Review of 2023 General Licences for wild bird control

Overview

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has undertaken a review of its 2023 general licences (GLs) for wild bird control. This is the first review since the Review of NRW’s approach to regulating the shooting and trapping of wild birds (“the Wild Bird Review”) concluded in 2022.

The GLs which have been considered as part of this review are:

GL 001 - Licence to kill or take six species of wild birds or to take or destroy their nests or eggs for the purposes of preventing serious damage or spread of disease to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables or fruit (the six species are Canada goose, carrion crow, feral pigeon, magpie, jackdaw and woodpigeon).

GL 002 - Licence to kill or take feral pigeon or to take or destroy their nests or eggs for the purposes of preserving public health, public safety or preventing the spread of disease.

GL 004 - Licence to kill or take carrion crow or to take or destroy their nests or eggs for the purpose of conserving wild birds.

GL 005 - Licence to kill or take ruddy duck or destroy their nests or eggs for the purpose of conserving wild birds.

We are minded to make some amendments to these GLs when we grant them for 2024. 

Why your views matter

The Wild Bird Review was undertaken between 2020-2022 by NRW staff, but an important element was gathering evidence and testing ideas and proposals through engagement with a wide range of external stakeholders. This included a call for evidence, commissioned evidence and a public consultation on proposals.

NRW’s Board endorsed our new approach to granting GLs, including the use of a set of high-level principles to determine when the grant of a GL authorising lethal control is appropriate. Our decision document, setting out this and all the other decisions made in relation to GLs was published in April 2022. One of the decisions was that GLs should continue to be granted annually, and  the GLs listed above  were issued for 2023.

One of the recommendations agreed by NRW’s Board was to establish a formal review process for GLs to take place at six-yearly intervals, intended to coincide with the periodic assessment and publication of Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) for Wales. The fourth BoCC assessment for Wales was published at the end of 2022, meaning that 2023 is the start of our six-yearly cycle of review.

The scope of this review does not include any changes to NRW’s overall approach to licensing the lethal control of wild birds, including our principles relating to the granting of GLs. The aim is to initiate the ongoing periodic review process which formed part of the commitments made.

What are we seeking feedback on?

We seek your feedback on our proposed changes to the GLs  for wild bird control. These changes, and the reasons for them, are set out in our review document, which can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of this page. Please read the review before responding.

Who are we seeking feedback from?

This is not a public consultation, We are inviting feedback only from organisations which are members of our informal stakeholder group.

If your organisation has not received the link to this page directly from NRW, please do not submit a response, as your comments will not be taken into account.

The decision document related to this review is included below