Adult European Beaver at Knapdale. Photo: Steve Gardner
A number of leading Scottish wildlife charities and individuals with an interest in conservation have signed an open letter to the First Minister, published in The Guardian today (Friday 21 December) calling for a firm date to be set on granting European Protected Species status to beavers in Scotland. This letter comes one year after the announcement that legislation to secure European Protected Species status for beavers would be laid down in the Scottish Parliament in the first half of 2018 (1).
Susan Davies, Director of Conservation, Scottish Wildlife Trust said, ‘In November 2016, through the leadership of the Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish Government took the landmark step of supporting the reintroduction of beavers, marking the first successful reintroduction of a formerly extinct mammal in the UK. That decision stemmed from broad agreement between conservationists, farmers and land managers that beavers would be tolerated, their return would be effectively managed, and that the species would be given protected species status under the European Habitats Directive.
Despite this early leadership, it is now a year since the Cabinet Secretary signalled that legislation to secure European Protected Species status for beavers would be laid down in Parliament in early 2018, and there has been no firm update on the timetable since then. Without protection beavers are subject to unregulated culling, which raises questions about their welfare and how they are being prevented from naturally spreading throughout Scotland.
It’s hard to understand the reason for the delay. All of the preparatory work is in place to take the next step towards securing protected status. Importantly, a recent Scottish Government consultation showed the vast majority of respondents (83%) agreed with the policy of reintroducing beavers, and were content that appropriate tools have been identified to mitigate the impact on economic interests. These localised impacts cannot be allowed to outweigh the wider national benefits that beavers will bring, including stabilising river flows, reducing flood risk and creating valuable woodland and wetland habitats in which a wide range of other species can flourish.’.
Open Letter: Scotland’s beavers need protection
The clock has run out on the statement, made by the Scottish Government on 20 December 2017, that legislation to make beavers a protected species in Scotland would be laid before Parliament in the first half of 2018. We are calling on the First Minister to renew her government’s leadership and commit to bringing home a former resident.
Pioneering work including the Scottish Beaver Trial and the experience of reintroductions in more than 20 European countries shows beavers have the potential to bring enormous positive change. They breathe new life into our landscape by creating dynamic woodland and wetland habitats, and they help to control flooding by slowing down upland streams.
It is now more than two years since the Scottish Government announced in November 2016 that it was minded to allow beavers to naturally recolonise Scotland. This led from a consensus between farmers, land managers and conservationists that wild beavers would be tolerated, their return would be effectively managed, and they would protected under the European Habitats Directive.
Without this protection, beavers are subject to unregulated culling, which can take place anytime, anywhere. This causes concern for the individual welfare of animals, and the ability of the species to naturally spread through Scotland’s lochs and rivers. Lethal control must be a last resort, rather than the go-to solution.
The government can restore faith in our nation’s reputation for environmental leadership by setting a firm date to introduce protection, alongside an appropriate management framework. Then we can finally welcome beavers home.
Signed by
Susan Davies, Director of Conservation, Scottish Wildlife Trust; Charlotte Macdonald, Director of Conservation and Living Collections, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland; Allan Bantick OBE, Founding Chair, Scottish Beaver Trial; Stuart Brooks, Head of Conservation and Policy, National Trust for Scotland; Peter Cairns, Director, Scotland: The Big Picture; Jim Crumley; Charles Dundas, Chair, Scottish Environment LINK; Carol Evans, Director, Woodland Trust Scotland; Sam Gardner, Acting Director, WWF Scotland; Sir John Lister-Kaye OBE FRSGS, Aigas Field Centre; Cameron McNeish; Steve Micklewright, Chief Executive, Trees for Life; James Nairne, Trustee, Scottish Wild Beaver Group; Eddie Palmer, Chairman, Scottish Badgers; Polly Pullar; Patrick Stirling-Aird, Secretary, Scottish Raptor Study Group; Paul Walton, Head of Habitats and Species, RSPB Scotland
ENDS
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Another one for the ‘you couldn’t make it up’ file. Why on earth would you even consider reintroducing a species before giving it maximum protection?
These wonderful creatures are being put back to help us for gods sake. Yet more government ministers going back on their word.
I agree entirely Paul, it seems entirely illogical for government departments to licence trials and re-introductions without first giving species full protection, if such trials went badly (and they appear not to have done so) licences for removal could be granted, after all it is too regularly done for other native protected wildlife. That the Tay basin population stems from illegal releases or escapes is irrelevant these animals need and must have immediate protection to prevent the blinkered, self-deluded and self-interested Neanderthals from making them once more extinct.
Yes there was one of these knuckle draggers having a rant on a Scottish pro beaver page this week. Didn’t matter what anyone said, what video links were pasted in this Tayside game keeper was a total drama queen who’s make you think the bubonic plague had returned. There’s no reasoning with people like that, in fact I’m pretty certain they love the ‘conflict’ because it generates attention for them. No surprise beavers ‘disappear’ too.
Some Scottish and English Institutions seem to be vying with each other to win the Worst ever Conservationsts World Prize. Courage and vision all sides of the border please.
Don’t see why it is illogical, the Knapdale beavers were a trial / scientific study, the Tay beavers were released under the radar and not even recognised until recently. No need to legislate before a decision reached. I agree it’s poor form for the Scot. Gov. to drag their feet while animals are culled wantonly, but that’s it.
One last chance to bother my MSP for the year, saying I back the letter, and -in spirit- add my own name, and also ask when exactly Beaver reintroduction south of the M8 line will happen? They’ll never spread south on their own, which leaves SW Scotland out in the cold yet again, and beaver deserve to be on the River Irvine or River Nith. That is my New Year Wish, I tell you.
The increase in biodiversity, the new spawning and nursery areas would be a huge addition to any river in Scotland, or England, for that matter. Just need to wait for the published papers for proof.
While agreeing fully with the open letter and statement from Susan Davies I cannot agree with the previous comments above, which appear to be founded on an absence of knowledge or understanding or a misapprehension of the situation.
Quite why the Scottish Government is taking so long to take legal protection through the parliamentary process is a mystery to me, perhaps Susan Davies has greater insight sitting as she does on the Scottish Beaver Forum. However it is clear that beavers are now a part of the Scottish fauna and will remain so – The Scottish Government has sanctioned the reinforcement of the rump population from the Scottish Beaver Trial in Knapdale, Argyll and there is an ongoing range expansion westwards from Tayside. The lack of legal protection has not prevented both this increase in range and number in the period between the 2012 and 2017 surveys.
Gaps in range were identified in 2017 where animals had been present in 2012 and these seem coincident with areas of prime farmland affected by damming activity in particular. It seems very likely, if not inevitable that a licensing regime will, when legal protection is finally enacted, come into operation at the same time to enable farming as currently practiced to continue and consequently the current range we see now in Tayside may be an early indication of where beavers are going to co-exist with land management practice, at least in the short to medium term (while land management adapts?).
While these intensively managed farm landscapes are the ones where the public benefit might be enhanced most from the presence of beavers; through sediment capture and peak flow reduction, their impact currently is on private income and until that circle is squared it seems inevitable that farmers will seek to have operations against beavers licensed so that they can continue with their businesses.
I think our role if we have one, is to help persuade government to persuade/incentivise land managers to retreat from that restricted riparian zone and leave it for the beavers to work their magic.