Staghunting & Sustainable Use

Peter Garner M.A.
Campaign Team
Countryside Alliance
Unit 5c
Lakeland Business Park
Cockermouth
Cumbria
CA13 OQT
Tel: 01900 828870 Fax: 01900 828863
e-mail: peter-garner@countryside-alliance.org

Ortega y Gasset - Meditations on Hunting

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Stag Hunting and Sustainable Use.

The stag / deer-hunting debate in south-west England is a microcosm of broader debates about our relationship and responsibilities to individual animals, animal populations, rural peoples and their communities. Such debates are inherently complex masking the interdependence of many of these components.

Political independence combined with economic and social pressures has compelled some in the developing world to reassess their attitudes on how the needs of wildlife and rural communities can be addressed and complimented. These pressures have spawned an increasing realisation of the concept of conservation through the sustainable use of animal populations. By promoting wildlife as a harvestable resource human and animal populations are being sustained.

However in the developed world there persists a conservative misconception that species protection and animal welfare equates with conservation. The historic lessons learnt in developing nations should facilitate a re-assessment of this top down approach. Particularly among policy makers and opinion formers in industrialised nations. Where an animal welfare / protectionist mindset could have detrimental impacts on environments and peoples similar to that experienced by groups of indigenous people around the globe.

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Attitudes to animals and the natural world are a direct function of social-economic "development." On changing attitudes in English society 1500-1800 Keith Thomas has written.

(Keith Thomas - Man and the Natural World Pg. 301.)

In Western societies this trend has led to an anthropomorphic view of wild animals compounded by the delusion that the environment is a self-balancing mechanism governed by the laws of nature. Stephen Budiansky an American scientific and environmental writer has systematically dismantled this myth in a refreshingly original book - Nature's Keepers the New Science of Nature Management.

Budiansky's thesis is that because we have deluded ourselves about our central role in shaping landscapes and impacting on animal populations we are in danger of abdicating our responsibilities to actively manage environments, animals and the people that interact with both. We in the "West" cannot jump off the world of our own making to satisfy a romantic laissez-faire eco-fantasy that we live in a naturally balancing wilderness. A wilderness into which we can refuse to reconcile the conflicting interests of people and wildlife.

Increasingly a protectionist approach to conservation underwritten by exaggerated concerns for animal welfare has been found to be inappropriate to reconcile wildlife populations, the environment and rural people. Inevitably conflicting perspectives have created tensions at a global, national and local level to the point where rural peoples in the West now face common threats and shared struggles with indigenous people around the world.

(Robin Pellew, Director, WWF-UK. Communities Are Key To Conservation Success.)

"In brief, there is a real dichotomy between human-centred and nature-centred motives for conservation and confusion between animal welfare and the effective conservation of species and eco-systems. It appears that the average urban Westerner views conservation as the attainment of animal welfare and the protection of goals. The long-term task for Africans is to move this "centre of gravity" of opinion in the direction of the view that conservation and human interests are inextricably linked." (T.Maveneke, J.Hutton, E.Kawadza - Africa Resources Trust - Website.)

That the "centre of gravity" in this global debate has already moved is undeniable and is evidenced by an acceptance of the concept of sustainable use among progressive conservation bodies, aid agencies and national governments.

The World Conservation Strategy (1980) published jointly by The World Conservation Union (IUCN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) stressed the importance of sustainability in the use of renewable resources. This was reiterated in the follow up document Caring for the Earth - A Strategy for Sustainable Living in 1991. This document stated that within the limits of the earth, people have "the right. . .to the resources needed for a decent standard of living, and hence a right to derive economic and other benefits from wild species." The 18th General Assembly of the IUCN held in Perth, Australia resolved (Recommendation 18/24) that:

The following year, the Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the Rio "Earth Summit", with sustainable use as one of its three objectives.

