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Thank you for your continued support
Parliament. The equally new Environment Bill calls for developers to deliver net biodiversity gain of 10% from development.
All this should remind us as game managers to refocus on wise use and sustainable use to ensure these same principles are still embodied in our game management. Sustainable use needs to be firmly aligned with best practice. We know that good game management delivers good net biodiversity gain; now let’s show how that is aligned with international standards.
As always the excellent work of our staff, some of which is highlighted in this Review, would be impossible without the continuing support of our members, donors and other supporters. We are lucky to have not just a committed Chairman, but also an expert and dedicated set of trustees who support and steer our work in these uncertain and rapidly changing times.
I have been Chairman of Trustees for 18 months and would like to thank members, staff and fellow trustees who have made me feel so welcome. I have met many of you and hope to meet many more in my travels and work for the Trust.
Looking back, what a year 2019 proved to be for all involved in the countryside and never has the work of the GWCT been so vital and influential for wildlife conservation. The challenge by Wild Justice leading to the General Licence debacle should have made even the most reluctant realise that the threats to sensible wildlife management are very real (see page 9). It is not over yet as the interim licences are being reviewed and GWCT research results are critical evidence of why legal and balanced predator control is essential. Wild Justice then challenged releasing pheasants near protected sites; Defra is still working on its response but again our work is the only credible research. Later in the year the RSPB launched a review of its policy on game shooting which worried a lot of people. However, we are working hard to build a good relationship with them and we have offered to submit all our research for their consideration.
Through all of this time we saw the gradual evolution of a new agricultural policy for post-Brexit. Again the GWCT is heavily involved. We are sitting on two working groups and successive Secretaries of State have visited our Allerton Project farm at Loddington (see page 18). We have pushed hard for soil quality to be seen as a public good and it now seems that Defra has accepted our arguments. Following the December General Election, the new Government has brought in the Agriculture Bill and the Environment Bill. Both have considerable impact on our activities and as they progress through Parliament we will be working to influence the detail.
In the meantime, we have been working with the shooting community to address other challenges such as the developing evidence against lead shot and to encourage all shoots to achieve best practice. Central to that and all else we do, is to promote the need for all shoots large and small to assess whether they are delivering a net biodiversity gain. Our evidence shows that game management done well delivers a net biodiversity gain compared with land where no shoot takes place, and we are offering a range of ways shoots can make this assessment (see page 9). We need to ensure that it is widely understood that without good game management, the countryside and its wildlife would be worse off. uld be wo w rse off. Sir Jim Paice GWCT Chairman
