Date: December 17, 2018
Source: British Ecological Society
A
conflict between those working to conserve numbers of hen harriers and those
maintaining commercial shooting of red grouse in the English uplands has
existed for decades with little sign of progress.
Drawing
on work conducted in psychology, a new study published today in the
journal People and Nature investigated the underlying values that
hunters and conservationists hold that make it so hard to find shared
solutions.
Ecological
studies over the last 30 years have shown that hen harriers and other birds of
prey are capable of reducing the number of grouse to such an extent that driven
grouse shooting can become economically unviable. Consequently, hen harriers,
although protected under UK legislation since 1952, are killed illegally on
grouse moors.
Researchers
from Bangor University and the University of Aberdeen surveyed a range of
organisations that represent the interests of field sports (i.e. hunting,
shooting, fishing) or nature conservation in England to assess their values and
attitudes towards hen harriers, grouse shooting and potential management
interventions.
Dr Freya
St John from Bangor University said: "We found that people who are
involved in field sports and those engaged in bird conservation hold more or
less opposing views about human relationships with nature, challenging our
ability to find shared solutions."
"Although
there is general agreement about the evidence of the ecological relationships
between hen harriers and grouse, there is much less agreement about the best
approach to manage them."
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