Cortes promotes swift nest protection in Brussels

The Minister for the Environment, Dr John Cortes, promoted Gibraltar’s approach to protecting swifts during meetings in Brussels last week, as campaigners seek to make the provision of nesting sites a requirement in European law.

Dr Cortes discussed the initiative with German Green MEP Jutta Paulus and Hazel Cameron and Miranda McIntosh of the Scottish Mission to the EU.

The Government said swifts were vulnerable across Europe because modern building techniques were replacing traditional nesting sites on roofs.

Gibraltar introduced planning conditions requiring nesting sites in new buildings and re-roofing projects decades ago, following an initiative by the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society when Dr Cortes was its general secretary.

A UK campaign led by author Hannah Bourne-Taylor, which Dr Cortes supports, has so far secured a legal requirement only in Scotland, where the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of mandatory swift brick provision.

Campaigners are now seeking to extend nesting requirements to European law, with Dr Cortes using his Brussels visit to discuss how to advance the proposal.

“Providing swift nests in buildings has been proven, in Gibraltar, to halt the decline in the species, and actually create new colonies,” Dr Cortes said.

“I will continue to work with Hannah and other campaigners to promote this simple, inexpensive, measure, in Europe and the rest of the UK”.

The meetings took place during a visit in which Dr Cortes also explained Gibraltar’s environmental work to MEPs and reiterated the environmental guarantees contained in the UK/EU treaty.