RSPB exits failed raptor project
The RSPB has ended its involvement with the Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative (PDBPI), following the partnership project’s continued failure to improve the fortunes of raptors in the Dark Peak.
The PDBPI involved five land management and conservation organisations and was set up in 2011 in a bid to boost bird of prey populations in the Dark Peak, the northern part of Derbyshire’s Peak District.
In response to low numbers, poor breeding success and illegal persecution of birds of prey, the initiative set five-year targets for healthy sustainable breeding populations of three species: Merlin, Peregrine Falcon and Short-eared Owl; from 2016, it expanded these targets to include Hen Harrier and Northern Goshawk.
The lot of Short-eared Owl has failed to improve in the Dark Peak (Tim Melling, RSPB).
However, the initiative failed to meet any of the targets set, and for some species the situation has continued to worsen. Last year, no Peregrine Falcons successfully bred in the Dark Peak for the first time since 1984.
Richard Barnard, the RSPB’s Area Conservation Manager for Yorkshire and the Peak District, said: “We have committed a lot of time and energy to make this project a success, but it’s clear that this is not going to happen. Despite five years of monitoring data and the presentation of clear evidence from local raptor groups and the RSPB, some members of the group are still failing to acknowledge that the main reason birds of prey are doing so badly in the Dark Peak is because of illegal persecution such as shooting, trapping and poisoning. By refusing to admit the scale of the problem, and its clear link with land used for driven grouse shooting – highlighted in numerous studies and reports – these members have frustrated any possibility of progress.”
The illegal persecution of birds of prey has cast a shadow over the Dark Peak for many years. The RSPB’s 2006 Peak Malpractice report and its 2007 update chronicled numerous confirmed incidents against birds of prey and charted serious declines of several raptor species such as Northern Goshawk, which pointed to sustained and widespread persecution in the area.
Peregrine Falcon continues to attract illegal persecution despite the RSPB and other conservationists' best efforts (Tim Melling, RSPB).
Despite this proven paucity of raptors, illegal activity has continued in the Dark Peak since the formation of the PDBPI. For example, in May 2015 a covert camera recorded four shots being fired at an active goshawk nest in the middle of the night in the Derwent Valley. In February 2016, footage was published which showed an armed man crouched close to a plastic Hen Harrier decoy on a grouse moor, thought to be positioned to lure in a female harrier that had been seen the previous day.
The man seen here used a plastic Hen Harrier decoy to lure in a female bird to shoot (RSPB video screen grab).
Richard continued: “The failure of the initiative’s voluntary approach by land managers, their representative bodies and statutory organisations to help birds of prey, exemplifies why the RSPB is calling for the introduction of a licensing system for driven grouse shooting. Proper regulation would help birds of prey to recover in areas like the Dark Peak and would drive up standards in an industry whose reputation has been severely tarnished in recent years.
“Having left the initiative, we will now be focusing our efforts in the Peak District on working in partnership with like-minded organisations to improve the fortunes of birds of prey through our continuing investigations work, management of our landholdings, ongoing monitoring and reporting, and the development of Upland Skies, a large-scale people engagement and conservation project aimed at enthusing local people about birds of prey.”
The RSPB is supporting Ed Hutchings’s petition to license driven grouse shooting.