Given this trend it is unsurprising that the International Fund for Animal Welfare's application to join the IUCN has been rejected twice on the basis that IFAW are not a conservation organisation. While Western based approaches to animal welfare / protection are inherently based on a "top-down" approach pragmatic sustainable use conservation programmes by definition are most effective when local rural communities are given a stake in the wildlife with which they live and thereby the environment of both is sustained.

(Elephants, Economics and Ivory- Edward B. Barbier, Joanne C. Burgess, Timothy M. Swanson and David W. Pearce. Ch 6 Pg 141 Domestic Reform: The Importance of Local Ownership.)

(Communities are key to Conservation Success - Robin Pellew Director, WWF UK.) ,

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Ironically while sport hunting, the generic international term for country sports, is being promoted as the engine driving some community based sustainable use projects in Africa and Asia. In the West and the UK in particular it is being attacked on animal welfare grounds. Its importance in sustaining game species as well as other animal populations and environments is being ignored in the clamour for abolition. It is hoped that politicians, policy makers, and opinion formers will re-assess their views on sport hunting by grasping the positive difference it has made in parts of Africa and comparing this to the specific sport of deer hunting with hounds in south west England. Moreover it is hoped that a fresh look at all country sports will be possible from this starting point and that one day they will be fully recognised for the benefits they deliver to the people and wildlife of rural Britain.

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One of the most dramatic success stories of the sustainable use philosophy has taken place in Zimbabwe. In contrast to the fact that the world's biodiversity is shrinking daily, Zimbabwe's wildlife is flourishing. More than 30 % of the country's land mass is under some form of wildlife use. There are greater numbers of several wildlife species than ever before despite human population growth and land tenure problems. To the surprise of many sport hunting has played a major role in this process.

This has been achieved by returning the management and ownership of wildlife to rural people from whom they were dispossessed during the colonial era. Across Africa colonialism established first game reserves and then national parks from which local people were excluded.

(Brian Leith- Whose game is it anyway, BBC Wildlife August 1995.)

This exclusion resulted in an inevitable backlash that manifested itself in the poaching outrages of the 1970's and 80's as parks became reservoirs of animals that either marauded outside park boundaries damaging crops, fencing and huts or posed a very real threat to peoples lives. From 1991 -1996 368 rural Zimbabweans have been killed by rogue elephants.

The solution to this human - wildlife conflict was pioneered in Zimbabwe by decentralising wildlife management and introducing sustainable-utilisation. Following amendments to Zimbabwe's Park's and Wildlife Act in 1975, 1982 and 1990 the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources - CAMPFIRE was established with two key objectives.

• Allow rural communities to utilise natural resources.
• Develop local institutions for managing these resources.

By establishing democratic structures at village, ward and district levels income from wildlife utilisation is distributed to local people. While sport hunting is not the only form of wildlife utilisation it is by far the greatest income earner. Safari operators through the leasing of hunting concessions from district councils contribute 90 % of the wildlife based revenue earned through CAMPFIRE's sale of sport hunting to US and European hunters. To ensure that culls are sustainable "take-off" is monitored by local communities with technical assistance from WWF monitors. Moreover by using wildlife in this way their habitats can also be safeguarded by out-competing cattle and crops as the comparative financial returns from cattle and wildlife demonstrate on Zimbabwe's marginal lands.

Funding from sport hunting in less marginal communities has facilitated the construction of electric fencing to protect crops and villages in a restricted area and the remaining ward has been set aside for wildlife, sport hunting and eco/adventure based tourism.

"Through CAMPFIRE, rural communities use funds generated from hunting to assist their development. Elected committees decide how to distribute funds according to local needs and priorities. During drought years, money tends to be distributed mainly as household incomes. In more abundant years, funds are directed towards community development projects such as building roads and clinics, installing grinding mills and drilling wells." CAMPFIRE website.

"Thanks to hunting, people whose livestock or crops are damaged by wildlife are paid compensation, and funds are used to pay for an anti-poaching unit. In addition, at the end of each successful hunting trip, the meat is distributed free to the community nearest to where the animal was hunted. " CAMPFIRE website.

