Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to protect the red-listed curlew; and if he will meet the Southern Curlew Forum to assist in the monitoring and conservation of remaining breeding birds in lowland England.

The England network of 87 classified special protection areas, covering approximately 1.5 million hectares of key habitats, protects many rare, threatened and vulnerable birds including curlews.

Natural England is working with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on a recovery programme aimed at providing a coordinated approach to the management of curlew habitats to increase breeding numbers. This forms part of an international action plan to address curlew decline, which the UK supports as a signatory of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement.

The Government’s agri-environment schemes have been designed to encourage habitat management. This includes providing suitable nesting and foraging conditions for wading birds such as curlew.