Written evidence submitted by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation

 

  1. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) is the representative body for sporting shooting in the UK with a membership of over 150,000. It aims to promote and protect sporting shooting and the wellbeing of the countryside throughout the UK and overseas. It actively promotes good firearms licensing practice, training, education, scientific research and practical habitat conservation.

 

  1. The 25-Year Environment Plan gives a clear message that the government wants to give the environment a voice.  Shooting can help the government deliver on that ambition as it is involved in the management of two-thirds of the UK’s rural land area; with two million hectares actively managed for conservation as a result of shooting (PACEC, 2014).

 

  1. Those who shoot are involved in creating new habitats and managing existing ones to support species that are resident in the UK, like grey partridge, or those that visit here, like migratory duck and geese species. Shooting plays an important role in managing the impact that wildlife has on our environment, for example controlling the impact of over-browsing by expanding deer populations on Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

 

  1. Continued government engagement with stakeholders, such as BASC, will be key to the success of the 25-Year Environment Plan. BASC’s Green Shoots programme, which has been endorsed by Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, brings together people that shoot with conservation partners to achieve public biodiversity targets. Working together we have changed the fortunes of numerous species, such as water voles and dormice.

 

  1. The proposed natural capital approach in the 25-Year Environment Plan is important as increased development, population growth and climate change are all beginning to exert pressure on the UK’s natural environment.

 

  1. Given the level of the predicted impact of climate change on the UK environment it is important to build resilience and permeability in the UK’s natural network of greenspace in order to allow wildlife to move in response to shifting temperatures. Clearly this must be achieved at the landscape scale.

 

  1. BASC’s white paper on landscape-scale conservation (BASC, 2015) calls on national and local authorities to recognise the benefits shooting brings in areas such as conservation; crop protection and food security; wildlife management and farm business diversification.

 

  1. BASC recommends development funding to help farmers to create shoots, improvements to the game-food supply chain and simplification of the general licence system which authorises the necessary control of certain bird species, such as woodpigeon which are the UK’s number one agricultural pest.

 

  1. It is important that the design and delivery of a proposed new environmental land management system enhances shooting’s positive social, environmental and economic impact.

 

  1. The environmental impact of shooting will become increasingly important following the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union; given that £250 million is currently spent annually by shoot providers on conservation and habitat management; and 3.9 million work days are spent annually by shooters on conservation, which is the equivalent of 16,000 full-time jobs (PACEC, 2014).

 

  1. BASC is fully committed to supporting the government with the implementation of the 25-Year Environment Plan.

 

References

BASC (2015). The role of shooting in landscape-scale land management. BASC white paper.

PACEC. (2014). The Value of Shooting: The economic, environmental, and social benefits of shooting sports in the UK. Cambridge, UK.

 

February 2018