Caught once again with egg on its face, Defra has agreed to pull a policy decision which would have allowed the capture of buzzards and destruction of their nests to benefit organisers of pheasant shoots. The plans had been sanctioned by Wildlife Minister Richard Benyon, who today announced their withdrawal in the face of public outrage.

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Commentators said the move, which came to light late last week, has served to make the government appear further out of touch than ever before. The Guardian’s George Monbiot accused the minister of base cronyism over his initial decision. Today’s retraction by Benyon follows a botched attempt to sell of swathes of England’s forests, for which environment secretary Caroline Spelman was forced to apologise in Parliament last year.

Under the plans, buzzards, hailed as one of the UK’s finest conservation achievements, having made a return to every English county after years of persecution left them confined to a few areas in the West, were to be captured and removed from estates where game shooting takes place based on spurious evidence supplied by industry lobbyists.

Defra had allocated £375,000 for research into ways of preventing birds of prey from interfering with pheasant poults. However, research conducted by Adas found that all birds of prey are responsible for the deaths of around one per cent of poults, which are released by the million for game shooting; collisions with automobiles account for many more deaths, according to researchers.

The latest U-turn by Defra was in response to a furious backlash from the RSPB and its supporters. Conservationists reacted with fury when it was revealed the government had sanctioned plans to capture buzzards and destroy their nests to prevent them breeding near estates where pheasant shooting takes place.

Even government documentation revealed the impact of buzzards on pheasant populations was not fully understood; Defra instead relied on figures which showed 76 per cent of gamekeepers believe buzzards have an impact on poult populations.

Mr Benyon today said that wildlife protection laws and conservation measures had resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of birds of prey in England and Wales. He said this means, "We need to understand better the whole relationship between raptors, game birds and other livestock," but said that the focus of research on buzzards would change.

Lobbying organisation Countryside Alliance, which lists shooting as one of its major campaigns, condemned the U-turn; it claimed that Mr Benyon’s announcement revealed “ministers are now willing to give in to whoever shouts the loudest.”

However, RSPB conservation director, Martin Harper responded with relief that Mr Benyon had heeded the public’s concerns. He said “The minister has acted in the public interest by cancelling this project. The recovery of the buzzard is being celebrated by the public after many decades of persecution. It is clear they don't want their taxes being spent on removing buzzards and the Government has to ensure that no bird of prey will be killed in the name of sport.

“We don't want anything to distract Defra from the pressing task of saving our threatened wildlife. It should be putting its limited resources into areas such as preventing the extinction of hen harriers in England. Government-backed research has already concluded that illegal persecution is limiting the populations of golden eagle and hen harrier.”

The RSPB director said there are well tested, non-lethal solutions to reducing impacts of buzzards at pheasant pens if they become troublesome.

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