The battle over saving the hen harrier
A Government-backed recovery plan should have ended the controversy surrounding this bird of prey; however, the conflict continues
Ian Coghill discusses why the conflict continues
Brood management and southern reintroductions still cause controversy
The hen harrier is at the centre of a bitter conflict. The birds love grouse moors, where their habit of nesting in loose colonies allows numbers to build up to levels that result in the loss of grouse chicks being so great that the moor can become unviable. This in turn results in the collapse of grouse shooting, the disappearance of gamekeepers and the end of the control of foxes and stoats. These then kill the chicks of the ground-nesting hen harriers, the population of which consequently dwindles and may even eventually disappear. Thus, in the worst case, everybody loses. No grouse, no employment, the slow death of one of the world’s rarest ecosystems and, ironically, potentially no hen harriers.
An enormous amount of thought and effort has gone into trying to find how this mutually catastrophic outcome can be avoided. Millions of pounds have been spent on research to find a solution that ensures healthy and sustainable hen harrier populations whilst, at the same time, keeping the manifest economic and biodiversity benefits provided by properly conducted grouse shooting. After more than a decade of discussion and debate a plan was agreed with Government, which was designed to find a way to get more hen harriers in England: the imaginatively titled Hen Harrier Recovery Plan (HHRP).
The HHRP included two elements that have continued to cause controversy: brood management; and the southern reintroduction. The reason they are controversial is simply that the RSPB and its fellow travellers do not like them. The antipathy towards brood management is so great that it has
resulted in a judicial review and the southern reintroduction was condemned at a meeting in Parliament by the RSPB’S head of global conservation as in clear breach of the guidelines for reintroductions set down by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
So what are these awful things, which one side says will significantly increase the hen harrier population while the other side claims are the works of the devil.
In essence, brood management is simply moving eggs or fledglings to a secure location where they can be hatched and reared until they are able to look after themselves, at which point they are released into their natural habitat. Far from being controversial, it is a well-tried technique, found in many countries and used for a variety of species by a wide range of organisations.
The RSPB itself is involved in a programme to help the spoon-billed sandpiper, one of the most endangered birds in the world. Its precious eggs are collected in Central Asia, incubated in the UK and the resulting fledged sandpipers are flown back to join their wild cousins on their perilous migration. Hen harriers themselves are already brood managed elsewhere in Europe, under the same legislative framework that applies in England, for no more pressing reason than to allow farmers to harvest their corn.
As the system works in Europe, the reasonable assumption was that it would work well with harriers in the UK and happily that has proved to be correct. A brood of five were reared in captivity, all fledged successfully and were released on a Yorkshire grouse moor, with the enthusiastic support of the owners and much additional hard work by the keepers. Elsewhere, whilst it was a good year for hen harriers in England by our current low standards, it was, as ever, be-devilled by chick losses to predation and the weather, in some cases potentially exacerbated by excessive attention.
As brood management clearly works and produced 100% fledging, higher than would have typically occurred in the wild, and as the birds were returned to the moors from whence they came, any reasonable person would consider the programme a laudable success. Unhappily, the RSPB is by no means comparable to a reasonable person. Having spent an enormous amount of its members’ money on a failed judicial review to prevent the brood management trial taking place at all, it is now proceeding to spend even more on an appeal, to prevent this year’s success being repeated.
Faced with the facts that brood management is a well tried and proven means of increasing wild bird populations, that the RSPB uses it for other species (albeit under a different name), that it has a history of being used successfully with hen harriers in continental Europe and has now been proved to work in the UK, it is hard to imagine why anyone who wants to have more hen harriers could be against it, let alone seeking to use the courts to render it illegal.
Turning to the southern reintroduction, it is what it says. The idea is simple and, again, tried and tested with other species, including many raptors. You find extensive areas of suitable habitat, get the approval of key locals, import eggs and/or chicks from other countries that have a surplus, rear them in captivity and release them when they can look after themselves.
The RSPB has repeatedly done precisely this with other raptor species: Spanish red kites to the Chilterns and the Black Isle; Scandinavian sea eagles to the Western Isles and Fife; Scottish golden eagles to Eire, are just a few obvious examples.
