The Trust, welcomes the Scottish Government’s response to the Rural Affairs Committee regarding deer management.
The Scottish Government have acknowledged that deer, in some areas, are damaging Scotland’s natural heritage, and that out with protected sites, which includes large swathes of peatlands across Scotland, more needs to be done to quantify the impacts.
The Scottish Government supports the Trust and the Rural Affairs Committee’s view that the pace and progress of developing plans by some deer management groups has been too slow and the Trust welcomes the Minister’s support for the 2016 deadline.
Head of Policy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Dr Maggie Keegan, said: “In his letter, the Minister for Rural Affairs and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse, has made it clear that the Scottish Government thinks the pace of moving towards sustainable deer management has been too slow for some deer management groups.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust believes that because of inaction by some, Scotland’s natural heritage, such as peatlands, native woodlands and many internationally important sites, has paid the price.
“The Scottish Wildlife Trust recognises that we shouldn’t get too hung up by focussing on total deer numbers, rather we should be ensuring that across Scotland, deer are managed locally in a way that strikes the right balance between private sporting interests and the public interest which includes protecting Scotland’s natural capital for all and supporting the rural economy.
“The Trust hopes that the key concerns which have emerged from the Committee’s enquiry into deer management are accounted for in the review of Scotland’s national deer strategy to ensure that Scotland’s wild deer are part of flourishing, ecologically functional living landscape.”