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It is ironic that while rural communities across parts of Africa are re-connecting with wildlife many politicians driven by 'populist" animal welfare organisations wish to reverse this trend in the UK. Moreover what is of particular interest is that the likely outcomes of this process can be seen by the impacts of localised deer hunting bans on National Trust land on Exmoor and the Forestry Commission holdings on the Quantock Hills.

Indeed our contention is that although there are obvious historical and cultural differences very real parallels between the lessons of the CAMPFIRE model in Zimbabwe and deer hunting in south- west England exist. Deer hunting with hounds being one of the best examples of communally based wildlife utilisation in Britain. Reconciling a rural community with the maintenance of an animal population, in this case substantial herds of red deer. In order to understand this complex and fragile relationship it is essential to appreciate how the landscape, rural community and red deer inter-act.

The range of the significant red deer herds of south-west England consists significantly of small privately owned or tenanted farms. Within the Exmoor National Park 77.1 % of land is privately owned. On the Quantock Hills small to medium sized farming units are also typical.

Land use figures for the Exmoor National Park which contains substantial hunted deer herds are as follows:

Within this landscape significantly large visible herds of red deer are thriving uniquely in the United Kingdom. Comparisons with the red deer in Scotland (or upland areas of Cumbria) that range over extensive areas of sheepwalk or moorland are inappropriate.

(The Conservation & Management of Red Deer in the West Country - Deer Hunting Working Party Report - National Trust March 1993.)

It is therefore important to emphasis that the deer hunting areas of the southwest hold the largest concentrations of red deer in England. The English population is estimated at up to 12,500 beasts, 5750 reside in and around the Exmoor National Park, 800-900 range in the Quantock Hills with other population pockets scattered throughout the UK, notably in the New and Thetford Forests and the Peak District. (A Review of British Mammals - Joint Nature Conservation Committee 1995)

Not only do the deer hunting areas of the south-west boast the largest and most visible deer herds in England but also the quality of the deer in the region is well known. This is evidenced by large heads (antlers) on stags and early sexual maturity in hinds. The red deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks are recognised as being of superior size and quality. For example on Exmoor hog dressed mature hinds weighed 11 % higher than those in Scottish commercial forests and 20 % higher than Scottish open-hill red deer herds.

Part of the reason for the high quality and density of red deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks is their access to pasture and agricultural crops for feeding.

(Langbein and Putman. Ch 12. The Exploitation of Mammal Populations.)

(J. Langbein - The Ranging Behaviour of Deer...Exmoor and Quantock Hills. Pg 101.

Indeed the impact of herds of red deer on farm incomes in Exmoor and the Quantocks is significant with estimates ranging from £500 - £5000 per annum. A number of farmers interviewed recently on the Quantocks pointed out that their farming practices are modified to take account of the deer. This they suggested meant that the cost of keeping the deer on their land went beyond the actual damage they caused and included the opportunity cost of tolerating the red deer.

Nevertheless work by the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) has shown how great the impact of deer can be. In the conclusion of a "Consultation Paper on Notices Served under Section 98 of the Agriculture Act, 1947, to control deer causing agricultural damage" on a farm in the Exmoor National Park. It was stated:

Another ADAS study conducted on Slowey Farm, Luxborough, Somerset in October 1990 stated that:

This irrefutable evidence from ADAS demonstrates the very real conflict of interests between the red deer herds on Exmoor and the Quantocks and the large number of small to medium sized private or tenanted farms. This begs the question why such high levels of damage are tolerated. The simple answer is the pivotal role that deer hunting with hounds plays in the farming and wider rural community. A fact widely acknowledged by locally based organisations such as the Exmoor National Park, Exmoor and District Management Society, and The Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group. Who comment respectively.

(Management of Red Deer on Exmoor - Statement by the Exmoor National Park Authority Website.)

