since 2015, alongside woodland birds. We need an approach to agriculture that unites farming and wildlife, so that we have productive and profitable farms that also help to reverse the precipitous decline in British biodiversity.”

Dewe concluded: “The CRT has seen a positive response to the regenerative farming practices that it encourages on its farms. For example, Lapwings returned to the CRT’s Lark Rise Farm in Cambridgeshire this year, after an almost twenty-year hiatus. This is in response to efforts to run a mixed farm, and to taking steps to allow their habitats to remain. CRT Chair Nicholas Watts was also recently celebrated for raising £2 million for conservation charities through sales of his birdseed. If we tweak our farming practices, wildlife will be restored.”