RSPB loses hen harrier legal challenge – yet again

The Countryside Alliance has welcomed the decision by the Court of Appeal to dismiss legal challenges bought by the RSPB and Wild Justice's Mark Avery against the trial hen harrier brood management scheme.

Defra's Hen Harrier Action Plan, published in January 2016, provides us with the best opportunity to understand the decline of the hen harrier in England, and all component parts of that plan, which includes the trial brood management scheme, have a vital role to play in reversing that decline. Although initially supportive of the Action Plan, the RSPB withdrew their support just six months after it was launched, citing their opposition both to the trial brood management scheme, and southern re-introduction of hen harriers, as their reasons for doing so. This was despite these both being internationally recognised conservation tools that the RSPB themselves use for other species.

In 2019, the RSPB and Mark Avery launched a Judicial Review into the brood management scheme, but this was turned down by the High Court, all seven grounds for their application being dismissed by Mrs Justice Lang DBE. It is their appeal of that judgement over the lawfulness of brood management that has now been dismissed, the courts confirming for a second time that the scheme is legal.

One can but wonder why the RSPB and Mark Avery should be against a management scheme that is so clearly reversing the decline of the hen harrier and helping improve its conservation status in England. Since Natural England issued its first licence for brood management in 2018, the increase in the number of hen harrier chicks fledged has been dramatic. This year was the best for hen harrier breeding success in England since the 1960s, with 84 chicks fledged from 24 successful nests spread across uplands in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. Of those 24 nests, 19 (79%) were on moorland managed for grouse shooting. This is the fifth successive year of increases, following a low of only 8 chicks in 2016 when Defra launched its Hen Harrier Action Plan. It is extraordinary that the RSPB and Mark Avery should want to put a stop to this.