I’d have thought that we must start to hear something about the RSPB’s review of its position on gamebird shooting fairly soon.
If RSPB is to announce something at its AGM in October then that is only three months away and that will require RSPB Council signing off any new position at its August and September committee and Council meetings, I guess.
Who knows what will emerge? This was the Wild Justice contribution to the debate – click here. I think we have to imagine that the recent attacks on a young RSPB member of staff from pro-shooting elements is part of the response from the shooting community, in just the same way that YFTB was set up to influence the RSPB. Quite why being unfairly slagged off in public is supposed to make the RSPB feel more cuddly to shooting is a tactic whose logic escapes me.
The great danger to a hardening of RSPB position is that a few naive Council members use the jaded ‘I’m sure we can sort things out if we sit down and have a sensible chat’ argument. First, this approach has been tried for decades and has failed. It was right to try it but the RSPB has regarded the shooting community as a potential friend for at least a couple of decades whilst it is being treated as a real enemy by the other side. BASC is unreliable, GWCT is now quite nasty, the Moorland Association is a joke (see here, here and here) and it is the shooting community which sets up groups like YFTB and I am guessing C4PMC to attack the RSPB and to put out rubbish that more established groups couldn’t possibly be seen to do.
But the RSPB worries far too much about what the shooting community thinks and says. And, always has done. A consistent campaign of denigration and attack from shooting on the RSPB has blinded the RSPB to the fact that the RSPB loses support from its natural supporters because it looks far too friendly to people whose hobby is blasting birds out of the air, and because the RSPB doesn’t appear to have many strong principles in this area. The current consultation is a good, though very long-winded, attempt to bottom that out but it will need to result in change. After years of looking weak, if the RSPB fails to develop some stronger principles and then act decisively upon them then it will simply lose support from the middle ground and from those philosophically opposed to shooting birds for enjoyment.
We’ll have to see how this plays out over the next three months.
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Good points Mark As I recall it being at last year’s AGM, the announcement that the RSPB intended to review their policy on game bird and driven grouse shooting over the coming year was to identify whether a much stronger approach should be taken. The aim stated was to have a new policy in place which could be approved by members at this year’s AGM.
I gather they have had a strong response from members and other consultees so hopefully we will see a much tougher response from them shortly.
As I understand it they are forbidden by their charter to offer any opinion on the ethics of shooting. (Not me though). However because driven grouse shooting has such a huge negative impact on the moorland environment, ecology and all other wildlife and is the source of a lot of criminality, I would very much hope, and I think we will, see them taking a very robust stance. ( Especially now that we have got those that enjoy shooting our wildlife for fun on the run)
That the RSPB has talked and talked to the “shooting lobby” was seen by some and now many ( including me) should they continue to do it, although it was necessary. I can recall in a previous set of nearly pointless ( pointless because they barely recognised the problems) discussions with various dark side organisations that those discussions were trumpeted as a move forward ” we are talking” they said as if that of itself was a major achievement. Outside those talks (about harriers) a more honest statement from a keeper ” we keep you lot talking whilst we exterminate the problem” and we all know the talks achieved nothing.
We and the sharper on the other side have known since Langholm 1 that DGS is predicated and reliant on the killing of large numbers of protected raptors. One only has to look at the litany on RPUK of reports of poisoned, shot or illegally trapped Hen Harriers, Golden Eagles, Red Kites, Peregrines, Buzzards and all the rest even occasionally Barn Owls, Kestrels or Ospreys to know that this continues. In fact it has to continue for DGS to work, a friend involved in a Curlew study on a grouse moor recently remarked on the complete absence of raptors after a recent visit. That is the problem in a nutshell, huge areas of our countryside with the absence of native protected predators that should be there and equally large areas where their numbers are impoverished.
Then there are all the other associated problems, of routine burning priority habitats, carbon storage, coloured drinking water, downstream flooding, the wider effects of medicated grit , itself of dubious legality, high densities of non- native pheasants eating vulnerable wildlife and trashing habitats.
If the RSPB cannot see this and that continued talking is not the answer, that we need the zeal and drive of those founding ladies to assault these problems, then RSPB is indeed a largely lost cause.
