Birdlife Partner – The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

Founded in 1889, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is the UK’s largest nature conservation charity. It works to restore habitats, recover threatened species, influence environmental policy, and connect people with nature across the UK and internationally. Having previously been a lead partner in the African-Eurasian Flyway initiative, RSPB now provides technical assistance to BirdLife International as a consultant across the project.  

The African-Eurasian Flyway stretches from the Arctic to southern Africa and is one of four major global migration routes for birds. Often described as ‘avian superhighways’, these pathways are traversed by bilions of birds each year, including species like Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, and Sociable Lapwing. But key sites along the flyway are under threat from habitat loss, illegal hunting, and climate change. Losing these places would have serious consequences for the birds that rely on them to rest, refuel, and breed.  

ERF’s support of RSPB is part of their £7.5 million grant to BirdLife International’s African-Eurasian Flyway grant which supports habitat restoration and protection work in Romania, Bulgaria, Iraq, Jordan, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe, alongside efforts to grow nature-based economies and jobs. It will also strengthen rapid-response action against harmful developments and help operationalise the ground-breaking collaboration between BirdLife and the World Bank.