Self-regulation
When done well game management and shooting has a significant, positive effects on the countryside. Without high standards, the benefits we espouse are not delivered, or worse, damage is done instead. To show that bird welfare, food quality, environmental enhancement, biodiversity along with economic, social and cultural benefits are all delivered requires us to ‘walk the walk’, not just ‘talk the talk’. This is where self-regulation comes in.
Self-regulation provides evidence of voluntary adoption of standards to control game shooting by the people participating in it (game farms, shoot operators, gamekeepers, sporting agents, guns, beaters, pickers up, vets, game dealers, ammunition and feed suppliers), and the organisations involved with it. It is designed to show that additional expensive control by the government is not required.
Effective self-regulation means that government can monitor standards in the sector with confidence and not feel it necessary to add layers of regulation and bureaucracy. Effective self-regulation enables those who adopt high standards to be identified, as well as those who do not. Poor practice and behaviour by some in the sector have a significantly negative impact on our credibility with politicians and the public.
There are many ways to show you have adopted a self-regulation approach in your game management and shooting. This web page signposts and describe those activities, standards and practices that show adoption of the highest standards.
Why we need to evidence self regulation?
To avoid external regulation, self-regulation must be transparent, showing our high standards are their positive impact. Self-regulation must create evidence that individually and collectively as a whole game shooting sector that our claims of best practice and positive effects are real. Without evidence our claims are just that – claims and anecdote. Aim to Sustain as a partnership and all the organisations promoting game management and shooting need strong evidence to carry the debate with politicians and the public that game shooting is responsible, law abiding, environmentally sustainable and beneficial.
How do we evidence self-regulation?
There are many ways to engage with self-regulating and to generate the evidence of your high standards. There is no one thing and each person and organisation or business will need a different mix of evidence. The framework below and the linked pages provide all the information you need to plan your next steps to self-regulate:
Join one of the membership organisations, gain some new qualifications or register for a training course, ensure you are following the sector’s best practice guides or sign up your shoot to an assurance scheme, adopt a voluntary transition such as sustainable ammunition or antibiotic reduction and keep up to speed on the latest research and education. All are examples of effective self-regulation.
