The heroes of conservation

Many so-called rewilding enthusiasts and selfstyled conservationists put forward the argument that shooting and fieldsports are dirty words. That conservation and fieldsports – and often farming, for that matter – are mutually exclusive, and that the presence of a shoot on an estate or piece of land means that wildlife is neglected. This is, of course, far from the truth. Gamekeepers and farmers know their patches of the countryside better than anyone and, as such, are perfectly placed to know which species might thrive and what improvements could be made to encourage them.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is at the forefront of promoting what it calls ‘working conservation’; that is, working on the basis that wildlife can thrive “if we focus on integrating its conservation with other land uses”.

The GWCT employs more than 60 scientists who conduct research into a wide range of species and ecosystems, from the life cycle of salmon and trout to the impact of pesticides on pollinators and the effect of different forms of cultivation on soil and water health. The charity has also recently launched a new website, workingforwildlife.co.uk, featuring case studies from working conservationists up and down the country. These aren’t people employed as conservation managers but rather, as they put it, “private land managers pioneering wildlife-friendly management in a productive countryside”. The GWCT, in conjunction with Natural England, also developed the concept of ‘Farm Clusters’, which encourage neighbouring farmers to collaborate on conservation schemes, giving them a far greater reach.

But with or without the help of the GWCT, thousands of estates and farms all over the country are conserving nature, improving animal and birdlife