Global warming threatens RSPB marsh

19 August 1999

Global warming threatens RSPB marsh

A DECISION by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to buy a marshland area on the East Anglian coast is being questioned by one of the regions farmers in the light of a new report by the society warning that large areas of coastal habitat will be lost as a result of global warming.

The RSPB purchased Dingle Marshes on the Suffolk coast last year following a public appeal for £1 million.

This week it released a report, Coast in Crisis, suggesting that large areas of East Anglias coastal habitat, including grazing marshes, are in danger of being lost as a result of sea level rise and increased coastal erosion.

One of the areas it highlighted for risk of habitat loss was the Orwell Estuary, near Ipswich.

However, Michael Packard, who grazes beef cattle on 40.5ha (100 acres) of wildlife-rich marsh beside the estuary, claims Dingle Marshes are more likely to be lost to the sea.

“The sea wall protecting my land is now three or four feet thicker and a foot higher than it was at the time of the 1953 floods and, if it is looked after, it should last another 50 years,” he said.

Mr Packard, the third generation of his family to farm at Over Hall, Shotley, and a member of the RSPB, said: “If the sea ever breaks through here it will certainly invade Dingle Marshes, which are only protected by a narrow shingle bank.”

He endorses the importance the RSPB places in with coastal habitat but believes it should not have spent £1m on Dingle Marshes if it wanted its new warning about global warming to be taken seriously.