The heroes of conservation

Many inspiring projects have been launched by those with a love for the land, aimed at halting biodiversity loss and improving habitats

- CAMILLA SWIFT

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”.