Half a million hectares of woodland and 100,000 hectares of copses are actively managed by game shoots in the UK. 430,000 people shoot game and 97% of shot game goes into the food chain.
These are a few of the facts about game shooting published in a new infographic by the UK’s largest shooting organisation the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).
The infographic highlights the facts that game shooting provides habitat and conservation management in the countryside, delivers high-quality landscapes and is a source of tasty food.
It states that the 41% of shoots providers create or maintain hedgerows and that 280,000 people work on shoots each year. 25,000 hectares of cover crops are maintained by shoots. Cover crops provide important food and shelter, particularly during winter, for threatened farmland birds such as yellowhammer, corn bunting and tree sparrow.
The effort put into game management and pest control is equivalent to 7,800 full-time jobs. Predator control helps to reduce predation on ground-nesting birds, which accounts for 40% of nest losses.
The infographic also points that the conservation contribution of shooting is recognised and that game shooting is regulated by law and guided by the Code of Good Shooting Practice.
BASC chairman Alan Jarrett said: “These facts show that game shooting is a cornerstone of the countryside. It provides a huge amount of valuable conservation and habitat work year-round; helping to provide food and shelter, manage hedgerows and to maintain and improve woodland. Without game shooting the British countryside would be a much poorer place.”
BASC chief executive Richard Ali said: “The message is simple – shooting is a force for good in the countryside. This infographic helps us to set out how game shooting makes a positive contribution in the UK providing food and work and helping to increase biodiversity by enriching habitats for wildlife.”
For more information please call the BASC press office on 01244 573052