Lough Neagh heritage plan raises wildfowling concerns

A single sentence in Lough Neagh's new 10-year heritage plan has prompted Countryside Alliance Ireland to question whether wildfowlers are being written out of the lough's future. The plan proposes birdwatching stations that would begin transferring the lough's image from a place to shoot birds to a place to watch them, though it makes no proposal to restrict wildfowling itself.

What does the Lough Neagh plan actually say?

The Lough Neagh Heritage Resilience Plan runs to 196 pages and is dated March 2026, with a public launch in July. It was published by the Lough Neagh Partnership with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and concludes the Lough Neagh Ownership and Heritage Resilience Project.

The passage in question sits under a goal on community stewardship and skills, in an objective about enhancing local economic opportunities. Describing a proposed network of birdwatching stations, it says the work "will also start the transfer of the image of the Lough as a place to shoot and hunt birds to a place for birds to be watched and protected".

The action appears in the plan's implementation table costed at about £500,000, scheduled across years three to ten. It is a tourism and community facilities proposal rather than a policy on shooting.

Why has Countryside Alliance Ireland responded?

Gary McCartney, writing for Countryside Alliance Ireland, said the sentence had caught the attention of many in the shooting community because words matter, and because it suggests a future in which the wildfowler's role is gradually overlooked.

His central point is about omission rather than prohibition. Clubs around the lough install nesting tubes for ducks, carry out predator control, maintain hides, manage wetlands and clear litter from the shoreline, he wrote, and predator management benefits lapwing, redshank and other ground-nesting birds as well as quarry species.

"To be clear, the plan does not propose banning wildfowling or removing shooting rights; the concern is more subtle," he wrote, arguing that an emphasis on birdwatching and wildlife tourism "could influence future decisions about access, recreation and land management". He closed: "Partnership, not division, offers the best future for Lough Neagh."

He also noted that much of the plan deserves support, given the lough's problems with water quality, blue-green algae and declining biodiversity.

Does the plan mention wildfowling elsewhere?

It does, once, and in positive terms. The document cites a co-production project between the British Trust for Ornithology, the partnership and the wildfowling community reviewing predation impacts on waterbirds, describing it as a practical model for combining academic research with local knowledge.

No wildfowling club is named in the plan, and it contains no proposal to license, restrict or end shooting on the lough. The word "shoot" appears once in the whole document, in the birdwatching stations passage.

Why does Lough Neagh matter to wildfowlers?

At roughly 392 sq km, Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles and one of the most heavily designated. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area, with numerous Areas of Special Scientific Interest around its shores.

The plan records that the lough is internationally important for wintering wildfowl, with peak winter counts averaging about 66,800 birds, while noting that numbers of most species have significantly decreased. It also records that DAERA must license activities affecting protected habitats.

That combination, an internationally important wintering resource in decline, is exactly the ground on which the value of club conservation work is argued.

What happens next?

The plan is a 10-year framework and the birdwatching stations action is scheduled for years three to ten, so nothing changes on the shoreline this season. The immediate question is whether wildfowling clubs are brought into delivery.

Clubs and individual guns who use the lough can read the plan in full on the Lough Neagh Partnership website and take up the recognition point directly with the partnership. Countryside Alliance Ireland has said it raised wildfowling's contribution with the partnership as far back as the 2016 Lough Neagh future search conference.