Tim Bonner: New shooting partnership launched

At the Game Fair at Ragley Hall today the Countryside Alliance and eight other rural organisations will be launching a sustainable game shooting alliance called Aim to Sustain. There are a lot of organisations with an interest in game shooting, which is no surprise given the size and diversity of the sector.

Aim To Sustain has been created so that those organisations can work more closely to promote the crucial role that sustainable game shooting plays in delivering biodiversity gain, protecting the countryside and sustaining rural communities. Crucially, it will do that through nine organisations standing together to deliver the strongest possible message to politicians and the public.

Whilst those organisations have been increasingly co-ordinated in recent years, there has often been a perception that there has been duplication of effort and a lack of a shared strategy. A public alliance should, therefore, also reassure all those with an interest in sustainable game shooting that whichever organisations they are members of we are all working together to deliver the most effective campaign for shooting.

The Alliance's own Chair, Lord Herbert, will initially co-chair Aim to Sustain with British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) Chair Eoghan Cameron.

The other organisations committed to the partnership are the British Game Alliance (BGA), Country Land & Business Association (CLA), Game Farmers' Association (GFA), Moorland Association (MA), National Gamekeepers' Organisation (NGO) and Scottish Land and Estates (SLE). The charity Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is acting as advisor to the group.

The organisations will work together to communicate to the public and decision-makers how sustainability is at the core of progressive game management. The partnership will also promote the highest standards of self-regulation and produce credible, robust and focused research.

From a personal point of view, I am very proud that the Alliance has been central to bringing together so many brilliant organisations who have so much to give in support of each other. Together we represent hundreds of thousands of members and have an unrivalled expertise in every part of game shooting.

Game shooting has been one of the success stories of the countryside in recent decades, creating thousands of jobs and contributing hugely to the conservation of the countryside. It has a growing number of friends, but also some critics. I am confident that by coming together to promote high standards, robust science and deliver the strongest promotion of sustainable game shooting, the Countryside Alliance and our partners will provide the strongest possible promotion and protection of shooting.

You can learn more about Aim to Sustain on its website and please also take part in the consultation which will help us develop the work of the game shooting alliance.