Cooling Marshes, Kent, 7th December 2014

Friday 1 June 2012

Buzzardgate 2012: Victory (sort of)


What a strange week it’s been. No doubt the main talking point has obviously been Defra’s proposal to manage Buzzard populations in some areas, followed by their subsequent retraction in the face of mounting public pressure on Wednesday (30th) I was quite surprised by the speed of their U-turn but equally so by the passionate response of so many different people and organisations to the original proposal. What a great demonstration of how much people care about our countryside and our native birds and are determined to be heard. While it’s undoubtedly the right decision and ‘we’ should be proud of what was achieved, how much of a victory is it really?

That this situation came to pass in the first place is a worrying sign of Defra’s fallibility especially when handling game industry lobbyists. In withdrawing the proposed trial Richard Benyon, Defra Minister, rightly acknowledges the need to understand raptor-game bird relationships better but still advocates new proposals on the issue. So for Buzzards in those areas where this is a ‘problem’ they can still expect to be the focus of unwanted attention to some degree. I’d like to see research done on the impact of pheasants on the wider environment for a start; that would be of far wider public interest.

But there is still something wilfully naive about all of this. He goes on to state that “the success of conservation measures has seen large increases in the numbers of buzzards and other birds of prey over the last two decades”. There is no doubt this is true but it’s a blinkered way of looking at the issue; it sounds like some rather arrogant reasoning. There have been successes and great work done on raptor conservation, but then we’ve also managed (by and large) to stop poisoning stuff and shooting things enough to allow a natural recovery. It’s like when you read the football stats after a game in the paper; ‘so and so had a 86% successful pass rate and 79% of shots on target’...but when you watched the game all those passes were really just 6 yard squares and those efforts at goal were pea rollers that dribbled into the keepers arms. But enough about Walcott; Benyon, as a grouse moor owner and keen shooter, is aware that there is gaping chasm in the way raptors are treated in this country. It’s not always apparent but it’s there.

One person who wasn’t pleased by the decision was Tim Bonner, campaign director for the Countryside Alliance (Tagline: 'Love the countryside'). In the papers yesterday he thought it was a “sensible and proportionate study” and felt “That the government has chosen to ignore rural people in favour of a large and vocal special interest group shows ministers are now willing to give in to whoever shouts the loudest”. Well rather that than whoever has the most cash eh? ‘Course he has to say all that, but what nonsense. It’s got nothing to do with this idea of 'town vs country'; perpetuating this myth does nothing to help matters and such attitudes represent one of the main stumbling blocks in UK conservation today. 

I’m really pleased that Defra made this call, no one likes admitting they were wrong (even though they haven’t really done that). Let’s hope there’s a lesson learned. If Defra are going to deliver on their impressive looking England Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 and give raptors the proper protection they deserve then we need to see more ambition and leadership than this. Sorry about random football analogy (and sorry Theo, not your fault manager plays you in wrong position) think I’m in withdrawl.

Good Indie article yesterday here

No comments:

Post a Comment