Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Deputy First Minister & Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Wildlife management in Wales must be environmentally sustainable, legally robust, and aligned with our wider nature recovery ambition. Our commitments under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, our forthcoming statutory biodiversity targets, and our wider programme to reverse nature loss all require an evidence‑led, proportionate approach to activities that may affect sensitive habitats and species. Current evidence indicates that, when not undertaken responsibly, gamebird release can place additional pressure on some of our most sensitive environmental sites.
It remains our policy intention to move towards a more regulated and sustainable system for managing gamebird releases, including the potential introduction of a future licensing regime. In order to progress this, I have initiated an independent call for evidence. This work is essential to ensure that any future proposals are grounded in the strongest and most impartial evidence available, reflect Welsh ecological circumstances, and can withstand legal and scientific scrutiny.
Environment Platform Wales (EPW), working across Wales’s universities, will lead this independent evidence‑gathering process. Their work will draw on the latest scientific research, expert insight and practical experience to build a clearer understanding of potential impacts of gamebird release and to help identify where regulation may be required to protect our most sensitive sites.
This evidence review will form an important foundation for future policy development. It will help ensure that any decisions we take are transparent, proportionate, and aligned with our wider commitments to halt and reverse biodiversity decline, safeguard protected sites and uphold high standards of environmental governance.