Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Pheasant shooting banned on public land in Wales
Natural Resources Wales followed a government diktat regarding leases for pheasant shooting, despite foreseeing the damage it would do to its reputation
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) will no longer allow the rearing, releasing and shooting of game birds on public land.
The decision was taken in a board meeting on 20 September, following an instruction from the Welsh minister for environment Hannah Blythyn not to renew leases for pheasant shooting.
Before the meeting, the
NRW made it clear that it feared damage to its reputation as an evidence-based organisation if it were to follow the minister’s instructions. Its board paper says: “All leases have been renewed on an annual basis pending the outcome of the review and all come to an end in March 2019. NRW can choose not to renew the leases without penalty, though there will be financial implications in terms of a small loss of income and there may be a reputational risk to the organisation.”
In May 2016 the board called for a formal and comprehensive review following concerns from stakeholders about the welfare of pheasants on NRW land. In August 2017 an expert panel — consisting of 19 NRW specialists — reviewed the evidence and, following completion, recommendations were put forward.
Liam Stokes, head of shooting at the Countryside Alliance, commented: “Essentially, everything we warned would come to pass has. NRW was worried that if it followed government orders its reputation would be at risk but it has done it anyway. We are not very impressed.
“NRW has already spent around £10,000 of Welsh taxpayers’ money on its review only to go against its findings.
“The searching question that needs to be asked is whether NRW is a tool of the Welsh Labour
6 • Shooting times & Country magazine Party and exists only to serve its agenda. It will now have very little credibility.
“In an earlier Freedom of Information request, the Alliance discovered that NRW had carried out a study of shooting and learned that there was the potential of using Welsh public land to raise around half a million pounds from the sport. Instead it has spent taxpayers’ money on a review called for by the animal rights lobby.
“The question that now needs to be answered is whether due process was followed because NRW has reneged on its decision and findings.
“It will be interesting to see how NRW plans to raise this sort of sum by other means in an age of austerity, when there is not much money to go around.”