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
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