Destructive greed

THIS week figures showed that farmland bird populations in Ireland and across Europe are at their lowest levels since records began.

These figures are the result of two decades of research and are an indictment of our stewardship of the world around us. It is inevitable that an ever-growing human population will have an increasing impact on animals and habitat but there is much we can do to minimise it. If we adopted practices considered normal in other countries we could do a lot to help wildlife.

All across Scandinavia forestry, once harvested, must be replaced but only at a density that will allow an undergrowth regenerate, therefore offering habitat to a whole range of woodland birds, animals and fauna that cannot survive in our densely planted deserts of sitka spruce.