James Evans MS voices concerns over NRW’s latest move to regulate the release of gamebirds in Wales
Earlier this year, NRW and Welsh Government ran a consultation on their proposals to licence gamebird releases in Wales. With over 42,000 responses and realising the strength of feeling on this from rural communities, NRW announced in September that their plans were on ‘hold’. Yet today, James Evans MS has learnt that this is coming back before the Senedd by adding the common pheasant and red-legged partridge to Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
NRW own report acknowledges there “is good evidence that management activities carried out by shoots can have significant benefits on the environment”.
Figures show that shooting has conservation benefits, such as the management of 380,000 hectares in Wales. Shooting contributes an annual spend of £7.4m on conservation across Wales, the equivalent of 490 fulltime jobs or 120,000 conservation working days. Shooting also has massive benefits for the economy in Wales contributing £75 million to the economy and there are 2,900 shooting-related businesses across the country directly supporting the equivalent of 2,400 full-time jobs, supporting rural economies.
James Evans MS said:
“The consultation that was held by NRW showed that people were overwhelmingly opposed to these regulations. NRW’s engagement and evidence gathering in 2022 gave no due regard to the evidence from the likes of the Countryside Alliance or BASC. It was clear from the Minister Julie James MS response in the Chamber in April that she has an anti-shooting, anti-rural agenda that is not based on factual evidence just political ideology.”
“I will do what I can to bring this matter to a vote in the Senedd to make sure the people of rural Wales have a voice”
