The biggest conference on the future of land use in Scotland took place on Sunday 10 November in Perth Concert Hall. Didn’t make it? Don’t worry. Charlie McCarthy of BylinesScotland brings you the essence of a great day out that gave the audience lots to think about.
The reality of grouse moors management:
Grouse moors cover between 1 and 1.5 million hectares of Scotland, amounting to just below 20% of the country’s landmass. Nearly one fifth of the country is given over to the raising of grouse to be driven (i.e. flushed) by beaters towards a static line of shooters. This activity relies upon there being high numbers of grouse for the paying shooters to kill. To maximize the numbers of birds killed and hence, the economic take from the shoot, grouse moor managers must do three things in preparation for the four-month-long shooting season. The main strategies for managing a grouse moor include:
- Burning the heather to produce nutritious young heather for the grouse to eat. However, heather burning, particularly on deep peat, can contribute to the loss of the natural carbon store and negatively affects air quality, water quality and soil erosion.
- Medicating the grouse to control parasites. This has involved mass extermination of mountain hares which were thought to spread infection in the target birds. Red grouse densities are now so high that they are badly affected by a disease (Cryptosporidiosis). The disease can spread via the communal use of medicated grit and affects black grouse, whose numbers are causing concern.
- Controlling all grouse predators which include foxes, weasels, stoats and crows, some grouse moor managers are also illegally involved in the persecution of birds of prey such as eagles, hen harriers and red kites.
Scotland’s biodiversity crisis and land use:
Revive states in its report ‘The Case for reforming Scotland’s Driven Grouse moors’ (Tingay, R.E. and Wightman, A. 2018):
“In addition to legal predator control, birds of prey continue to be persecuted on some driven grouse moors to such an extent it is causing population-level effects on iconic species such as golden eagles, hen harriers, red kites and peregrines. The level of criminality, which, we believe, fits the definition of organised serious crime, is unacceptable and is out of control.”
The four nations of the United Kingdom are in the bottom 25% of nations and territories for biodiversity intactness, ranking the lowest in the G7 countries. Scotland has a score of 56%, Wales 51%, Northern Ireland 50% and England 47%. These figures come from the 2021 report, ‘ How does Scotland’s biodiversity measure up?’
So, the picture on almost 20% of Scottish land is not a good one. Add to this mix the economics of land ownership (433 people own half the landmass of Scotland), the Clearances associated with land ownership and the picture gets even more desperate. Common Weal, a Scottish ‘Think and Do Tank’, is part of the Revive coalition that is working for grouse moor reform in Scotland. They state in their report ‘Work the Land: The employment potential of Land Reform’:
“The current use of land is not efficient in terms of creating jobs and incomes. Scotland’s private shooting estates create 2,640 jobs directly and indirectly and an average income for those jobs of £11, 401 – which is less than the minimum wage for a full-time job. No hill farm makes a profit without public subsidy; the £11,052 average income for sheep needs £38,124 of subsidy and the average income of £24,378 for beef requires £46,268 in subsidy. These activities take a large proportion of Scotland’s land.”
A vision for change – the langholm community’s success story:
Clearly this cannot continue as it is. Any serious government must and should look at the alternative to the status quo. Revive, which includes in its coalition Raptor Persecution UK, Friends of the Earth Scotland, One Kind, Common Weal and the League Against Cruel Sports, did not disappoint at their conference at Perth Concert Hall. We needed a vision of what could be to lighten the mood and give us a hint of optimism. This came from principally from Jenny Barlow, the estate manager from the Torras Valley Nature Reserve. This truly is a story of hope, community achievement and inspiration for others to take control of their land and grow a different future for their kids and grandkids.
Jenny told an enraptured audience that the community of Langholm now owns 10,500 acres of the Torras Valley. They raised £6m from a total number of over 3.5k donors. This gives them control of 43 square kilometres to grow their vision for the best future of all their community. This enables them to reconnect their people with land they have control over, initiate large-scale ecosystem restoration, and restore degraded and lost habitats across the Torras Valley.
Ownership of their land allows them to make positive contributions to the climate and ecological emergencies and to balance people, planet and profit to ensure a rich legacy for the future members of their community to benefit from. A truly inspirational project and one that should win awards going forward and be a template for what is achievable in Scotland.
This helps paint a picture of what Scotland could look like, given the will to change the ownership of our land and a vision of what ordinary members of our communities could do with it.
Well done, Torras Valley! Well done, Revive! Scotland needs more of this.
More in environment.
