Tens of thousands of people enjoy the beautiful purple and green-carpeted North York Moors which certainly does not look like that by accident. I have been up to the moors with the gamekeepers on a number of occasions looking at different parts of the moors in my constituency. The parts that are being managed are green and purple whereas the areas that are left unmanaged, as trials, are very grey and very poor in terms of wildlife. Left unmanaged the moors just would not look as they do today and visitors would be far less likely to come.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on grouse shooting I explained how a ban would seriously affect the farming communities. Leaving the moors unmanaged would be tremendously bad for the people who work in the supply chain and all the related businesses. I really do not think they would find other jobs in North Yorkshire to the level that they have. A huge number of people are employed in the hotels and restaurants and as caterers, beaters or gamekeepers. People from all different social strata are involved in the whole economy around the grouse moors and grouse shooting. In fact, the sector provides £2 billion to the UK economy and 1,500 full-time equivalent jobs. There are huge benefits to people in constituencies such as mine in terms of the wider economy and wellbeing.
Some people say that grouse shooting is bad for the environment, but this is simply not true. The moorlands are rarer than rainforest and they host a huge amount of flora and fauna and also wildlife. I have seen with my own eyes that, in the patches that have been managed, there is a proliferation of curlews, golden plovers and lapwings literally teeming round the moors. In the areas that are deliberately not being managed as a trial, there is very little wildlife. The moors are very conducive to wildlife and I think the statistics show that there are five times as many rare birds in the managed areas as in the unmanaged ones.
The estates in my constituency include Snilesworth, Bransdale and Spaunton and they play an important role in preventing wildfires, which can be hugely damaging. The Climate Change Committee commented on this issue only this month in a report on climate risk. It said that the prospect of increased frequency and intensity of wildfires can manage habitats actively to improve their resilience, for example through the removal of fuel loads that risk wildfire. This is what happens when a canopy gets too big. The canopy then burns and burns the peat. So, what the people who manage the moorlands do to control this is called cool burning, which takes away the canopy without burning the peat. That is absolutely critical. It is carbon-neutral because the new growth absorbs the carbon that has been emitted, but there is no release of carbon from the peat layer, which is hugely important.
Furthermore, according to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust on alternative uses for the moors “Peatlands managed for cropland, grassland, forestry or fuel harvesting emit many times more at around eight to 39 tonnes CO2 per hectare per year. This compare to 2 to 5 tonnes on moorlands”. So it is clear that there are climate change benefits here as well.
When I was child, we never saw buzzards. I do not remember ever seeing a buzzard as a child, even though we spent most of our time outdoors. Now, there are a huge number always circling in the sky. Some relevant statistics come from Spaunton Moor and George Winn-Darley, who is the representative of the North York Moors to the Moorland Association. In a single year, there have been 1,552 sightings of birds of prey, including 10 hen harriers, three white-tailed sea eagles, 70 merlins, 193 kestrels, 16 short-eared owls, 163 barn owls, 84 peregrines, 14 marsh harriers, one osprey, 50 red kites, 57 tawny owls and 726 buzzards. Extrapolated across the whole moor, that would be 25,000 sightings of those very rare birds.
Of course, it is absolutely right that we should clamp down on any wildlife crime, including against birds of prey. Wild Justice was responsible for some changes to general licences that make it much more difficult to control other types of birds, such as gulls, which have a devastating impact on grouse chicks, lapwing chicks and curlew chicks. We must make sure that we take steps carefully and must be evidence-based. It is essential that our wildlife is properly protected, and anyone involved in game management must respect the country’s conservation laws, which are among the toughest in the world.
