Any licensing approach would be planned to come into force for the 2025/6 season
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has come under fire after recommending the Welsh government to implement a licensing scheme for the release of pheasants and red-legged partridges for the 2025/2026 season.
Countryside groups, shoot owners, and representatives of the hospitality trade warned that the plans risked 'devastating' the Welsh rural economy, while negatively impacting conservation efforts.
NRW issued a 12-week consultation on 27 March outlining its intention to add pheasant and red legged partridge to schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, putting them on par with invasive non-native species.
In their new report, NRW state: “We advise the Welsh Ministers that common pheasant and red-legged partridge should be added to Part 1 of Schedule 9 to the Act.
"Any releases of these two species in Wales should be managed through a proportionate risk-based licensing framework.”
If the decision is taken by the Welsh government to act on NRWs advice, it will move forward and develop a licensing approach that it claims “can be delivered effectively with the available resources.”
Any licensing approach would be planned to come into force for the 2025/6 season.
In its response, Countryside Alliance Wales has accused NRW of “ignoring” evidence submitted by thousands of rural stakeholders and warned the Welsh government against “alienating the rural community” by accepting the advice.
The rural campaigning body also claimed the proposed scheme amounts to a "ban on shooting through the back door".
Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the group, slammed the development as a "blatant, prejudiced and completely unjustified attack on the rural way of life".
“It is clear that NRW has delivered for their political masters in the Welsh government, who have always intended to impose unnecessary regulation on the sector which will have the potential to progressively restrict game shooting as we know it.
“A massive response from the Welsh public has delayed the proposals, but the potential impact on the conservation, communities and the economy of rural Wales remain."
He added: “The government in Cardiff is increasingly at odds with the countryside and it is at risk of further alienating the rural community. Ministers need to think very carefully about whether they accept NRW’s advice.
"We will be working with partners from across the rural sector to pursue every possible avenue and we will fight back against this attack on the rural way of life.”
The value of shooting in Wales is worth some ÂŁ75m to the economy and provides the equivalent of 2,400 full time jobs.