Inaugural Conservation Champions Awards presented by Marsdens and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation

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The National Gamekeepers Organisation were delighted to team up with Marsdens Games Feeds to create a series of new awards celebrating conservation and biodiversity in the game industry: the Conservation Champions Awards.  

The winners were recently announced at an awards-ceremony, with the winners and nominees demonstrating a wide range of commendable conservation and welfare success stories. 

David Pooler, Chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, was joined on stage by Thomas Welham, Sales Director for Marsdens Game Feeds, to present the awards. 

The awards were aimed at shoots, estates and gamekeepers, in a bid to highlight the positive impact their excellent work has on our countryside and split into five categories: Innovation; Husbandry & Welfare; Habitat; Responsible Land Management, and the Marsdens Special Award- a special commendation award for promoting gamekeeping and shooting, with the winner chosen by Marsdens. 

The winner of the Marsdens Special Award, which celebrated overall commitment to conservation, was awarded to Adam Horn of Godmersham Park Estate. Adam received a number of nominations for his outstanding work to improve habitat and maximise biodiversity on the Estate. His hard work is making a huge impact on biodiversity, which is why he was chosen for this award. Adam’s nomination is a true reflection of excellence in gamekeeping. 

The winner of the Innovation Award was David Butler of Perdix Wildlife Solutions Ltd., who was nominated for developing a cable restraint for the humane control of the fox population. Whilst highly effective at catching and holding foxes, the device is designed with a breakaway link to prevent the capture of non-target species, which is hugely important. A special mention was made of the runner-up in this category, Mark Elliot of Trusted Game, for his audit-based scheme to ensure the health and welfare of gamebirds, and his initiative is growing from strength to strength. Choosing the winner was a very difficult decision. 

The Husbandry and Welfare Award went to Craig Dennis from Thorney Moss Game Ltd. In this category nominees were voted for by vets, and Craig was put forward due to his approach to adopting innovative and forward-thinking rearing systems, including the use of renewable energy sources. Craig focuses on all aspects of husbandry, combining high levels of biosecurity, good feed management and an overall excellent environment for his partridges and pheasants, which results in a better-quality product and healthy birds. 

The winner of the Habitat Award was Stewart McIntyre, from Hainey Farm Shoot. Stewart is a keeper on a fenland shoot, and despite being among some of the most productive farmland in the country, the shoot exhibits excellent examples of quite unique fenland habitat. Stewart showed demonstrable commitment to continuing to expand habitats to achieve a great balance between highly productive farmland, and a thriving and sustainable shoot.  

The final award for Responsible Land Management was awarded to the Duke of Norfolk for his outstanding work on the Curlew Head Start Project. The project is working to expand curlew from their northern stronghold in the Yorkshire Moors to the Peppering Estate in West Sussex, and now also the Cranborne Estate in Dorset. The project is a great example of how through thinking outside the box, we can expand biodiversity across the UK for the greater benefit of our natural landscape. The Duke of Norfolk’s head keeper, Nigel Winter, was able to receive the award on the estate’s behalf.  

Thomas Welham of Marsdens Game Feeds said:

“We were delighted to launch the Conservation Champions Awards with the NGO. This is often an area sometimes overlooked in our industry, but is so integral to what keepers do and the positive impact to the UK’s natural thriving landscape which should be celebrated. 

“It was great to see so many nominations for fellow keepers and industry experts. Every nomination would have been a worthy winner and we strongly encourage everyone who was shortlisted to please enter again. Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s awards!

“We look forward to developing the awards with the NGO in future years.”

Given that this was the first running of the Awards, the NGO and Marsdens were delighted with the sheer number of nominees, as well as the high calibre of entries. As awards go, there could only be one winner for each category and we would urge anyone who didn’t win this year to re-enter for next year’s awards.

Due to the success of this year’s awards, we will be opening nominations for the 2024 Conservation Champions Awards soon. Further information will be available shortly at www.conservationchampions.org.