Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
for shooting, spanning 4.4 of Scotland's 7.8 million hectares, offer major secondary benefi ts to bio-
diversity and deliver the equivalent of 2 000 full-time conservation jobs. Private landowners also
collectively invest over £43m each year on habitat improvement (including that of birds of prey) and
wildlife management ventures.
There is also increasing concern among land managers regarding recent research which seeks,
through population modelling, to demonstrate that the populations of certain birds of prey are below
the levels they
could
be and that persecution is the reason for this. A recent example of this was the
joint hen harrier conservation framework report published in February 2011 (Fielding, Haworth,
Whitfi eld et al. 2011). SRPBA and other industry organisations (most notably The Game and
Wildlife Conservation Trust, a respected UK scientifi c organisation) identifi ed a number of funda-
mental concerns with this report and raised some very specifi c scientifi c failings and fl aws within
it. These failings and fl aws seriously undermined the validity of some of the report's key fi ndings.
What was and remains more concerning to the SRPBA, given these questionable conclusions, was
the manipulation of the publication date in an attempt to infl uence a piece of legislation (i.e., the
Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill) that was moving through the Scottish Parliament. The report
was being used to try and restrict game shooting on estates in Scotland. In the end, the Scottish
Parliament did not support these damaging proposals and we very much welcomed this balanced
view. Scientists, whatever they specialise in, should be impartial and avoid getting involved in the
realm of speculation, otherwise their science is surely questionable.
It is noteworthy that a signifi cant amount of 'legal' poisons are still used in rodent and pest control
each year, and these cause many more untargeted accidental bird of prey deaths than illegal 'abuse'
does. The illegal use of poison is in decline, even if the speculation about it is not. Recent initiatives to
enable farmers and land managers to hand in 'out of date' chemicals for free disposal have been very
well received. Such schemes should be further expanded within Scotland to facilitate the submission
of now illegal substances like carbofuran, so that remaining 'bottles in sheds' can be removed from the
system, along with any temptation to use them. There have been instances where an estate employee
has tried to hand in such now illegal substances to law enforcement offi ces and has been told to take it
away. We need a better system than that. The SRPBA has been campaigning for such amnesty schemes
in Scotland since 2007. A calm and methodical approach, both by police and government, in partner-
ship with the game shooting and farming industry, is needed to fi nally resolve this issue.
However, at some point, the underlying causes of crime have to be examined and explored too.
If some illegal poisoning in Scotland continues today, we must ask why this is the case, especially
given the criminal penalties which exist. Why would people continue to take the risk? The answer
to this may lie in the fact that although the existing legislation in Scotland, as transposed from the
relevant EU Directives, does indeed allow for the legal control of wild birds where they are infl icting
serious damage, in practice the process is not working. It works in other land management sectors
where the control of wild birds is routinely sanctioned by licence to prevent serious damage to agri-
culture or fi sheries, for example licenses are regularly issued to farmers to shoot ravens to prevent
serious damage to their livestock, but not for game shooting. This imbalanced approach also needs
to be addressed as part of the solution. What Scotland needs now is a proper Dispute Resolution
Process in this area where those with open minds and a real desire to solve this intractable set of
issues can work together to fi nd the appropriate solutions.
In summary, we believe that only a proper evidenced-based approach to the problem will effec-
tively eradicate the illegal use of poisons such as carbofuran. If the facts delimit the problem, we
can then address the causes of crime in these areas in a focused manner. This should be supported
by an offi cial Dispute Resolution Process, which will be focused on identifying long-term solu-
tions, including an appropriate range of legal management tools. SRPBA sits on the Board of the
Partnership Against Wildlife Crime in Scotland and our members are active in each of the local
groups of PAW, so there should be no doubt about the sincerity of our members in this area. We
believe that working together, in partnership, is the best way to fi nd solutions to this problem.
This is clearly illustrated by the fact that, in 2010, no cases of illegal poisoning were reported in the
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