Meeting description: We expressed our support for the Scottish Government's direction of travel on the licensing of driven grouse shooting and of muirburn (burning of vegetation) as expressed through the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill. We also specifically expressed support for giving the Scottish SPCA enhanced powers to assist Police Scotland in investigations of wildlife crime as proposed by the Government as an intended amendment to the Bill. We set out what we feel is the need to minimise burning on peat in light of the nature and climate emergency and the Government's Net Zero target and said that we would like to see a lower peat depth of 30 centimetres rather than the currently proposed 40 cm as the cut-off for when a landowner needs to apply for a special license to carry out muirburn on peatland. We also said that we believe an earlier end to the muirburn season of mid-March rather than mid-April would help to protect bird species which are nesting earlier in the year than traditionally due to climate change. We expressed our support for the inclusion of offences against badgers and animal welfare offences in the list of relevant offences provided by the Bill that NatureScot should have regard to when making decisions on a grouse shooting license. We expressed our concern that estates where a grouse shooting license was suspended might move to shooting non-native gamebirds such as Pheasant and Red-Legged Partridge and we suggested that the provisions of the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 under Section 14 which allow for the release of non-native gamebirds could be disapplied on any estate where a license was suspended to address this perceived issue.
Topic label: Climate