This from the EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries;
Woohoo!
Obviously welcomed by conservationists across Europe.
As I understand it this will include wetlands like blanket bogs and so, if only we were still in the EU, it would include driven grouse shooting. I’m still a Remainer but luckily (ha!ha!) all those Brexiteers like Johnson, Gove and Eustice have sworn blind that we will have higher environmental standards now we aren’t held back by those dullard EU states. So, let’s see even faster progress on this in the UK.
To be serious, if this vote was close, and it was expected to be, one of the best things the UK ver did for the environment might well have been to leave the EU so that the rest of Europe could move on without our government, in the pockets of the shooting industry, dragging back the rest of the continent. Hooray for Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Patel – saviour of EU wetlands!
I’m confident that BASC and others will be moving quickly to ditch lead ammunition and that Natural England will be writing clauses banning lead ammunition use into all SSSI PDO lists.
Or, might DEFRA sit on its hands as it has done with wildlife crime and burning on peatlands because this Conservative administration will quite simply accept any environmental damage from grouse moor managers?
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I think the most likely outcome as far as Defra and NE are concerned is, as you say Mark, in your last paragraph that they will sit on their hands and do nothing for as long as they possibly can. That is there history time and time again. They are hand in glove with the shooters and will accept any environmental destruction, (and there Is a huge amount ) from the grouse moor owners.
Nevertheless this very good news from the EU for our European birds and hopefully this lead ban will soon become total across all habitats. It puts a lot more pressure on Defra and this rotten Government. What a terrible lot they are, fighting as long and as hard as they can to protect their friends, shooting industry. In any decently run country with a decent Government this extreme procrastination would simply not be tolerated.
It may take some time but in the end the U.K. WILL rejoin the EU, once the disaster of leaving it is fully realised.
The driver will surely be economic? Manufacturers of lead ammo will loose a substantial market and so will it be worth pursuing an operation for a tiny UK market?
The irony may well be that Defra, shooting lobby et al. drag their feet, but there will be a diminishing supply of lead ammo. So, could it be that their hand is forced by the supply chain?
If the ban is only for shooting over wetlands there will still be a substantial market for lead so I am not sure we can be especially optimistic that the scenario you paint will play out. We need to move to a complete ban across Europe and the UK.
Lead shot will now not be used but the amount of single use plastic could increase significantly depending on the type of cartridges they have currently been using.
BASC are at least addressing that problem in their approach which includes a ban on single use plastic by moving to non toxic shot together with biodegradable wads.
It is also not a done deal, some way to go yet;
NEXT STEPS
The proposal will now be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for a three-month scrutiny procedure. The European Parliament’s job – as representatives of Europe’s citizens and as the only directly elected EU institution – is to carefully exercise its scrutiny prerogatives. It has the power to reject this unworkable proposal, to ensure the problems are fixed thereby contributing to proper legislation.
FACE will continue to engage in this topic in the coming months to ensure that a sensible outcome is reached.
https://www.face.eu/2020/09/unworkable-proposal-on-restricting-lead-shot-over-wetlands-approved-by-eu-reach-committee/
We need to go to cardboard cartridges, bio degradable wads/shot cups and non-toxic shot. If those who shoot cannot manage that then perhaps they should take up another hobby.