The War Rages On

Hot on the heels of Mark Avery's petition calling for the banning of driven Grouse shooting, Chris Packham has launched a petition calling for a moratorium on the shooting of declining wading birds. The aim being to allow for the impact of shooting on their populations to be assessed.

The petition focuses on three species of wading bird; the Snipe (Gallinago gallinago), the closely related Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) and the Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria). All three of the species have shown dramatic declines over the

The Woodcock

past 20 to 25 years with Snipe declining by 89%, Woodcock by 76% and  1 in 4 Golden Plovers disappearing. 

Clearly, on a national level, all three species are in a precarious position; and these declines may also have larger international impacts. Numbers of all three species in the U.K increase during the winter, being swelled by birds from the continent. This increase in numbers is reflected in the fact that wintering Golden Plover populations in the U.K are internationally important. Despite this all three are still quarry species, meaning that they can legally be shot during the appropriate season.

So what is this petition actually calling for? Well first things first, it is NOT, I repeat NOT, calling for an all-out ban on shooting waders. What it is calling for is a temporary suspension of shooting. During this time an independent scientific body can investigate the implications and impacts of shooting on the populations of these waders.

Golden Plover

In the short term this may ruffle a few feathers in the shooting fraternity. However when all is said and done both hunters and conservationists want to protect these birds, regardless of whether the motivation for doing so based on the commercial, recreational or intrinsic value of the species. Ultimately knowledge is power, knowing the impacts of shooting on these species will help us to protect and manage them in the future.
As far as I can see a moratorium from shooting these species and a subsequent investigation into shooting impacts could have three outcomes.

The Snipe

Outcome One (possible): We find out that shooting has a major impact on the populations of these birds and it is outright banned or suspended until a time when the populations are large enough for hunting to be sustainable (we would also know the levels of hunting and quotas that could be taken from a population), so in the long-term everybody wins.

Outcome Two (possible): Its found that shooting has some impact on the populations. In order to mitigate this quotas are introduced regulating how many birds are taken. This allows populations to recover and over time quotas have the potential to be increased in line with increases in populations, again everybody wins.

Outcome Three (unlikely): Shooting is judged to have no impact whatsoever on these species. It can carry on as before. This means that the conservationists can use their resources to research and mitigate other factors affecting the birds. Overtime populations should again increase as other factors causing declines are minimised. Again everyone wins.

So I hope from this you can see that by taking the actions called for in this petition all three of the species will benefit. It will allow for is to better understand what needs to be done to protect these fantastic birds.

Signing this petition will help to secure these birds future. Currently the number of signatures on the petition is 12,672. Passing the threshold of 10,000 means that DEFRA will have to issue an official comment on the issue. If it reaches 100,000 then the issue will be considered debate for parliament. Mark Avery's recent grouse shooting petition reached over 120,000 signatures, so lets build on this success and get another conservation issue debated in Westminster. Hopefully we will be able to protect these special birds in years to come. 

Sign the petition HERE.