Everyone knows that our countryside and the wildlife it supports is under increasing pressure but how much more pressure would it be under without the influence of shooting sports?  Management of land and species for shooting has massive benefits for conservation and BASC strives to have this recognised by politicians, the media and the public. 

One way we do this is to work with the shooting community and partners to target conservation effort on land which is shot over to achieve public conservation targets.  We call this programme of work Green Shoots and it is extremely successful in linking shooters and non-shooting conservation organisations together for the benefit of all wildlife.

Green Shoots was launched in the House of Commons in 2000 and triggered the developed a system of discovering what shooters knew about species and habitats of national importance on their land and then linking them with those with the skills and resources to make a positive change for shooting and conservation.

In May 2009 we held an event in the House of Lords to promote a review of our work under Green Shoots and our future direction, at which Graham Wynne, Chief Executive of the RSPB spoke, in support .  Green Shoots is endorsed by Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Environment Agency (which covers England and Wales).  This shows the strong support BASC and the shooting community has for its conservation efforts.

We wish to expand our Green Shoots programme and so if you are:

• a shooter with access to land in our project areas then please get in touch with the relevant project officer or Ian Danby, Head of Biodiversity Projects in the Conservation Team.
• a partner who wants to find out more about our Green Shoots programme and if it can come to your area of interest contact Ian Danby.

Please use the section links menu on the left to see the Green Shoots publication and videos, as well as the local projects currently underway.