GWCT News Blog

If we are to reverse the ‘relentless’ wildlife declines we are witnessing, we need a fresh approach (UK biodiversity targets missed as funding and species decline, 16 October). Public sector spending on conservation is crucial but will never fulfil its potential without inspiring those who are already making a real change.

When it comes to researching the environmental impacts of game shooting, Britain leads the world. However, it’s bizarre that staff at the RSPB decided to use a review process that accentuates the negatives and minimises the positives in order to produce their doom-laden conclusions. 

With nature in trouble it’s eminently sensible that we all remain objective and work together. Our response to  'game shooters fear for their sport as RSPB chiefs take aim' recently featured in The Times.

Kirklees Council will be interested to hear that our knowledge of the role heather burning plays in peatland restoration has progressed significantly since the Committee on Climate Change suggested it should cease.

The intention of Boris Johnson and other UN leaders to reverse biodiversity loss should be lauded, but designation alone is not the answer.

With lessons from Australia and California about the unintended consequences of preventing controlled winter fires to reduce fuel load, we may need to be far more proactive in preventative burning than we have been in the past, as the likelihood of summer wildfires is increasing.

Those accusing the government of dishonesty might reflect on their own actions first. The continued reliance on legal protection has failed some species, such as the declining hedgehog population because this ignores the fact that the badger population, which is killing and eating them, is rising.

When it comes to researching the environmental impacts of game shooting, Britain leads the world. This has largely been achieved by those that shoot funding ecological studies, including the hundreds of scientific papers published by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.