The current scheme is being managed, not by some NGO or a bunch of single-issue
enthusiasts, but by Natural England itself. After a prolonged search it has found a perfect site from a long list of very good ones. It has checked that everyone in the locality is keen to see the birds thrive, and they are. The locals are used to living in harmony with them, because hen harriers already winter there. They have ensured that they have access to state-of-the-art facilities and possess the skills and resources needed to make it work. What’s not to like?
Well, the RSPB does not like it at all. According to its head of global conservation, the plan breaches IUCN guidelines because the cause of their decline is still extant. They are, the logic goes, endangered because they were being killed by gamekeepers and still are. So you can forget any idea of releasing hen harriers in Wiltshire until it can be guaranteed that no keeper, or anyone else, anywhere in the UK will kill a harrier.
The briefest of rational thought indicates that this position is hypocritical nonsense. There is no reason to suppose that harriers released on Salisbury Plain would be at risk from anyone and if they were how would this differ from the kites released on shooting estates in the Chilterns or sea eagles released in Fife? When the RSPB reintroduced these species it was clear that they had been exterminated by killing and egg collecting and they were simultaneously campaigning against what they were clear was the ongoing persecution of raptors.
If it is against IUCN guidelines for Natural England to release hen harriers on Salisbury Plain because somewhere, hundreds of miles away, someone might kill a harrier, why was it all right for the RSPB to release kites in the midst of shooting estates in Hertfordshire or within 20 minutes’ flying time of a grouse moor on the Black Isle?
It is interesting that this element of the HHRP is being treated differently from the brood management scheme. RSPB has not taken the reintroduction to judicial review and it is fair to ask why. There are two explanations that spring to mind.
The first is obviously that it knows that it would not just lose, it would be humiliated. The spectacle of the RSPB trying to explain under oath why when it reintroduces a raptor species it is different from when Natural England reintroduces one would be something to behold. The second could be that it doesn’t need to go to law to stop the scheme. Any hen harriers released in the South of England will have to be sourced in Europe. Whilst it might seem obvious to use the brood-managed birds from the northern moors, this is not allowed, they have to be released back onto moors near where they were born. France and Spain are the obvious choices; they have large hen harrier populations and it would normally be considered relatively straightforward to get permission to take eggs or chicks for an important reintroduction scheme being run by the state regulator.
This is not how it has turned out. Twice, initially in France and then in Spain, everything started as well as one might expect, then without warning the, “Yes, how can we help” turned to “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Something happened. There are, of course, rumours of what that something was but, as yet, we can only ponder what it might have been. Who would have the influence to have the conversation that brought about such a sudden and complete volte-face? Who feels strongly enough to take such an extraordinary step?
Obviously, given the circumstances, some people think that the RSPB was involved. I sincerely hope that they are wrong. And while there is of course no evidence to confirm the RSPB’S alleged involvement, it would nevertheless be hugely helpful if the charity could set the record straight and confirm that there have been no conversations, direct or indirect, with those approached by Natural England to supply eggs or chicks for the southern reintroduction that were intended to stop the plan.
Until it takes such a step, I couldn’t blame anyone for thinking it might be involved. It appears to be the principal opponent of the scheme and has the global reach and soft power to have such an effect. It is now so opposed to grouse shooting that almost anything goes and it is not unreasonable to think that a significant increase in the range and numbers of hen harriers might make them less newsworthy and a less potent weapon with which to drive grouse moors into oblivion.
If this were the case, it would be sad indeed. Just because I shoot, including grouse, occasionally, I am no less committed to the environment and conservation than anyone else. When I say I want more hen harriers, I mean it, and the same can be said for every shooter I have discussed the topic with. I am a pragmatist. I will do what works. Brood management works, and reintroductions work. If the RSPB got behind these schemes there could be a rapid and sustainable increase in harrier range and numbers. Faced with this simple reality, it is fair to ask if it really wants more hen harriers before the plan to end driven grouse shooting is successful.
When I say I want more hen harriers, I mean it