"In the West Country a delicate web of social and cultural strands preserves a healthy, dynamic population of wild deer, despite the significant cost to landowners and occupiers of the damage caused by deer, and grazing lost to them. By acting as a binding force in the fabric of the West Country community, dispersal of troublesome deer. The Exmoor and District Deer Management Society compliments hunting with selective stalking and dispersal. " (Hugh Thomas FRICS FAAV, Chairman of the Exmoor and District Deer Management Society.)

"Whilst the Quantocks do not form part of the Exmoor National Park, the Group is of the view that the hunt plays as important a role in the management of the red deer herd on the Quantocks." (Resolution- Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group - Meeting 3 April 1998.)

As the three organisations cited make clear the role of the three deer hunts is central in marrying the interests of the farming / rural community and the unique red deer herds of Exmoor and the Quantock Hills. Scott has demonstrated the overwhelming support for deer hunting on Exmoor through interviews and questionnaires. Of 420 farmers on Exmoor; of whom 62 % experienced deer damage, 95 % allowed deer hunting on their land and 82 % approved of deer hunting with hounds. On the Quantocks, Paddy Groves Master of the Quantock Staghounds estimates the support of 95 % of farmers / landowners within QSH hunt country.

In a practical way the activity of the hunt helps disperse the deer, which may also be called out specifically to scatter particularly large concentrations. This interest is further under pinned by the important social focus that the hunts provide and the general economic benefits hunting brings to the community. Recently demonstrated by the Report to the Rural Economy Working Group of West Somerset District Council. February 1999. This study estimated £10.1 Million expenditure on horses and hunting within this local economy.

Indeed if one takes the small number of deer that are culled by the hunts weighed against the very large amounts of expenditure that hunting generates the value of the deer to the region and community becomes apparent. Using the Devon & Somerset Staghounds as an example this can be demonstrated.

Expenditure on horses and hunting 1997-98 DSSH £4.2 Million

In the 1997-98 season the DSSH culled the following:

If one divides the revenue generated by hunting by the number of deer hunted, excluding the call-out casualty service the hunts provide, the value of one hunted stag / hind is £53,846 p.a. Constraints of time and resources have prevented us from researching exactly how this income is distributed through the community. However anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of tenant farmers operate hunt dependent livery yards and bed & breakfast businesses.

Yet the tolerance to the red deer goes deeper than the social and economic benefits deer hunting provides in Exmoor and the Quantocks. The deer represent a living icon for many in the West Country's rural community who take great pride in "their" deer that they "keep" with their crops and their grass. As the late Ted Hughes eloquently extolled in The Guardian 5 July 1997.

It is no coincidence that the Exmoor National Park logo carries the head and antlers of a red deer stag and that a significant factor in the designation of Exmoor as a national park in 1954 was the existence of its red deer herds.

Yet this widespread tolerance of the red deer can easily be upset as history and recent experience since the National Trust and Forestry Commission deer hunting bans has demonstrated. Once the deer are relegated to agricultural pest from a revered and valued quarry they at best will be reduced drastically in number and at worst shot to oblivion. Indeed the National Trust's own report, The Conservation & Management of Red Deer in the West Country. March, 1993. Pg 27, stated.

This situation will and has in the past escalated resulting in the depletion of the deer. As the deer and the farming community become divorced the deer become symbols of outside authority and resented all the more for that. The comparison with the colonial experience in Africa is a very real one.

(Ted Hughes - The hart of the mystery. The Guardian 5 July 1997.)

History and the outcomes of both National Trust and Forestry Commission deer hunting bans confirm the point. Deer hunting ceased on Dartmoor (1780) and on Exmoor and the Quantocks (1825) in each case the deer herds declined to near vanishing point. Deer hunting restarted on Exmoor (1855) and the Quantocks and the deer herds recovered. On Dartmoor deer hunting never restarted and the deer never recovered. Interestingly when hunting ceased on the Quantocks between 1907 and 1917 the deer declined to the point of extinction prompting the then truly Liberal Government under Lloyd George to forward a grant to reintroduce red deer to the Quantocks and establish a pack of hounds to manage them. For the same reason Sir Richard Ackland, former Labour Member for Gravesend, bequeathed his Holnicote Estate to the National Trust with the wish that deer hunting be allowed to continue.

