RSPB Bird Crime report for 2018 published

The excellent annual RSPB Bird Crime report is published for 2018. 2018 seems a long time ago now that we hear of raptor persecution incidents in what sometimes approaches real time. Having a review of the problem to hand is very valuable – particularly if it can be used to bring about significant action from politicians.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species and Land Management for RSPB in Scotland said;

Birds of prey are an integral part of Scotland’s heritage, woven into our landscapes and our history. We have international obligations to protect these birds. There is widespread revulsion amongst the Scottish public that these birds continue to suffer greatly at the hands of wildlife criminals. Our published data from Birdcrime 2018 shows that this damage is both current and significant, and reinforces why robust regulation of driven grouse shooting is urgently needed.
The Scottish Government has led the way in the UK by commissioning an independent review into the impacts of driven grouse shooting. This is a seminal moment and a chance for Scottish Government to tackle raptor crime by bringing grouse moor management under regulation, and giving greater recognition to the public interest in the way such sporting estates are managed. Sanctions to remove licences to shoot should be available to act as a strong deterrent to those who currently break wildlife protection laws, and engage in other damaging land management practices. 

Mark Thomas, RSPB Head of Investigations UK said:

The illegal and widespread killing of birds of prey has gone on for too long. Current legislation and sentences are proving woefully inadequate and offering absolutely no deterrent to those who want to see birds of prey eradicated from our hills. 
Urgent and meaningful change is needed to the way our uplands are managed, to put an end once and for all to illegal killing and bring back biodiversity to these landscapes. Enough is enough.

Martin Harper, RSPB Conservation Director said:

Any industry which includes criminal and environmentally damaging practices needs reform.  The driven grouse shooting industry has, despite decades of warnings, failed to put its house in order – most shockingly turning a blind eye to the ongoing illegal persecution of birds of prey.   Given we face a climate and ecological emergency, we believe it is time for governments to intervene. A first step should be, as is happening in Scotland, independent reviews of driven grouse shooting for the rest of the UK. Ultimately, the RSPB believes that change will only come through regulation.

Asking for a review of driven grouse shooting in England is all a bit pathetic. When the RSPB states that driven grouse shooting includes criminal practices it should actually be saying that this industry depends on wildlife crime. Without widespread wildlife crime on grouse moors across the UK, driven grouse shooting would not be viable – it really is as simple as that. We know that. And we really don’t need a government review of grouse shooting to take up more time to discover that. Why has the RSPB not fully internalised the science of the subject and adopted a strong campaigning mode as it would have done in the past? After ‘decades of warnings’ (almost all of them from the RSPB) all the RSPB wants is a review? Really? I don’t think that the campaigners who set up the RSPB and got rid of the plumage trade in 30 years would be very impressed. They would not be calling for a government review after ‘decades of warnings’.

All three of the quotes above recognise that the management practices on which driven grouse shooting depends are damaging, unsustainable and reduce biodiversity. So we need a step-change not a slightly better regulated form of the same thing. We don’t need a softer form of driven grouse shooting we need a replacement for driven grouse shooting. And that replacement can be a mixture of land uses, including walked up shooting, rewilding and nature conservation as a primary purpose.

RSPB sees that driven grouse shooting is unsustainable and dependent on wildlife crime and yet its solution is for this land use to be slightly better regulated. Not good enough and not realistic, and quite frankly letting government off the hook.

For a real solution to the problems that RSPB and others have identified, which goes to the heart of the problem, we need an end to driven grouse shooting. And already over 80,000 people are calling for an end to driven grouse shooting (many of them will be RSPB members).

Please sign this e-petition by Chris Packham calling for a ban of driven grouse shooting.

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