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the Steering Group and government (Table 1). It members
formally represented different sectors (footnote 2 to Table 1).
With 46 organisations contributing to the Steering Group’s
deliberations (footnote 1 to Table 1), the advisory process was
fully inclusive.
Following recommendations from theWorking Group, at first a
voluntary approach to phasing out use of lead shot in wetlands
was promoted. When it became clear that this approach
was of limited effectiveness, government announced that it
would legislate to ban lead shot use in wetlands in order to
comply with obligations under the African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbirds Agreement (AEWA) which, by this time, the UK had
ratified (see below; Table 1).
Different legislative approacheswere adopted in the constituent
countries of the UK (Table 1). England and Wales banned the
use of lead shot over all foreshore, over specified Sites of Special
Scientific Interest (SSSIs), and for the shooting of all ducks
and geese, coot Fulica atra and moorhen Gallinula chloropus,
wherever they occur. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, lead
shot was prohibited from use on or over any area of wetland for
any shooting activity, with wetlands defined according to the
Ramsar Convention’s definition.
Year Lead Shot inWetland Areas Steering Group † Lead inWaterfowl
Working Group ††
Statutory responses
1991 June: IWRB workshop on ‘Lead Poisoning in
Waterfowl’, Brussels (Pain 1992).
September: first meeting of interested parties
convened by Department of the Environment
(DoE). Establishment of Working Group (WG) as
a sub-group of the Steering Group.
October: Meeting of WG.
1992 October: secondmeeting receives annual
report fromWG. Agrees five year programme of
work – three years to develop suitable lead-free
alternatives followed by a two year voluntary
ban on the use of lead shot in 12-bore guns in
wetlands.
January, May, September
& December: WG
meetings.
1993 October: third meeting receives annual report
fromWG.
February, September &
December: WG meetings
DoE fund establishment
of experimental ballistics
research facility at
University College
London (UCL) to assist
evaluation of non-toxic
cartridges.
February: DoE issue press notice reporting WG
advice – “Lead shot should not be allowed to fall
into coastal and inland wetlands where it might
cause lead poisoning of waterfowl.
Accordingly, wildfowl and wader shooting with
lead shot should not take place over estuaries, salt
marshes, foreshore, lakes, reservoirs, gravel pits,
ponds, rivers, marshes and seasonally flooded land
(river flood plains, water meadows, and grazing
marshes).
Since shot gun pellets can travel up to 300 m, such
shooting should not take place within 300 m of the
edge of the wetland concerned if it would result in
the deposition of lead shot within it.”
1994 October: fourth meeting receives annual
report fromWG. Issues formal message: “The
gun and ammunition industry has indicated
that safe, effective alternatives for 12-bore
shooting are likely to be available in reasonable
quantities by September 1995. After this time
people are encouraged not to use lead in 12-bores
where it would pose a threat to waterfowl. After
September 1997, an effective ban on the use of
lead in wetland areas is sought.”
March, June, September
& December: WG
meetings.
English Nature (EN) agree policy to ban use
of lead 12-bore cartridges on National Nature
Reserves (NNRs) where EN control the shooting
from September 1997, with a ban on other
gauges from September 1998. On other NNRs or
adjacent land EN will encourage use of non-toxic
shot from September 1997.
Table 1: UK timetable relating to the voluntary phasing out and subsequent statutory regulation of lead gunshot in wetlands.
Regulation of some sources of lead poisoning