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Reds, ambers and greens… but there’s more behind the scenes
Dr Cat McNicol challenges perceptions of the Birds of Conservation Concern list and explains why interpreting it in isolation has negative implications for shooting.
The IUCN red list is a system that highlights the extinction risk of species. It includes animals like the Critically Endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat and the Near-Threatened emperor penguin.
The list acts as a global triage system for species conservation. Interestingly, the idea for a bird conservation list originated from Sir Peter Scott, a well-known wildfowler, artist and founder of WWT.
BoCC traffic light system
The triage method has been adopted by various organisations to prioritise species of interest. In the UK, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) created the Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) List in 1996 for this very purpose.
The list has been updated four times since – we are now on BoCC5 – and uses a traffic light system to allocate birds into three categories: Red, Amber and Green. In a period where we are experiencing widespread species declines, the BoCC list is an important tool for highlighting which species should be conservation priorities. But it is all not quite as straightforward as that.
Decoding the BoCC traffic light system
At first glance, the colour system seems simple to interpret. ‘Red’ is bad, ‘Amber’ suggests there are issues, and ‘Green’ means no problems. So, for some of quarry species, such as pink-footed geese, gadwall and woodpigeon which are amber-listed, one might assume it is time to renounce our guns and stop harvesting them.
In fact, a well-known vegetable box company’s founder recently made this assumption in their newsletter: “Like the once common starling and sparrow, [woodpigeon] numbers are now much depleted; in some areas, they are already regarded as endangered”. Such a simple interpretation of the traffic-light system is incorrect and, without the right context, can lead to misguided decision-making.
The BoCC list does not solely represent species population trends. The species assessment process it uses considers multiple criteria relating to both the wintering and breeding populations of each species.
If the species passes certain thresholds for ANY of these criteria, it is assigned to a list. Criteria include:
- UK population trends and distributions;
- European and global red list status;
- rarity of the species in the UK; and
- the proportion of the European population that breeds or winters in the UK (the most significant criterion for many of our species).
Why are some species amber-listed?
The final of one of the above criteria (‘international importance’) is applied to species where more than 20 per cent of the European population breeds or winters in the UK. For this reason, for many of our amber-listed quarry, an amber listing does not necessarily represent anything problematic.
For example, the amber-listed gadwall has a globally favourable population, showing widespread growth trends (70 per cent increase in the last 25 years) and, you guessed it, they are amber-listed because the UK hosts in excess of 20 per cent of the European population in winter.
Numbers of pink-footed geese are increasing across the board but the species is amber-listed because we host 85 percent of the global population over winter. The same story is mirrored for other quarry including greylags, shoveler and teal.
So, it is not always due to population declines that these species are amber-listed, in fact, the increasing population trends of many of these wintering species only cements their place in the amber category.
And it is not just our wildfowl that highlight such nuances in the colour-coded system. The abundant woodpigeon provides another example of an amber-list anomaly. With more 5.1 million breeding pairs in the UK, this widespread species’ population is at an all-time high. By sheer volume this means that it represents over 20 per cent of the European population. Again, therefore, it is amber-listed.
Without context, one would assume harvest of amber-listed quarry should be restricted, as, there are several amber-listed birds which are genuinely declining. Common starling, nightingales, dippers and kestrels, for example are all red or amber-listed due to breeding population declines.
A superficial understanding of the BoCC list can lead to unnecessary management and hunting decisions. We must remember that it is not always due to population declines that these species are amber-listed. In fact, increasing population trends of many of these wintering species only serve to cement their place in the amber category.
Using BoCC for informed decisions
When we use the BoCC listing, its accompanying in-depth report and other data sources together, we can generate a hugely informative picture of our quarry species status in the UK, and how to best focus conservation and management efforts. Indeed, in an original BoCC report, authors highlight that the simple categorisation gives an indication of overall population status and when “taken together with other information, should inform the setting of conservation priorities.”
At BASC we believe harvest and conservation of our quarry should be sustainable and evidence-led. BoCC represents just one aspect of that evidence, which alone is too simplistic, and ultimately not designed for policy decisions. However, when used alongside a suite of other metrics and evidence bases, the BoCC categories can be informative.
Ultimately, it is a tool in the box rather than being one list to rule them all.
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Dr Cat McNicol
Scientific advisor working as part of BASC’s evidence and environmental law team. Cat holds a PhD in Wildlife Science and has spent much of her career so far working on grey squirrels and pine martens. Cat’s work at BASC focuses on providing guidance and evidence on the positive impacts that practical conservation work can have for both shooting interests and the environment.
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