Revealed: Scotland's wildlife crimewave

Published on Saturday 9 February 2008 19:11

CRIMINAL damage to wildlife and the countryside in Scotland is soaring according to a new report by government advisers.

Latest figures show a 12-year high in the number of incidents involving bird poisonings with pesticides, as well as 165 incidents of badger baiting over the past three years.

In addition, there have been 27 cases of potential criminal damage to protected landscape and wildlife areas over the past year.

Examples include building unauthorised tracks across protected areas to allow easier access to game shooting, constructing illegal fences and allowing animals to graze on land set aside for regenerating native forests.

In at least one case, Scottish Natural Heritage officials discovered that a landowner had changed the shape of a river bed and altered water flow so that more fish would accumulate in his section.

At least two prosecutions are pending in cases where protected landscapes, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) or Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) have been damaged.

Damage can be extensive and prosecution expensive. Last week, an estate in Teeside was left facing a bill of 500,000 after building an illegal track across protected moorland to improve access for shooting parties. The works resulted in damage to more than 47,720 sq ft of internationally important peatland habitat, which is home to birds such as merlins and golden plovers.

The figures have been compiled by officials at SNH and will be presented to the agency's main board this week.

Ron Macdonald, head of policy and advice at SNH, said: "SNH has an important role to play in our work with other agencies, environmental bodies and land managers in tackling wildlife crime in Scotland. We work to provide training, and expert witnesses if required, but it is clear that more needs to be done.

"Therefore, SNH is committed to giving more support to the police and the Procurator Fiscal service and concentrating on wildlife crime awareness through education and information. The paper sets out our policy and our priorities for action at a time when public and representative organisations are looking to better co-ordinate efforts to combat wildlife crime in Scotland."

Although many wildlife crimes are hard to detect as they take place in remote locations, there have been some successes.

Last year, a farmer on the Upper Solway Firth marshes, an area important for birdlife, became the first to be prosecuted under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 for intentionally or recklessly damaging an officially designated SSSI.

The farmer was given permission to spread 25 tonnes of aggregates on the land but went on to spread hundreds of tonnes more. He was admonished by the courts but only after repairing the damage.

SNH officials are also involved in two active cases involving damage to protected landscapes in Perthshire and the Falkirk area.

Two other prosecutions last year involved offenders who dumped waste on an SSSI near Stonehaven and discharged sewage into the River Tay, a conservation area because of its importance as a major salmon breeding ground.

Another case, in December, involved more direct contact with wildlife. Nicol Wood, 22, was fined 500 at Banff Sheriff Court for harassing a school of bottlenose dolphins while on a jet-ski in the Moray Firth, in what is believed to be the first such conviction in Britain.

The report says SNH is not an investigatory body and has few statutory powers in relation to wildlife crime.

But as the agency has a specialist and unique role in protected areas, SNH staff will be instructed to make police aware of all criminal activities they become aware of. SNH will look to the police to investigate wildlife crimes and report these to procurator fiscals when appropriate.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust, which runs nature reserves throughout Scotland and has had cases of thieves stealing rare mosses and other wild plants, said there was sometimes a perception that damage to wildlife areas was not a crime.

Simon Milne, the trust's chief executive, said: "The headlines go to stealing of eggs and the poisoning of birds of prey but damage to the landscape itself can have far-reaching and long-term consequences. They are just as much a crime."

Police officers specialising in wildlife crime said they would welcome more involvement from SNH experts in detecting offences.

Tayside Inspector Alan Stewart, one of Scotland's most experienced wildlife crime officers, said: "It's sometimes only when their people on the ground alert us to the fact that an offence has taken place that we can take action. We take damage to protected areas as seriously as we do any other wildlife crime."

Heavy toll

• 39 confirmed cases of pesticide abuse in 2006 involving eagles, red kites, hawks, falcons, owls, buzzards and ravens. That is double the number in 2005

• 5 golden eagles deliberately poisoned between 2001 and 2006

• 177 suspected poisonings investigated by government officials in 2006

• 300 bird crimes reported in 2006, including nest robbing and cases of deliberate disturbance

• 27 cases of potential criminal damage to protected areas in Scotland over the past year

• 165 incidents of badger baiting or disturbance recorded in Scotland in the past three years

• 25 carcasses of rabbits laced with an illegal poison, carbofuran, found on one square mile of land near Greenlaw, Berwickshire, in six months last year