The government has used the publication of the latest iteration of the Land Use Framework report to announce it is exploring “wider measures such as licensing and any associated conditions for recreational gamebird shooting and release, going beyond current approaches which only apply on or near European protected sites”.
While GWCT welcomes the government’s stated desire “to transition to the highest standards of practice being consistently applied for upland and lowland shooting”, it is concerned that, if applied in the wrong way, licensing could be used to significantly restrict or prohibit gamebird releasing to the detriment of wildlife, local communities and the wider countryside.
Dr Roger Draycott, GWCT’s Director of Advisory, said: “GWCT supports improving standards and encouraging best practice that ensures a biodiversity net gain. However, licensing can be used to restrict beneficial game management activities, leading to negative environmental outcomes, just like we are starting to see in some Special Protection Areas following Natural England’s narrow approach to gamebird release licensing. Activities like habitat creation, feeding and predation management are intrinsically linked with gamebird releasing and can provide significant benefits for many species of conservation concern – often at the landscape scale. These activities, usually privately funded, could be put at risk via a restrictive licensing regime.
“As the UK’s leading authority on the environmental impacts of gamebird management, GWCT is uniquely placed to contribute to the proposed evidence review. Long-term research by the Trust in this field has produced extensive peer-reviewed science, which demonstrates significant biodiversity net gain and red-listed species recovery resulting from best practice gamebird management, which is adapted to work alongside food production delivering the multiple outcomes that the LUF seeks.”
To read the Land Use Framework report in full, visit this website.