Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government’s statutory advisory body on nature conservation, has recently pledged its intent to work closely with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT – formerly known as The Game Conservancy). Here is their published joint statement of intent – unfortunately a rather turgidly written set of objectives – that includes reference to predators such as buzzards and ravens.
It’s an interesting alliance and one which will no doubt be a cause of concern for some.
The GWCT defines itself as an “independent charity”. Some commentators suggest that the GWCT is not independent of the shooting industry; a claim based on the interests of its good directors and officers (see here).
The GWCT accepts sponsorship from Artemis Investment Management Ltd (see here). All perfectly lawful of course but open to scrutiny nevertheless.
The GWCT’s Scottish Committee Chairman was questioned over the mysterious disappearance of a dead white-tailed eagle, reported to have been discovered on his estate but then it apparently vanished in to thin air when the police arrived the following day (see here). He denied any involvement.
The GWCT is reported to be involved with controversial ‘research’ commissioned by Songbird Survival. This ‘research’ is aimed at killing corvids and it has been suggested that in future it could extend to killing raptors (see here).
The GWCT was at the forefront of criticism into the SNH-funded Hen Harrier Conservation Framework Report. Basically, the GWCT did not accept the peer-reviewed scientific findings that hen harriers are being systematically slaughtered on UK grouse moors. Instead they wanted to deflect attention on to golden eagle/hen harrier interactions (a bit difficult seeing as golden eagles are also absent breeders on most grouse moors) and on to predation of harriers by foxes (foxes are just as unwelcome on grouse moors as hen harriers so the impact must be minimal, and certainly not enough to cause two-thirds of the harrier population to ‘disappear’).
So, a joint partnership a cause for concern? You decide.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Yep…instead of all concerned backing the Law up to the hilt and getting rid of the large numbers of raptor killers – there must be many within the shooting industry who are aware who the killers are, the incidents are so common and widespread – we get the usual “partnerships, protocols and further research”.
Further research appears to be never ending attempts to castigate the place of predators in the countryside and therefore somehow justify their illegal killing.
Nothing justifies illegal killing of raptors – the overwhelming majority of the population want to see this stopped…otherwise the Law would have been changed democratically a long time ago.Raptors are here to stay. Live with it.
GCWT ‘independent charity’ – all we need to know is where the charity comes from. Totally aligned with shooting interests.
Its always good to know what the enemy or in this case the enemies research body but to form some sort of alliance ? It would be interesting to know if GCWT see this as an image improver. THen again as always I agree with Dave on this one.
Paul Irving
As most of you know the SNH already work with this charity at Langholm where I believe new research is looking at how many Red Grouse are being killed by Buzzards using cameras at nests. The sad thing about this £3.5 million spent at Langhom is that I think no money is being spent on habitat restoration other than ‘man made’ heather which most species can not use. I think even Black Grouse habitat is being destroyed to try and bring back as much heather as possible to make the estate the £100,000 a year it has lost due to the first Langholm project. If you only have heather than Birds of Prey can only feed on Red Grouse in winter as no other food will be available.
Quite right John…given the fact that the Tarras is now a small island of heather surrounded by sheepwalk and plantation forestry [it used to be a far more extensive grouse moor, which the estate chose to change to other more profitable land uses]…it is unlikely to become what it was. Its now a magnet for predators due to the totally artificial surplus of prey – red grouse] – in comparison to the impoverished adjacent habitats.
They could probably make more out of turning it into a harrier reserve with some walked up grouse shooting….but this isnt about moiney is it?…its about stubborn pride and outmoded tradition.