Question reference: S5W-26205
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 7 November 2019
-
Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 14 November 2019
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the campaign and petition to protect wildcats in Clashindarroch Forest.
Answer
Wildcats are one of Scotland’s most endangered animals. Their conservation and protection is of the highest priority requiring a well-informed and collaborative approach to understanding their ecology to give their remaining populations the best possible chance of recovery.
The Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) project, led by SNH involves a partnership of over twenty organisations, including Scotland’s foremost conservation bodies and land management organisations. The project is building understanding of Scottish Wildcat populations and has identified six priority areas, including Clashindarroch Forest, where detailed survey work and an extensive feral cat neutering and vaccination programme to preclude interbreeding is being undertaken to protect the remaining wildcats.
FLS (and its predecessor Forest Enterprise Scotland) has worked closely with SWA partners since October 2013 to ensure that the management of Clashindarroch, and other parts of Scotland forests and land, enhances their value as important habitat for wildcats. Wildcats have successfully co-existed with forest management activities at Clashindarroch for many years and FLS’s aim is to ensure that success continues.
The interest and passion that people demonstrate towards Scottish Wildcat is entirely laudable however the campaign and petition are based largely on a presumption that their habitats are under threat from forest operations. FLS’s forest management, including at Clashindarroch, is certified to international standards of best practice. Widely accepted scientific evidence recognises that sustainably managed forests involving well-planned timber production create an ideal mosaic of habitats for wildcats.