Canned consequence

HM government appear to have kicked the trophy import and export debate into the long grass for the time being – after all, they have enough on their plate with the current worldwide pandemic – but we as an industry can’t afford to let it slip without incurring costs to our way of life, livelihoods, and biodiversity management across the country.

BASC, as the UK’s biggest shooting industry body, has responded to the DEFRA consultation in favour of ‘Option four’, that is, no change to the current trophy import and export regulations. While I fully understand their reasons for doing so, a response in this vein will have undoubtedly been coloured by the wider response to the consultation, in which trophy hunting as a whole suffered by its association with a small sub-section of the international hunting market.

Option two, which suggests the introduction of stricter requirements to show a clear benefit to conservation and local communities to be demonstrated before trophies from certain species are permitted to enter or