New legislation going through the Scottish Parliament could put Scotland in the first division for nature conservation, Scotland’s leading wildlife charity said today (1 September 2010).

The Scottish Wildlife Trust today responded to the Scottish Parliament’s call for views on the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill with a call for politicians to seize the opportunity to really make the law work for Scotland’s wildlife and people.

Tony King, head of policy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust said:

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust very much welcomes the policy intentions of the bill on controlling non-native invasive species such as giant hogweed and Himalayan balsam which are a very real problem and proposals to tidy up the law on sites of special scientific interest.   The bill could, however, be truly landmark legislation if it introduced a statutory duty on landowners to manage deer sustainably and on the government to restore our most degraded habitats.

“Scotland’s landowners are the only people who have a valuable right – the right to shoot deer or to charge other people for doing so – with no attached responsibilities.  Unsustainably managed deer cause damage to biodiversity and by impeding natural woodland regeneration and damaging peatlands set back national priorities for climate change mitigation and adaptation, making it harder for our carbon reduction targets to be met.

“This bill could be so much more than the sum of its parts.  The Scottish Parliament should take the opportunity to reinvigorate the duty on all public bodies to further the conservation of biodiversity.  It should finally implement European law on the ecological coherence of the network of protected sites and species and it should set binding targets for the restoration of degraded habitats throughout Scotland.  With a vision for the future of Scotland’s wildlife, Scotland could show genuine international leadership.”

ENDS

Notes:

The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill is a government bill and was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 9 June 2010. 

The Rural Affairs and Environment Committee is the lead committee on the bill and issued a call for views by 1 September 2010.

The bill is in six parts and has sections on: wildlife under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981m game law reform, snares, non-native species, deer,  badgers, muirburn and sites of special scientific interest.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s response to the call for views is available at: http://www.swt.org.uk/docs/002__008__general__Stage_1_written_submission_from_the_Scottish_Wildlife_Trust_1_Sept_2010__1283338270.pdf