To assist in the research and evidence gathering of Natural England’s review of ‘wild take’ licensing, Dialogue Matters were commissioned to design, develop, facilitate, and provide reports of discussions from two multi stakeholder workshops with organisations who were interested in or potentially impacted by future licensing decisions for wild take.
Representatives from all organisations that responded to Natural England’s public call for evidence were invited to attend the workshops. Dialogue Matters and Natural England then worked together to ensure, as much as possible, that there was a fair balance of voices from different relevant interests and knowledge-types (e.g., falconry, aviculture, conservation, animal welfare) that were available to attend.
In the first workshop, participants worked together to set out a vision for what success in terms of licensing wild take might look like, shared knowledge and information, and discussed what would constitute effective policy. At the second workshop an update on progress in the policy review process and conclusions drawn from all evidence gathered was presented by Natural England. A broad outline of two draft policy options developed by Natural England from that evidence was also shared. Workshop participants discussed the pros and cons of the draft policy options, indicated their level of support for each, and shared what would need to happen for them to increase their support.
The evidence from this report has been combined with other evidence gathered for the review, to inform Natural England’s advice to Defra on the future of wild take licensing in England.