Ian Danby, BASC’s head of biodiversity, considers the RSPB’s announcement today about its year-long review of shooting.
At last year’s AGM, the RSPB said it would review its policy on shooting and today it announced its verdict.
Their response to the review marks a substantial shift, to a much more aggressive set of ‘conservation’ policies, with actions and deadlines for shooting which it says will lead to them calling for bans or greater regulation if not met.
The RSPB says they are redoubling their efforts for licensing for driven grouse shoots in the hope they can be held accountable to environmental standards or loose the right to operate. The charity also says it wants to stop the illegal persecution of birds of prey in and around land associated with grouse shooting, the use of lead ammunition and the management practice of burning. If this fails, when they review their policy in 2025, they’ll call for a ban on driven grouse shooting.
BASC has a clear position that we are opposed to shoot licencing because we believe shooting is already regulated appropriately and to go further than that would represent a disproportionate burden to shoots. There is also no evidence it would work.
But in many other ways, BASC and other responsible rural organisations may not be too far away from what the RSPB wants to see.
We are all entirely opposed to raptor persecution. We have publicly and forcefully said as much on many occasions, not least of which was the announcement of our ‘zero tolerance’ position on raptor persecution.
We work hard with police and government – as well as the shooting community – as we all strive to bring it to an end. And we have seen some success. We’ve had a record-breaking year of breeding hen harriers across England and significant increases in breeding birds of prey in the Peak District. Positive progress is being made.
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Posted On: 12/10/2020