Leading conservation charity, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, is calling for maximum money to be transferred into agri-environment schemes which could have a positive impact on breeding farmland birds. 

This comes as Scottish Natural Heritage published a report on Breeding Farmland Birds in Scotland. 

The report’s findings revealed mixed fortunes for these birds with curlews, lapwings, oystercatchers and redshank all showing significant declines – whilst some others like skylarks, tree sparrows and yellowhammers numbers rose.

The report used information, collected by volunteers, on 10 species of farmland bird and looked to see if there were any trends emerging. 

Living Landscapes Policy Officer for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Bruce Wilson, said: “We are at a crunch time for Scotland’s farmland wildlife.

“Crucial decisions are currently being taken by the Scottish Government regarding how much money will be spent and where it will be spent in the next round of agri-environment schemes.

“To help reverse the decline in farmland birds such as waders, the Scottish Wildlife Trust is calling for the maximum possible money to be taken from direct payments for owning land to be put into schemes that allow land managers to help wildlife recover.

“This report shows that waders such as redshank and lapwing are still in decline and the Scottish Wildlife Trust has been asking the Scottish Government to be more strategic with the limited pot of money available to better target agri-environment money to areas where it will do the most good. 

“In the longer-term, it is really important that the Scottish Government acts to stop the damage that ever intensifying agriculture is doing to our environment.

“There are the effects borne by wildlife and also the Scottish taxpayer – as we ultimately have to pay for this damage, for example, through increased costs for water companies to clean water.”