The voluntary approach of the Hen Harrier Action Plan has failed, leaving licensing as the only viable option.
I’m generally very patient. My natural preference is to build partnerships and work to make positive change from the inside with those who want to abide by the law and deliver progress.
However, sometimes that approach simply doesn’t work and there can be no clearer example of that right now than hen harriers, where illegal killing of this rare bird remains its most significant threat.
The RSPB played a full part in the production of Defra’s Hen Harrier Action Plan and despite disagreeing with certain points (notably brood management), welcomed its publication earlier this year. However, at the time, I noted the need for immediate progress to help build trust in the approach.
Unfortunately this has not happened.
Image courtesy of Shay Connolly
In 2015, we were all extremely frustrated by there being just six successful hen harrier nests from 12 attempts in England. 2016 is on course to be much worse, with only three nests at the time of writing, none of which are on grouse moors.
Some will argue that the weather or vole population is to blame, however, early returns from the national hen harrier survey suggest numbers away from intensively managed grouse moors in north and west Scotland have done ok. We remain convinced that the primary reason for the hen harrier‘s continuing scarcity remains illegal killing.
Simply put, hen harriers (and other birds of prey) are illegally killed on some estates because they eat grouse. Crimes are committed to increase the number of grouse that can be shot. This year, there have been a series of depressingly predictable incidents in England and Scotland, the disappearance of the hen harriers ‘Chance’ and ‘Highlander’, the use of pole traps and the hen harrier decoy in the Peak District. And as well as hen harriers, it has also been a really bad year for red kites in North and West Yorkshire with several suspicious deaths. In addition, there are more cases working their way through the legal system.
All of this adds up to a picture which shows that the commitments made in the Hen Harrier Action Plan are not being delivered. People are still breaking the law and not enough is being done within the grouse shooting community to effect change.
Some will argue that we should be more patient as behavioural change takes time. But the hen harrier does not have time on its side and the longer hen harriers remain on the brink, the greater public antipathy towards intensive grouse shooting will become.
Hen harriers and other birds of prey in our uplands will not recover without a completely different approach.
We have therefore decided to withdraw our support from Defra’s Hen Harrier Action Plan.
We have come to this conclusion because we believe that reform to protect the hen harrier will only come through licensing of driven grouse shooting where, for example, crimes committed on estates managed for shooting should result in the withdrawal of their right to operate.
A licensing system isn’t about tarring everyone with the same brush, or blaming a whole community for the actions of the few. Quite the opposite: it is effectively a targeted ban that will stamp out illegal activity and drive up the environmental standards of shooting.
Law abiding estates have nothing to fear from this system and, indeed, I believe that it is in their own interests to champion such an approach. We believe that this is the only way to deliver a significant shift in attitudes and potentially secure a future for their sport. Licensing systems appear to work well in most other European countries, so why not here as well?
We fully support the current petition in Scotland and we would like to reinvigorate the call for Defra to introduce licensing in England too.
Of course, we will continue to work on the ground with our partners, especially raptor workers (who monitor and protect birds of prey), landowners who wish to see a progressive future, local people and the police to provide the most effective possible year round protection.
My preference is always for the partnership approach, but partnership requires action from both sides. In this case, that has failed. When shooting organisations are either unable or unwilling to lead the necessary change to rein in illegal activity, then reform must be delivered from outside. That is what we will now seek to do though promoting licensing.
I fully expect our critics (such as the grouse industry funded You Forgot The Birds) to push out a wearyingly predictable series of attacks on the RSPB in coming weeks. I can only imagine that this is designed to divert attention from criminal activity on some intensive grouse moors. But this won't shake our resolve to seek change.
An early opportunity to talk more about all of this will be at the Hen Harrier Day events. I’ll be at the Hen Harrier Day North East event at the RSPB's Saltholme reserve on Sunday 7 August, while my boss Mike Clarke will be at the event at Rainham Marshes on Saturday 6 August. Other RSPB representatives will be at various of the other events too. I hope to see many of you there and hopefully many more will be able to attend other events across the country.
Together, we can and will save our hen harriers.
Many thanks for all your comments - whether your preference is to work through the HHAP process, through licensing or through a ban. I look forward to continuing the conversation in the run up to Hen Harrier Day.
