For many years the RSPB enjoyed a collaborative relationship with many farms and landowners across East Anglia. RSPB staff were welcomed across much of the farmland around the Norfolk-Suffolk border as part of a project to protect rare stone curlews, which still boast a strong population in the area.
But then everything changed when the RSPB took a significant shift in their previous neutral, and in some instances, favourable, stance on shooting and farming practices.
It transpired the RSPB had been using the data they had been invited to collect on the stone curlews to fulfil other objectives, including leaking it to other organisations to impact farming designation processes without the consent of the farmers or landowners.
One local farm manager, who had been willing to let the RSPB on to private land initially, was appalled by the duplicity of the charity. He told Farmers Weekly: "What is happening in this area is conservation politics, which has nothing to do with practical conservation."
This led to private landowners and farmer banning access of all RSPB staff. The RSPB’s Rob Lucking said at the time ‘he was saddened by the decision’.
Stone Curlew populations across East Anglia have continued flourish, without the need of any RSPB involvement.