Review of game bird releases
Defra has bowed to a challenge on assessing the impact of game birds. Philip Bowern reports
THE Government has responded to a legal challenge from Chris Packham’s Wild Justice group threatening to take it to court for failing to assess the impact on conservation sites of releasing game birds for shooting.
Defra said it will “review” the release of birds.
But it told shoot owners and those who manage land for shooting and who rear and release game birds into the wild, that they do not need to make any changes to their practices.
Wild Justice, set up by BBC presenter and conservationist Mr Packham with former RSPB conservation director Mark Avery and campaigner Ruth Tingay, received more than £40,000 in donations from the public to pay lawyers to mount the challenge.
It is the second costly legal threat the group has directed at farmers and people who shoot. Earlier in the year it forced a temporary suspension of the laws allowing the shooting of pest bird species, including woodpigeons, crows and magpies. Those laws have now been re-instated, pending a review.
The challenge to game shooting was based on claims from Wild Justice that up to 50 million pheasant and partridge poults are released each year and could be having a damaging effect on the environment. Shoot owners and conservationists, including the RSPB, say that managing land for game shooting has benefits for wildlife and conservation.
The Government said yesterday: “Defra will undertake a review to consider the legislative arrangements in England around the relevant activities and whether there are ways in which their effectiveness could be improved. The detail of this review will be developed over the coming weeks. A review of this nature will take time to conduct and it will only be after a thorough examination that it will become clear if any subsequent change is necessary.”
It went on: “This will not result in any immediate changes for owners or occupiers of land. The legislative regime surrounding gamebird releases will remain unchanged in the immediate term and there will be no impact on the industry. The industry will be kept informed of progress with the review in due course.”
Wild Justice said the response showed that Defra “concedes our challenge on non-native gamebirds and will consult on need for assessment of impacts.”