Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Official Report 652KB pdf

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Petition

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Control of Wild Geese (PE1490)

The third item on the agenda is consideration of petition PE1490, by Patrick Krause, on the control of wild geese numbers. Our consideration follows a response from the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform.

A number of suggested approaches are in front of us. Does anybody wish to comment on them?

The petition was with the previous Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee for some time. It is clear that there is still an issue, particularly on the islands. However, the problem is now spreading over to the mainland as well.

There is certainly an argument for awaiting the publication of SNH’s review of geese management and approaching the petitioner, Patrick Krause, to get some feedback from him on how he thinks progress has been made. Perhaps we can also get some detail from the crofters’ point of view on whether progress is being made.

Absolutely.

I very much support what Angus MacDonald has said. It is important to get that information at this stage so that it is ready when we see the SNH review.

Like the convener, I was a member of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, and I know that the problem is, if not intractable—I will be careful about what I say—a real challenge and that it needs to be addressed from the points of view of biodiversity and the economy of our Highlands and Islands.

The message has come out loud and clear from the committee that we take the matter very seriously, and it is clear that we will pay a lot of attention to the content of the SNH review of geese management.

Are we happy to proceed on the basis that has been suggested of awaiting the publication of SNH’s review of geese management policy, which we will consider in due course, and in the meantime writing to the petitioner to ask for his input on where he thinks we are at with the issue, with some specific points worked into that? We could take the matter from there.

I want to ask a daft laddie question. Is the problem restricted to the west coast islands? Could issues potentially arise in other areas in which there are migratory geese?

We also have problems on the mainland—Angus MacDonald touched on that. If I remember correctly, there have been issues in Aberdeenshire. The problem is in more places than the Western Isles.

Can we ensure that the matter is opened right out and that not only the petition is considered?

On the previous committee, the former member Alex Fergusson highlighted that a problem was starting in the Solway as well.

Yes. There is also an issue in Orkney, which the previous committee witnessed for itself. There is sightedness here that the issue is Scotland wide.

On Monday, I spoke to Chris Rollie from the RSPB at Mersehead, who said that the issue in the Solway is that people do not want to go down the road of lethal scaring. They seem to be quite okay with the management and the numbers at the moment, especially for barnacle geese, although they have issues with greylag geese.

Right. To revert to the original point, are members happy to take the approach that was mentioned? We have clearly indicated that we have considerable interest in the issue and we will continue to have an interest in it. Are members happy to proceed on that basis?

Members indicated agreement.

At the committee’s next meeting, on 8 November, we will take evidence for our budget scrutiny from Marine Scotland and SNH. As agreed earlier, we will now move into private session.

12:22 Meeting continued in private until 12:49.