Signs that history will repeat itself if deer hunting with hounds is banned by Parliament have been demonstrated by the outcomes of both the National Trust and Forestry Commission bans. On the National Trust Holnicote Estate there has been a reported (Daily Telegraph 2.11.98) 30 % reduction in red deer numbers as greater numbers of red deer have been shot and fenced out. This has been confirmed by a number of National Trust tenants and their neighbours. Furthermore as the red deer become increasingly gun shy they have moved onto neighbouring tenanted farms where the hunt can no longer operate. The impact ofthe Trust's descion is therefore periferating outward with an increase in shooting beyond the Trusts boundaries. If the deer are increasingly shot and fenced out of farms throughout Exmoor their future existence would look extremely doubtful.

A similar problem has arisen on the Quantocks where the Forestry Commission's ban has caused a similar breakdown in the management of the red deer herd. In Autumn 1997 the National press carried stories of the culling of 100 deer by local farmers deprived of hunt service to disperse deer on their land and fearful of increasing levels of crop damage. The cull stopped when the FC reintroduced licences to hunt the remainder of the 1997/98 season and remains in place while talks with the FC continue pending the outcome of the Joint Universities study into Prof Bateson's findings.

However having met a number of farmers on the Quantocks recently, including those involved in the 1997 Autumn cull, I was left in no doubt that farmers will not continue to support the red deer on their land without the involvement of the hunt. The point being made on more than one occasion that farmers resented feeding and keeping the deer on their land in order that Forestry Commission stalkers could thereafter "cash-in" on the carcasses at their expense. Indeed once shooting starts and the restraining influence of the hunt removed it is likely that farmers will be inclined to shoot the deer before the FC or their neighbours do. Tragically for all concerned the red deer on the Quantocks will disappear, perhaps for good.

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Comparisons between the experiences of an emerging African nation and a small corner of rural England may seem incredible. However despite obvious differences there are very real lessons to be learnt. In both examples it has been suggested that the pursuit of solely animal welfare / protectionist goals is incapable of conserving wildlife in all situations. Given the inability of animal welfare / protectionist approaches to integrate the interests of rural people and wildlife. In the CAMPFIRE example in Zimbabwe it is clear that policy makers have appreciated this and created the legislative and democratic structures to sustain both people and wildlife in marginal rural landscapes.

In Exmoor a less formal mechanism for community based resource management has evolved through deer hunting. However the common thread in both examples is the ability of both mechanisms to deliver reciprocal human and wildlife benefits. Indeed it has been suggested that historical evidence and recent outcomes following The National Trust and Forestry Commission based on narrow animal welfare criteria has compromised the future of the red deer herds on Exmoor and the Quantocks. Although it should be noted that despite strong feelings among farmers recently interviewed the FC's willingness to at least listen to broader conservation arguments is appreciated.

Indeed a shift in emphasis away from conservation toward animal welfare is reflected in the ver~y reports commissioned by the National Trust, The Report to the Council by the Deer 'Hunting Working Party - The Conservation & Management of Red Deer in the West Country (March 1993) has now been superseded by the findings of Professor Patrick Batesons - The Behavioural and Physiological Effects of Culling Deer (March 1997). However without wishing to comment on the validity of Prof. Bateson findings it may nevertheless be the case that stark choices based on a cost - benefit approach with regard to animal welfare / conservation may have to be made in order reach conclusions on whether red deer on Exmoor and the Quantocks continue to co-exist with the farmers and rural communities. A fact of life and death that extends well beyond the British countryside and is being addressed by progressive policy makers in other parts of the world.

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Date uploaded to site 17 May 2000