Game changer

However, it is most interesting for what is largely left  unsaid.

It suggests that popularity of policy is not enough and, at 40 years or more old, the current conservation approach does not work well or widely enough.

This is because our demand for more from the countryside in terms of food, timber and living space is too great for this approach to work widely.

The implication is clear: future conservation must be attractive to our land managers – the farmers, foresters and sporting managers – not just to conservation ecologists.

The GWCT has been researching such an approach for more than 30 years by developing the best of game conservation techniques. We believe that conservation must be made easy for land managers and intensified into smaller areas to deliver more bang for the buck.

We also believe that the incentives to do this are not just financial. They must include an acceptance of the growing body of evidence that game conservation methods can be, and are, a force for good rather than the flawed legacy some would misrepresent them to be.

Our farms and moors would be even more hostile to nature if it weren’t for muirburn, predator control and winter feeding for farmland birds, driven by game interests.

Readers of this report should be assured that GWCT and landowners are working to ensure Scotland’s nature is not left in this state, where historical perception limits access to much needed modern approaches to conservation.

(Dr) Adam Smith

Game & Wildlife  Conservation Trust

Perth Airport

Like others, I was dismayed at the State of Nature report findings which show a major decline in Scotland’s wildlife and biodiversity as highlighted by Sir David Attenborough.

His comment, that “we must invest and take immense care in how we steward these stunning places if they are to survive”, is the key but protection in small reserves has been shown not to be the answer.

There are many practical things that land managers can do every day to preserve the biodiversity that we currently have and to ensure it is in the best position to cope with climate change. A very good example is with wading birds such as curlew, lapwing and greenshank, many of which have seen their numbers halve in the past 20 years all across Scotland.

The reasons for this are as much to do with predation and habitat loss as with climate change, and there is strong scientific proof behind this.

Some simple changes in land management can dramatically assist recovery of waders, such as the rewetting of rough grassland and effective control of predators such as foxes, crows and stoats. Such measures are already standard practice on many of Scotland’s managed grouse moors where waders return to breed each spring.

Owners are making a positive investment in stewarding these unique places as Sir David Attenborough has urged.

The Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group along with RSPB and others wants this message to be heard so more land managers put the obvious practical management solutions in place as a first step to halting biodiversity loss, as the government is committed to do. We do not have to lament the decline of our wildlife; we can do something about it.

Tim Baynes

Scottish land & Estates’ Moorland Group

Eskmills Business Park, Musselburgh