Nature's Voice

The Rio+20 Earth Summit in late June will focus on sustainable development. In this episode of Nature's Voice we look at the RSPB's work in the Gola Rainforest of Sierra Leone which employs local people to conserve the forest while improving their lives. It's an illustration of sustainable development at work and we investigate a project in the forest to electronically tag one of the elusive and endangered pygmy hippos who live there. The task is to gather vital information to help them survive....but first they have to catch one.

Chris Packham and the BBC Springwatch team return to the RSPB's Ynys-hir reserve at the end of May. On this month's Nature's Voice (our 60th edition) Jane Markham finds out how the preparations are going from the warden there, Russell Jones, and catches up with TV presenter Iolo Williams whose knowledge of wildlife in Wales is second to none. We also preview Make Your Nature Count - the RSPB's summer survey with ambitions to rival the Big Garden Birdwatch!

After one of the wettest Aprils on record East Anglia, the South East, parts of Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South West are still officially in drought. In this edition of Nature's Voice Jane Markham talks to the RSPB's Andre Farrar about why this rain hasn't eased the drought, what it means for wildlife and how water shortages could be avoided in future. Plus there are some ideas of how you can step up for nature by saving water.

The Big Garden Birdwatch results have been published and although starlings remain the second most commonly spotted bird in our gardens there has been a further worrying decline in their numbers. Their population is down 79 per cent since the first Big Garden Birdwatch in 1979. In this episode of Nature’s Voice Jane Markham talks to RSPB scientist Dave Buckingham about why this might be happening and to Liberty Smith – one of the film makers behind a phenomenally successful YouTube video recording their chance encounter with a dramatic murmuration of starlings while they were canoeing in Ireland.

Proposals to build an airport on the north Kent marshes are in the news once again. In this episode of Nature's Voice the RSPB's Rolf Williams, who is based at RSPB Northward Hill, talks to local people about what a new transport hub on the Thames Estuary would mean for them. The marshes are a wetland habitat that is recognised as being of international importance for wildlife and we hear the RSPB conservation director Martin Harper's response in the light of previous threats to the area. There are also details about how you can make your voice heard about the plans.

Which bird's call sounds like a bored football fan chanting United, United, United - and is one of the newest arrivals in the UK to feature in the Big Garden Birdwatch top ten? This edition of Nature's Voice will have the answer to that. Plus Jane Markham talks to RSPB staff in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales on the look out for regional variations and interests when it comes to this year's count. These range from the flashy goldfinch to the chubby nuthatch.

In this, extended edition, of Nature's Voice we look ahead to 2012. With gloomy predictions for the state of the economy we discuss at the implications for the environment. We're also tying up some of the loose ends from 2011. Did the spoon-billed sandpiper chicks make it to the UK? When will the government honour its promise to create protected areas at sea and who won the Nature of Farming Awards? Jane Markham is joined at RSPB headquarters by Andre Farrar, Sharon Thompson and Kathryn Smith to provide some answers.

India's vulture population has been devastated over the last 20 years. Ninety nine per cent of one species has been wiped out. We look at why this has happened and, four years after we first featured the subject on the Nature's Voice podcast, we chart progress towards bringing them back from the brink of extinction. Jane Markham also talks to the head of the RSPB's tropical forest unit about the continuing loss of rain forests around the world and initiatives to make the trees more valuable standing than they are as logs. Plus stepping up for nature by investing in solar panels for our homes.

Dave Lamb, of Come Dine with Me fame, lends his voice to this year's RSPB Feed the Birds Day. On this month's podcast we look at some innovative ways of feeding our garden birds as halloween approaches and talk to some Nature's Voice Facebookers about how they look after the birds and other wildlife in their gardens. Plus details of how you can win a fabulous Feed the Birds Day kit including a nest box, bird feeders, seed, a pocket book of birds and a cuddly toy!

The spoon-billed sandpiper is in danger of becoming extinct. The population of this tiny and charming wading bird is crashing by more than a quarter each year. There are now fewer than 300 birds left. They've never been bred in captivity before but because they are so endangered an urgent rescue operation was started earlier this year. 20 eggs were collected from some of the few remaining pairs on their breeding grounds in Russia. This is the story so far of a remarkable project to save a species and the educational work the RSPB is doing in China - one of their most important wintering grounds - to protect the coastal mudflats it needs to survive.