Well done Martin, a very good first step ! You do know what the next step is of course - support and encourage the membership to support the Petition to Ban Driven Grouse Shooting.
Martin
As you know I am an independent voice seeking common ground on an matter lodged in a conflict fermenting for generations. My blog for you sets this out here for Steve J et al www.rspb.org.uk/.../bird-crime-a-shooters-view-draft-27-1-guest-blog-for-martin-harper.aspx
I assume that the RSPB is continuing nest watching and tagging - all vital elements of the HH Action plan.
The only body that can lead us all together out of this is the government using third party facilitators skilled in reconciling differences of those wishing to find a solution. A tough journey for those that do www.thefield.co.uk/.../conservation-conflict-ending-conflict-32001 An impossible one for those that don't.
Please don't be the latter.
Best
www.robyorke.co.uk
Steve J (whoever you may be),
You seem to be labouring under the misconception that I am in some way speaking for a ‘game shooting constituency’ or ‘grouse moor managers’ – your phrases, not mine. As I have never knowingly met with you in any way shape or form, I’m not sure why that should be the case, so let me make it crystal clear for you - I am commenting here in my capacity as an individual RSPB member and volunteer in response to this blog posting by my Society’s Conservation Director. I do not shoot and have never shot, nor managed or otherwise worked on a grouse moor. I am a lifelong bird watcher, photographer, and wader, bird-of-prey, seabird, songbird, wetland bird and waterfowl enthusiast. I spend as much time as I can in the uplands, both in UK and abroad, monitoring, watching and photographing the special birds that live there, and have done so since I was a youngster.
You say you genuinely welcome my inputs - and hope they will continue - on one of the blogs of a Society of which my wife and I are long-standing, fully paid-up members and for whom I volunteer in my spare time. Very generous of you!
You then go on to imply that I in some way condone persecution of birds-of-prey. Let me also clear up that further and grossly offensive misconception for you. I do not. I condemn all wildlife crime and unlike many key-board warriors have taken direct action against it over the years. I have taken direct action against bird trapping in Scotland, Malta and Cyprus, helped the Northern Constabulary secure a conviction against wild-life criminals (by recognising, recording and reporting their crime – some 27 years before BAWC reinvented the concept) and only last year was furnishing the Police Service of Scotland and SASA with a report, photos and samples of a dead bird-of-prey found on the Scottish uplands (as no-one was prepared to accompany to the site!). So, stop trying to denigrate me, undermine my credibility and falsely accuse me of holding views that I do not. This sort of on-line, false accusation and low level harassment has no place on our Society’s website and blogs. Desist. If you want to know my views, then post your full name and contact details here and I will tell you them, one-to-one, so that you don’t have to invent them in a form that suits your peculiar world model and prejudices.
You then go on to ask me why ‘….the Hawk & Owl Trust, GWCT, BASC etc etc are not vigorously campaigning to end persecution…’ and accuse them of not showing genuine commitment to the HHAP. Why are you asking me? Ask them. All I would observe is that the people I have met from those organisations are all honourable and thoroughly decent individuals who as far as I know condemn wildlife crime as much as I do. You again do yourself no credit by impugning their motives and casting aspersions on their commitment. My advice - get out and speak to these people and canvass their views face-to-face, instead of attempting to disparage them here on-line.
Finally, the reason why I feel that it was very premature for my Society to withdraw its support from the HHAP is that when a body signs up to a long-term plan, you have to give it time to produce results after plan implementation, before analysing progress and making any decisions as to the way ahead. The normal planning and action process goes like this – plan production; plan implementation; review of plan implementation results; plan modification; modified plan implementation; review of modified plan implementation results…..and so on in an iterative fashion until the desired goal is achieved. Species’ recovery plans normally take years to come to fruition, witness the recovery of the marsh harrier, the recolonization of UK by the osprey, the reintroductions of the red kite and white-tailed eagle and so on. To give up after only 6 months, before the 1st breeding season is complete and before a major pillar of the plan has even been attempted – the south-western England reintroduction – is not only very puzzling, but also calls into question our own commitment to seeing the Plan through to completion. It would be interesting to know what ‘Measures of Success’ - and their associated timelines - that we were working to.
I couldn't agree more with this, Martin. This target shooter would like to see every last one of our native raptors (and corvids!) to fly without fear of being selfishly removed by people whose only interest is getting to kill more grouse themselves.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.