Month: March 2021

The National Game Dealers Association (NGDA) is the latest organisation from the UK game-shooting industry to realise, belatedly and after years of resisting, that if it is to survive then dropping products shot with toxic lead ammunition is the only way to go.

The NGDA has issued the following statement this morning:

At the National Game Dealers Association ( NGDA) annual general meeting members voted to commit to sourcing all feather and fur Game as well as venison and wild boar from lead-free supply chains from the 1^st of July 2022.

This was agreed in order to future proof the sale of Game meat in their customer’s businesses, and to ensure continued consumer growth from those people seeking to enjoy our healthy delicious game products. This is a positive move for our industry to protect the environment and further assure our products in a highly competitive market place. The NGDA and its members will be working with the relevant industry groups to ensure, with this notice, our supply chains are able to make a transition.

If you have any concerns as a supplier to an NGDA member, please discuss your individual requirements with them or the NGDA.

Thank you

Stephen Crouch

Chairman National Game Dealers Association.

ENDS

This U-turn from the NGDA comes hot on the heels of an announcement from the Westminster Government last week that it was planning to phase out the use of poisonous lead ammunition (see here).

Amusingly, some commentators from the game shooting industry are trying to portray the NGDA’s U-turn as an example of how the industry can take sensible decisions all by itself instead of having to be dragged, kicking and screaming, in to the 21st Century by the rest of us.

Not very convincing when you consider that the NGDA Chair, Stephen Crouch, was one of those who resigned from the Lead Ammunition Group in May 2015 when the group’s official report to Government advocated a recommendation to ban the use of lead ammunition. Mr Crouch, along with the others who resigned (John Batley, Gun Trade Assoc; Mark Tufnell, Country Land & Business Assoc; Barney White-Spunner, Countryside Alliance) argued there was insufficient evidence to support such a move!!

The scientific evidence to support a ban on toxic lead ammunition, for the sake of human health, wildlife and the environment, has not changed at all since 2015. It’s just built and built and built.

It’s good to see the tipping point has finally been reached, after years and years of ongoing hard work by scientists such as Professor Debbie Pain and Professor Rhys Green (see here for their latest findings which showed that one year in to a so-called ‘voluntary transition’ away from lead shot by the UK game shooting industry, virtually no actual progress had been made). Although with the industry still dragging its feet and arguing that there aren’t enough supplies of non-toxic ammunition available yet and there won’t be for another four years, it’ll be fascinating to see whether the NGDA can source lead-free products from next year.

Nevertheless, it’ll be like watching falling dominos now. There is no chance of stopping what has been started. It’s just shameful that it has taken this long to get here.

The Daily Mirror, of all places, published a large feature article yesterday about the damaging effects of grouse moor burning.

Written by Environment Editor Nada Farhoud, the article featured comments from the usual suspects but also some new voices, including a local resident of the North York Moors National Park, Richard Gray, who was quoted:

“They say grouse shooting brings money into the local economy, it brings nothing other than smoke and destruction of our wildlife“.

For some reason the article also included a random photograph of what was alleged to be a poisoned rabbit bait, and another photograph of a dead peregrine ‘believed to have been discovered in North Yorkshire’. The association between grouse moor management and raptor persecution wasn’t really made clear and I would imagine that many Mirror readers would have wondered what any of that had to do with setting fire to the moorlands.

There is a link, of course, and that link is grouse moor management, but it was maybe too subtle in this article.

That’s not to take anything away from the article itself – it’s fantastic to see a mainstream tabloid focusing on this issue.

You can read the article here

Press release from the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU)

Wild birds are nesting and the national campaign to protect them across the UK is underway.

Egg thieves will go to any lengths to raid the nests of rare wild birds but Operation EASTER is determined to stop them in their tracks.

Operation EASTER was developed in Scotland 24 years ago.  The operation is now facilitated by the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) in conjunction with UK police forces and partner agencies.  The operation targets egg thieves by sharing intelligence across the UK to support enforcement action.

[Peregrine eggs area particular target. Nestcam photo by Nick Mooney]

In recent years the operation has also been expanded to cover some emerging trends of criminal behaviour – the illegal taking of raptor eggs or chicks to launder into falconry; the online trade in eggs and the disturbance of nests for photography.

The taking of wild bird eggs is a serious crime yet it remains the pastime of some determined individuals.  Whole clutches of eggs can be taken from some of the UK’s rarest birds with potentially devastating impacts. The eggs are stored in secret collections. 

Chief Inspector Kevin Kelly (Head of the NWCU) says: “Operation Easter is a yearly event that is engrained within wildlife crime Policing. This year we have given the operation some much needed emphasis, focusing our efforts onto assisting Police Wildlife Crime Officers on the front line.

The NWCU collates and disseminates the information that identifies the hotspot areas where the crimes are likely to be committed and we work with Police officers and partners to ensure these areas of interest are given the attention they deserve, to protect the future of our wild birds. We have a number of skilled and dedicated Police Wildlife Crime Officers across the UK who have adopted this operation and will work with us to reduce criminality, and for this, I thank them greatly“.

