Testimonies recognised in

Testimonies recognised in Community Spirit

Sue Evans, Director of Wales

(Above) We have continued to work on the future of farming. (Below) The Community Spirit, report incorporated testimonials as to why shooting was important to you. © GWCT Wales

Community Spirit report was published highlighting why shooting is important to you. Informing Natural Resources Wales’ Wild Bird Review. Four point-plan for improving the health of our watercourses.

Highlighting the great benefits derived from game management for nature in mainstream farming to influence the future Sustainable Farming Scheme.

2020 saw further pressures on the traditional management of the countryside with a Judicial Review in December. The challenge was unsuccessful and the High Court ruled that Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) General Licences to control wild birds are lawful. This pressure inspired us to ask you (our members and supporters) why shooting is important, particularly in relation to your physical and mental wellbeing. Five hundred and eighty-one of you responded with some beautifully written, heartfelt testimonies which we then incorporated in a report, Community Spirit, under the seven headings of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Though we have indisputable science on the benefits that shooting can deliver for biodiversity, this is our first report with a social focus and it is a powerful document that should help to bridge the gap of understanding between those that shoot and those that don’t.

In December, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs announced that she had decided to add pheasants and red-legged partridges to schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, with the intention of introducing an appropriate licensing regime for the release of gamebirds in time for the 2022/23 season. This, along with a continued review of General Licences, is part of the ongoing Wild Bird Review looking at all elements relating to shooting, including trapping. Members helped again to inform the call for evidence by providing us with your views in December which proved to be of great importance as we were able to give NRW evidence specifically from Wales.

There has been continued work on the future of farming with the Agriculture in Wales White Paper Consultation launched in December. This sets out the Welsh Government’s intentions for primary legislation and provides the basis of the Agriculture (Wales) Bill which we will continue to feed into. We have a growing number of farmers approaching us to become part of a network of Welsh Demonstration Farms which will help us to showcase how game management principles can deliver more biodiversity into mainstream agriculture.

The problem of pollution to our watercourses continues so we are working with fishing groups, farming unions and policy writers to promote a four-point plan of better regulation, effective enforcement, proportionate fines and collaboration.

The number of projects we are involved in continues to grow with a focus on Farmer Clusters, cover crops on two very different grassland farms, overwinter feeding of seed-eating birds and even a short project looking at soil health using woodcock as a potential indicator species.