It’s good to see the RSPB’s chief executive Beccy Speight taking the time to visit the excellent Flea Barn farm in Suffolk (Richard Negus, ‘Can’t we meet in the middle?, ST April 2023). Flea Barn is a wonderful example of sustainable gamebird management operating alongside a commercial farming business, delivering significant biodiversity gains.
It’s such a shame that RSPB cannot bring themselves to endorse the Code of Good Shooting Practice and the GWCT’s Principles of Sustainable Gamebird Management. If shoots follow the Code and the Principles then a net biodiversity gain will be the result – that is surely what the RSPB want to see. Instead, Beccy cites an arbitrary figure of 3000 released birds per shoot as being acceptable - without any consideration of the area of land a shoot covers or the way it is managed. Surely it’s better to base an opinion on science-based guidelines supported by all responsible shoot managers, countryside organisations and the Government?