I always wonder how tough it is on the morale of the Investigations Team to know exactly what is happening out there, as they do i.e. which moors, which Owners, which Agents, which keepers, etc are doing the dirty deeds day in and day out…and also to know that most of the time their hierarchy is at best having only mild and measured differences of opinion with those very people over coffee and biscuits. If it were possible to join the RSPB and to indicate that your membership fee is to be given directly to the Investigations side, then I would happily join. I genuinely don’t mean to offend anyone here – but I am sorry to say that school kids being taught to identify Bumblebees (and I do really like Bees) interests me less than the current critical state of the ruination of a whole strata of wildlife across thousands of square miles of the our uplands. But I guess it is just whatever is closest to your heart.
Spaghnum Morose – actually, you can:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/join-and-donate/donate/appeals/birds-of-prey-defenders/
Thanks Kim, will look into that.
The RSPB’s response to this consultation has the potential to be a defining moment in its evolution. Let’s hope it takes the opportunity to adopt a robust stance that reflects the passion of its founders. And of the many members, ex members and non members who share that campaigning spirit and want to see an end to the senseless persecution of our birds of prey.
Paul – I think you are right. Do you think they realise this?
Great question. I hope so. It should be obvious, but the view from the within isn’t always as unclouded as it might be. As the saying goes, ‘You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.’
Paul – that’s a good saying which is new to me – thank you, I will use it as my own from now on.
I have just read a borrowed copy of Autumn 2020 Nature’s Home. No mention at all of any of the issues raised in Mark’s excellent critique. I would have thought that the RSPB would want to engage their membership on this important issue at this time, but not so.
A damp squib is on its way I suspect. Would love to be wrong.
Anyway, apart from their well run reserves as groundbreaking havens for wildlife and their investigations team, the RSPB are in my opinion a spent force. On issues such as raptor persecution illegality and the shooting industry we have all moved on. You get a much bigger bang for your buck with Wild Justice!
From an RSPB announcement 15 May 2019.
‘As the RSPB’s Chief Executive, Beccy will provide the clear vision to drive the development and implementation of a strategy that will successfully deliver the RSPB’s charitable objectives and maximise its mission to save nature.’
‘Commenting on her appointment, Beccy said: “I am really excited about joining the RSPB. The fight to save nature has never been more important and the RSPB is uniquely positioned to make a difference. “
Notice that ‘save nature’ is mentioned in both paragraphs.
That was over a year ago. It may well be a tougher gig than the Woodland Trust, but I’m sure she would have known that. I was hoping for an impact of some sort, not the silence we have had.
Yes the Royals shoot, yes there are MPs that shoot and yes, the RSPB may well upset a few Lords, but Beccy Speight, how many of your members shoot? This is your moment. Take it or move over.
I fear the response will be weak and ineffective. Regrettably and like many well meaning organisation once “corporatists ion” takes hold the focus for the senior management and boards and committees is promoting their own careers and reputations and not rocking the boat as that may impede ones next career move wherever that might be. As long as it can point to it’s successes it can claim to be fulfilling its purpose without upsetting those with the power in this country.
Raptor persecution and developers ignoring/bending rules on breeding birds are really starting to have an impact on the thoughts of Cambs birders, too… theer has been a satissfying increase in th enumber of county birders who ar enow dsaying .. RSPB, what are you doing, NE, what are you doing/is there any point to you….. etc. etc. and several have been saying its time to get behind activist organisations rather than the big NGOs….the mor efolk who start to act liek this, the more the mainstream NGOs will have to take seriously the message being conveyed abotu these problems.
“You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.”
It is indeed a superb saying, and a great way to round off a discussion on a note of authority (and triumph).
Like Mark, I have decided to poach it.
In fact, I have already used it three times.
Life-changing!
As long as Brenda and Stavros et al are keen on shooting, and the RSPB want to keep the “R” in their name, they are never going to come out strongly on gamebirds. I agree the next greatest drag on progress is people trying to be nice and reasonable though, those people are always good allies in dragging out change and talking something down.
That is why so much effort is spent by the ruling classes on promoting the idea of reasonableness and respectability among the lower classes. Keep ’em chasing politeness, reasonableness, etc, and you can run the clock out on changes pretty much forever.
The RSPB’s Investigations teams are of hard grafting, dedicated individuals, paid a pittance, betrayed by an out of touch, well heeled group with dubious loyalty to the cause.
In my experience, the RSPB’s senior staff have never lacked loyalty to the cause. When it comes to raptor persecution they and their trustees have lacked steel and placed too much faith in finding solutions by discussion and consensus, Your description of the Investigations team is spot on.
That’s because they mix in the same circles and depend upon the patronage of the very people who fund shooting and the consequent persecution of raptors and other wildlife.