Welcome

About BASC
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) is the largest fieldsports organisation in the UK. It campaigns to protect and promote country shooting and conservation.

Country shooting includes live quarry shooting of game, wildfowl and the management of pest species..

BASC was founded in 1908 as the Wildfowlers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland (WAGBI).

Today it has 127,000 members and employs 100 full-time staff across the UK.

BASC is based in Rossett, near Chester. We have five regional English offices covering the North, East, Midlands, South East and South West. There are separate offices in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

BASC's aims

• We aim to build all-party support for shooting sports.

• We aim to secure balanced coverage in the media.

• We aim to ensure our members have the opportunity and the means to go shooting.

• We aim to promote high standards of conduct in the field and publish a number of codes of practice covering many aspects of firearms safety and use, the conduct of shooting sports, pest control and animal welfare.
  BASC members are expected to obey the law and to observe codes of practice.

Partnerships
BASC works with a number of partnership organisations in different aspects of its work and has long-term partnership agreements with English Nature and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

BASC is currently working with a number of organisations to tackle inner-city gun crime

BASC works with the National Federation of Anglers, the National Gamekeepers' Association, the Country land and Business Association and the Countryside Alliance to promote areas of common interest.

Shooting and Conservation
BASC's conservation work focuses on land which is managed for shooting, but covers a diverse range of species and habitats.

The BASC Green Shoots programme encourages conservation work by those who shoot. It is currently active with full time employees in Cheshire and the Somerset Levels. A new arm of the programme is about to commence in North Wales. The initial phase of this programme, which began in Cheshire, has been singled out by DEFRA as an example of best practice in encouraging biodiversity. it involves working together with people who own and manage shoots, local wildlife trusts and other organisations involved in biodiversity projects.

BASC and politics.
BASC encourages support for shooting from all political parties by demonstrating its value to the economy and ecology of the UK.

BASC has particular expertise in areas of firearms law, conservation, land management and game management and is regularly involved in consultations with government departments and other organisations.

BASC provides the secretariat for the All Party Group on Shooting and Conservation, which meets regularly.

BASC organises and annual Lords vs. Commons clay shooting competition.

More details on all of the above can be found on the BASC website at BASC.org.uk.