Written by Rachel Martin
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has announced it will launch a 12-week consultation reviewing General Licences for wild birds.
All wild birds are protected by law. However, they can be controlled in some circumstances – for example, to prevent serious damage to crops, protect public health, and ensure air safety when flocks of birds are liable to get in flight paths.
Robbie Kernahan, SNH’s head of Wildlife Management, explained the planned consultation had been brought forward in light of the ongoing legal challenges over General Licences in England.
“Our role is to help wild birds thrive, but we must balance this with making sure the public is safe from health and safety risks, as well as ensuring that farmers can protect their crops,” he said.
We want to ensure that our licences take into account the implications of those challenges and remain clear, proportionate and fit-for-purpose.
“The consultation, along with our ongoing work, will provide us with valuable feedback – this will allow us to consider if we need to make changes to the current set of licenses for 2020.
“We would like to reassure those who are currently operating under the current 2019 General Licences in Scotland that these remain in place, allowing those who comply with the conditions to continue to use them.”
General Licences cover relatively common situations – such as preventing agricultural damage and protecting public health and safety – when there’s unlikely to be any conservation impact on a species.
They avoid the need for people to apply for individual licences for these specific situations. However, they must strike the appropriate balance between species conservation and other legitimate interests.
SNH is looking for feedback specifically on the three most commonly used General Licences: Those covering conserving wild birds, preventing damage to agricultural interests, and protecting public health and safety.
NFU Scotland’s Environment and Land Use committee chairman Angus MacFadyen, a hill farmer from Argyll, said: “General licences are an extremely important regulated mechanism that allows farmers and crofters to protect their crops, livestock and local wildlife from particular species that can cause problems.
“We welcome the reassurances from SNH that, for those who are currently making use of general licences in Scotland, that these remain in place, allowing those who comply with the conditions to continue to use them.
NFU Scotland believes it is vital that these licences are retained in the future to allow an ongoing, pragmatic approach that allows farming and crofting to thrive alongside wildlife.
“The consultation on general licencing and wild birds is now live and I would urge our members who make use of the general licencing scheme to make their views known on how important the scheme is and how it can be improved.”
The consultation documents are available to view online here.
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