| CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REPORT


2016 highlights by Ian Coghill, Chairman and


Teresa Dent CBE, Chief Executive


The 49 Farmer Clusters in England now cover over 200,000 hectares between them. The Westminster debate on driven grouse shooting demonstrated the contribution fieldsports can make in the uplands. Brexit provides an opportunity for Britain to identify the ways it can change conservation policy for the better.


(Top) The hen harrier action plan includes a trial Brood Management Scheme. © Laurie Campbell


It is easy to look back on 2016 and see the big external milestones: first, at the end of January, the launch of the Hen Harrier Joint Action Plan; then the vote to Brexit in June; third, September’s announcement that there were now 49 Farmer Clusters in England, and finally the debate on driven grouse shooting in Westminster Hall. GWCT had worked for a Hen Harrier Joint Action Plan for many years. Dick Potts (our previous director general) advocated hen harrier quotas in 1998, and the Action Plan includes a trial Hen Harrier Brood Management Scheme – essentially the same thing. All credit to Dick for a solution that eventually everyone returned to. Equally, all credit to Defra for understanding that if a genuine problem is causing wildlife conflict, first one needs a remedy to the problem before one can resolve the conflict. We all remember how we felt the morning after the Brexit referendum. For both of us the prevailing thought was ‘my goodness, there is going to be an awful lot to do’. Defra estimates 80% of its business is framed by EU legislation, most of it relevant to how the countryside is farmed, the environment managed, how farmers, gamekeepers and land managers are regulated, and whether or not sensible wildlife management is permitted – so all relevant to the GWCT. Everything will be transferred lock, stock and barrel into UK law, plus the Government has pledged to honour subsidies and grants until 2020. Thereafter we face uncertainty. However, there will also be opportunity: no one is suggesting that EU regulation is perfect; the trick is to identify both the areas to change and the areas that will be better left. The debate resulted from a petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting, which this year got the required hundred thousand signatures (the third year of trying).


6 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016 www.gwct.org.uk


© Hugh Nutt


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