Since the recovery plan was established in
January, three Hen Harriers (better known as Northern Harriers in the
United States) have suspiciously gone missing. Photo: David Peskens/Minden
Conservation
Despite Recovery Plan, the U.K.'s Imperiled Hen Harrier Is Still in Serious Trouble
Continued killings by hunting estates and perceived government
inaction have conservationists looking for tougher regulations to save
the bird.
The United Kingdom’s threatened Hen Harrier can’t seem to catch a break. The
ghostly birds of prey, which once reigned over the moorlands, are being
poisoned, shot, and trapped
for “stealing” gamebirds from high-end hunting estates. Numbers of U.K.
breeding pairs have dwindled to about 700, and nesting pairs
are scarce.
So, in January 2016, after years of deliberation, the U.K. government instated a six-point, $2.2 million
Joint Action Plan on Hen Harriers
as a last-ditch effort to protect the species. But just months after
signing on, the country’s largest avian conservation group, the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), publicly withdrew from the
plan. “To be honest, we felt we were in a pretty untenable position,”
says Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland. The society argues that
the middle-of-the-ground strategy fails in one of its central goals: to
change the culture around harriers and protect them from illegal
actions.
The RSPB’s exit in July came after a flurry of alleged raptor
killings and dubious disappearances. Already this year, three
satellite-tracked harriers have gone dark
under suspicious circumstances,
illegal traps have been discovered on hunting estates, and several
birds have been shot. (Hen Harriers are the typical targets, but Golden
Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, and Red Kites are victimized as well.)
Recently, the rising death toll inspired a
petition
to ban certain methods of grouse hunting; it crossed the 100,000
signature-mark this month, qualifying it for debate in Parliament, which
could ultimately result in new policies being passed. The grassroots
push is being led by Mark Avery, an author and prominent environmental
campaigner, who’s expressed his doubts since the plan’s inception.
For the RSPB, the biggest measure of success will be when the birds
can nest on the grouse moors unmolested. But so far, the opposite has
happened under the government initiative. Although England’s uplands can
accommodate 300 nesting harrier pairs, only three were found breeding
there this year. It’s what the RSPB sees as a case of
too little being done too slowly.
The group has already shifted its focus to what it thinks is a better
alternative: licensing estates. A permit system would penalize estates
that allow infractions, such as harrier murders, to happen on their
property. “We’re not asking for the Earth here,” Housden says. “Just
about every other country in the world with large sport shooting
communities has regulations that cover the sorts of things we’re talking
about.” Penalties could also encourage improvements in harrier habitat
by discouraging destruction of wetlands and scrub, practices commonly
used on intensively managed moorlands.
Avery, meanwhile, is looking to take things even further. His petition calls for a blanket ban on
driven grouse shooting,
which is controversial in its own right. Estates that host these
massive hunts are more likely to be linked to raptor harassment due to
a dependence on high gamebird stocks. Avery’s next step is to start a
letter-writing campaign on the issue that's directed at Members of
Parliament (MPs).
The RSPB also plans to work with MPs to spur some action on estate
licensing. “Voluntary regulation isn’t working,” Housden says; the fight
needs to go to the legal level. If the estates and grouse hunters can’t
play nice, conservationists are more than happy to change the rules of
the game entirely.
