The Trust welcomes the publication of the assessment of the national consultation response to the Report of Beavers in Scotland – Strategic Environmental Risk Assessment by Scottish Government.

The consultation, which was open for responses between 2 December 2017 and 6 March 2018, received a total of 533 responses. An overwhelming majority (83% of responses) were supportive of the reintroduction policy and were content that appropriate mitigation measures have been identified.

Susan Davies, Director of Conservation said “This has been long-awaited and reinforces what we have been saying all along – that the benefits of bringing beavers back far outweigh the disbenefits, and that there is overwhelming support that beavers should be given European Protected Species status and allowed to recolonise naturally.

“This consultation assessment follows hot on the heels from the recently published survey of the Tayside area beaver population which confirmed that, whilst beaver territories have increased over time from 40 to 114 and the total population has increased from around 150 to around 433 beavers, the small population of beavers we have in Scotland remain under threat from unregulated killing. We hope that the Scottish Government will now be swift in taking the final steps through Parliament to secure this much needed protected status.”

“We hope that the Scottish Government will now be swift in taking the final steps through Parliament to secure this much needed protected status.”