I was pleased to hear today that Natural England have rejected a licence applications to trap and shoot 10 buzzards to protect young pheasants. I understand that the applicant had failed to meet key tests which state...
...all other reasonable non-lethal solutions have been tried and/or shown to be ineffective
...there is a genuine problem/need
...there are no satisfactory alternatives
...the licensed action will be effective at resolving the problem and the action is appropriate to the problem.
NE should not have been put in this position.
Defra should have provided clearer guidance to rule out licensed control birds of prey to protect non-native reared gamebirds.
And the gamekeeping industry should instead have focused on finding ways to live alongside buzzards and invest in protecting their poults without resorting the lethal control. As I have written previously (see here), for any industry to be seen as genuinely sustainable it must ultimately be prepared to change the business model if the current model depends on environmental destruction.
I'd go further and say that unless we get closure on this issue then it will be like an open sore with every new application renewing tension between the shooting and conservation communities.
Neither side wants this - it is a draining distraction. We should move on and work together to address the crisis facing our natural environment.
Finally, many thanks to those of you that tweeted your concerns on this issue. Why not tweet back to say ‘well done NE for standing up for buzzards’.
Well done Natural England ! This is the right decision and you have my support - and appreciation. I very much agree with Martin that the impact on shooting's reputation has been out of all proportion to the scale of the licenses applied for.