29th October 2014
Following the release of an unofficial report by the RSPB on crimes against Birds of Prey in the UK in 2013, the MA issued the following response.
Amanda Anderson, Director of the Moorland Association said:
One bird of prey death from an illegal act is one too many, but the RSPB continues to invest time and money in unofficial reports to inflate the issue of birds of prey crime.
In fact, even its own figures show a drop of 39% in reported incidents from 2009 – 2012; a good news story never highlighted in its anti-gamekeeping agenda.
The MA works with Partners Against Wildlife Crime to publish actual official crime figures from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to stamp out wildlife crime and is working hard with RSPB and others to finalise a recovery plan for the hen harrier in England.
At a time when most of Britain’s birds of prey are at an all-time high with hundreds of thousands of individuals, the MA continues to advocate legal solutions for rural conflicts.
The MA also promotes conservation success stories such as the Merlin – Britain’s smallest bird of prey – which is four times more abundant on moors managed for red grouse, with breeding records doubling in the last 20 years, whereas where there are no gamekeepers they have alarmingly dropped by half in the same time frame.
