A report entitled 'Agricultural Management and Climatic Change Are the Major Drivers of Biodiversity Change in the UK' written by a group of organisations including the RSPB confirms the benefits to habitats and wildlife of conservation work connected to shooting.
The report highlights the role played by the planting of woodland and the creation of wetlands such as ponds in boosting biodiversity.
The Value of Shooting, an independent study of the economic, environmental and social contribution of shooting sports, found that shooting is involved in the management of two thirds of the UK’s rural land area, that shoot providers spend almost £250 million a year on conservation and that those who shoot spend 3.9 million work days on conservation.
BASC's scientific adviser Dr Matt Ellis said: "This report provides welcome confirmation of shooting's role as a force for good in conserving nature. As BASC's lowland game white paper (http://basc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2016/04/BASC-White-Paper-Lowland-Game-Shooting.pdf) showed, nearly 40,000 providers of shooting are involved in creating and maintaining wetlands and planting and maintaining woodlands."
Notes to editors:
The Value of Shooting report can be found here: http://www.shootingfacts.co.uk/
'Agricultural Management and Climatic Change Are the Major Drivers of Biodiversity Change in the UK' can be found here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0151595
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