The buzzard U-turn is welcome but the fight doesn't end there

There was a time when buzzards were persecuted to the brink of extinction – hen harriers, peregrines and goshawks still are

Although buzzards are flourishing, there is just one breeding pair of hen harriers left in northern England. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

If anyone doubts that people do not care enough about wildlife then a cursory look at the emails, tweets, letters and calls that have flooded into the RSPB in recent days will open their eyes.

I have never felt such a palpable sense of anger from the public as has been shown over Defra's plans for a pilot project remove buzzards and destroy their nests in order to protect pheasants released by shooting estates.

The wildlife minister, Richard Benyon, had little choice but to cancel the project – and he made the right choice. But we are fools if we start celebrating now.

This was never about forcing a minister into an embarrassing climb-down while we rub our hands on the warm glow of political schadenfreude. It was about fighting the very real threats that birds of prey – symbolic monarchs of our natural environment – face in this country. And, unsaid but always at the forefront of my mind, it was about showing that people can live alongside nature without harming it for our own ends.

When I was a boy I had to travel to the Long Mynd in Shropshire before I caught my first glimpse of this magnificent bird, and when my grandfather was a child buzzards were non-existent in large parts of the country. Persecuted to the brink of extinction, there were just a couple of thousand left in the west of England at the start of the 20th century.

Today, after many years of legal and political battles, my own children can see buzzards in the countryside near where we live in Cambridge. There were close to 40,000 at the last count, and they can be found in every county – although we still get a steady flow of reports of birds illegally shot, poisoned and trapped.

Buzzards are a success story – red kites are also recolonising large areas of England thanks to reintroduction projects and tough legislation on killing birds of prey. But there is just one breeding pair of hen harriers left in northern England, an area with enough viable upland habitat to support hundreds. Peregrines and goshawks are also regular victims of persecution and their populations are struggling as a result.

One third of all bird of prey species in this country have been driven to extinction at some point in history. These are some of the nation's best loved species, but despite this humans are a real and ever present danger to their very existence.

So, yes we welcome this U-turn but the champagne is still on ice. Unless the unnecessary killing of birds of prey ends, the threat is still there. This whole episode has been an unwanted distraction for Defra who should be targeting their funding at those species – like hen harriers – which are most in need.

And having seen the strength of public opinion, Benyon must now direct Natural England to refuse any licence applications to kills birds of prey, from shooting estates or anywhere else.

This is an important test of our society's attitudes to nature. Many of us believe that wildlife enriches our lives and that we can live in harmony on this island with all our native species. I hope that our elected politicians can now show that they feel the same.

• Martin Harper is the RSPB's Conservation Director