James Evans MS led a debate in the Senedd on Shooting and its benefit to Conservation and the Economy.
The debate I held in the Senedd on Shooting and its benefits to Conservation and the Economy is something extremely close to my heart. Shooting has massive benefits to the conservation efforts to restore land, help restore declining bird populations and other biodiversity improvements. Shooting contributes an annual spend of £7.4m on conservation across Wales, over 380,000 hectares and contributes £75 million to the economy, with 2,400 full time jobs. So many people are employed in the industry and many jobs and businesses are also associated with shooting. Shooting is part of the rural way of life.
The Welsh Labour Government Minister's response to the debate was extremely disappointing the Minister is pushing an anti-shooting and anti-rural agenda. The current consultation being proposed by Natural Resources Wales on the control of game birds will give them the power to ban the release of game birds in Wales. This will be devastating for rural jobs and livelihoods. I am proud to stand up for rural communities when many politicians are to keen to give way to people who do not understand the rural way of life.
