GWCT News Blog

This presentation was delivered by Niels Kanstrup from Aarhus University during our recent Game 2020 Conference and covers the Danish experience of shooting without using lead shot.

Over the next few weeks Defra will be consulting with stakeholders about their plans for licensing gamebird releasing on or near protected sites in 2021. 

We have been asked by the ‘Welsh Partnership of Local Marine Protected Areas’ (funded by Welsh Government) to undertake a study into the ‘Effects of COVID 19 on litterpicking activities on the Welsh Coastline and Rivers’.

It was confirmed on Wednesday 11th November 2020 that an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone has been declared across England, Scotland and Wales. 

In his recent letter, Professor Arthur Morris described grouse moors as ‘ecological deserts’. This is frankly untrue. Breeding birds such as lapwing and curlew have thrived on grouse moors as a result of the management undertaken there. 

Defra has published the first details of three new general licences for the control of certain bird species effective from 1st January 2021. 

Read our latest advice including what is and isn't permitted during the lockdown period.

The new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMs), which is to replace Countryside Stewardship and the Basic Payment Scheme, is currently being designed through various tests around the country, commissioned by Defra.

Last week the campaign group Wild Justice had to withdraw its legal action in relation to gamebird releases because Defra had found a legal solution to their concerns. However, Wild Justice then decided to describe this as a “victory” and, luckily for them, journalists at the Guardian, Telegraph, Times and the Mail appear not to have checked what Defra had actually said here.

Following news of an outbreak in Kent yesterday, a second case of avian influenza has been confirmed. There are some simple measures that all poultry and gamebird keepers, whether they are running a large commercial farm, keeping a few hens in their back garden, or rearing game birds, should take to protect their birds against the threat of avian flu.