The Moorland Association (the lobby group for grouse moor owners in England) has announced the election of a new Chair, James Lambert.
Lambert is a bit of an unknown quantity although seemingly was big in the ice cream world and was High Sheriff of North Yorkshire between 2022/23 so may have some useful connections for some of his grouse moor-owning mates.
He’s less well known as his predecessor was when he became Chair – Mark Cunliffe-Lister, who owns Swinton, the grouse-shooting estate that had been at the centre of numerous police investigations into alleged wildlife crime prior to his appointment at the Moorland Association, including the conviction of one of his gamekeepers, and would have been at the centre of another police investigation more recently had North Yorkshire Police bothered to do its job.
Cunliffe-Lister’s four-year tenure as Moorland Association Chair can be defined by his brazen denial on Radio 4’s Farming Today programme last summer when he claimed, “Clearly, any illegal [hen harrier] persecution is not happening” (see here).
Lambert has small shoes to fill. Let’s see whether he can bring some credibility to the Moorland Association, although don’t hold your breath. The press release announcing his appointment as Chair includes the following statements:
I doubt very much whether Lambert was responsible for writing this greenwashing propaganda but let’s look at the details anyway:
Yes, grouse moors dominate England’s designated SSSIs, which is probably why so many of them are in unfavourable conservation status (see here).
Yes, some grouse moor managers are undertaking peatland restoration but many of them are still burning on deep peat, completely ignoring the new regulations against this practice (see here). In fact two grouse moor owners have been convicted for burning on deep peat in protected areas – one* in the Peak District National Park (here) and the other in Nidderdale, who, embarrassingly, was a Director of…..The Moorland Association (see here)! [*Ed – see update at foot of blog]
Are grouse moors ‘strongholds’ for the hen harrier, short-eared owl, merlin, golden plover, ring ouzel and lapwing? If only the hen harriers weren’t being illegally shot, decapitated, stamped on, having their wings and legs pulled off, trapped etc (here, here and here), the short-eared owls weren’t being shot and stamped into the ground (here, here, here, here and here), the merlins weren’t being caught and killed in indiscriminate traps (here) or having their nest sites shot out (here) or having their nesting habitat burned to a crisp (here and here), the golden plover weren’t being shot for fun (still on the legal quarry list – see here), the ring ouzels weren’t being caught and killed in indiscriminate traps (here) and the lapwings weren’t being used as poisonous bait (here).
*UPDATE 10.24hrs – thanks to blog reader Tom who has pointed out in the comments section that one of the Directors of the company (Dunlin Ltd) prosecuted for burning on deep peat in the Peak District National Park appears to be listed as a new Director of the Moorland Association!!
Raptor Persecution UK 