If you have any information on egg thieves, or those who disturb rare nesting birds without a license, you should contact your local police by dialing 101 – ask to speak to a wildlife crime officer if possible. Nesting will be in full swing by April so please contact the police if you see anyone acting suspiciously around nesting birds.

Information can also be passed in confidence to Crimestoppers via 0800 555 111.

ENDS

Whenever the grouse moor owners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) says anything about grouse moors, it’s best to take it with a skipful of salt.

Their reputation for talking nonsense (I’m being kind) is legendary (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here etc).

I really don’t know how they got this so badly wrong but it made me laugh, especially when the grouse shooting industry spends so much of its time claiming to be experts on waders:

[From SLE’s quarterly rag, Spring 2021]

The GWCT employee who did the survey may well have recorded ‘an abundance of lapwings’ on Ballogie Estate in Aberdeenshire but I’m pretty certain she didn’t record any spur-winged lapwing/plovers as illustrated in this article.

It’s a distinctive bird, difficult to misidentify or confuse with any other species, and it breeds in Africa and parts of the Middle East/southern Med. I’m not sure it’s ever been sighted in Scotland, let alone bred ‘in abundance’ on a Scottish grouse moor…

SLE’s ornithological expertise is about as convincing as BASC’s (here and here), You Forgot the Birds (here), National Farmers Union Scotland (here) and the Angus Glens Moorland Group (here).

Press release from the Langholm Initiative (26th March 2021)

South of Scotland’s biggest community buyout completes

The South of Scotland’s largest community buyout has been legally completed following one of the most ambitious community fundraising campaigns ever seen and paving the way for the creation of a vast new nature reserve in Dumfries and Galloway.

The landmark agreement of £3.8 million for 5,200 acres of land and six residential properties was reached between The Langholm Initiative charity and Buccleuch last October, after the community of Langholm’s six-month fundraising drive reached its target in the final two days.

With the transfer of ownership finalised, the community now owns the land for the first time in its history. Work is to begin immediately on creating the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve to help tackle climate breakdown, restore nature, and support community regeneration.

[Langholm Moor. Photo by David Lintern]

Margaret Pool, Chair of The Langholm Initiative, said: “Together we’ve achieved something which once seemed impossible, and today we can celebrate as a new era begins for this special land with which our community has such a deep and long-standing connection.

Our sincere, heartfelt thanks go to so many people for making this historic moment for Langholm happen – including the generous donors and tireless volunteers, and to Buccleuch for being so supportive and positive in their approach.” 

Benny Higgins, Executive Chairman of Buccleuch, said: “To have concluded the sale to the community is a fantastic achievement, and a great example of what can be achieved when communities and businesses like Buccleuch engage openly with one another and work to a common goal. This was achieved by goodwill and working together, following voluntarily all the relevant guidance and protocols.

We look forward to seeing the plans for the area coming to life over the coming months, and wish The Langholm Initiative all the very best with this.

Buccleuch has been reducing the footprint of its landholdings in the last decade and, having sold approximately 30,000 acres of land in this period to farmers and community organisations, we will continue to reinvest revenue from land sales into a variety of business projects across the farming, forestry, renewable energy, and leisure and hospitality sectors.”

The Langholm Initiative has set up Tarras Valley Nature Reserve for the day-to-day running of the ambitious new venture, and is currently recruiting two new members of staff who will oversee the landscape-scale nature-restoration project.

Globally important peatlands and ancient woods will be restored, native woodlands established, and a haven ensured for wildlife including rare hen harriers, the UK’s most persecuted bird of prey. Plans for community regeneration include new nature-based tourism opportunities.

Discussions are continuing between The Langholm Initiative and Buccleuch over another 5,300 acres of land the community wishes to buy, and which could double the size of the new nature reserve.

After the launch of the community’s fundraising drive last May, The Langholm Initiative had until 31 October to raise the funds for the deal, to avoid the withdrawal of a £1m offer from the Scottish Land Fund. At times the project appeared to be seriously at risk.

Other major funders supporting the project are South of Scotland Enterprise, John Muir Trust, The Carman Family Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and The Bently Foundation. 

The charity’s public crowdfunder, supported by nearly 4,000 people from around the world, reached its £200,000 target after a surge of over £50,000 in donations during its final week, including £24,000 on one day alone.

In the final 48 hours, with the community still some £150,000 short of the total funds needed, The Woodland Trust agreed to contribute £200,000 – taking The Langholm Initiative over the line.

Leading charities that have supported the buyout include Borders Forest Trust, Rewilding Britain, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, and Trees for Life.

The Langholm Initiative now aims to show how community ownership can be a catalyst for regeneration with the environment at its heart, and hopes its success will inspire other communities in Scotland and across the UK. 

The Langholm Initiative, formed in 1994 as one of south Scotland’s first development trusts, facilitates projects making a lasting difference to the local area and people. See langholminitiative.org.uk.

ENDS