Question reference: S5W-33922
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 9 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33328 by Roseanna Cunningham on 2 December 2020, whether NatureScot will publish its monitoring programme that led it to conclude that “there is little evidence to show that gamebirds are causing damage to European sites in Scotland”.
Answer
NatureScot’s Site Condition Monitoring Programme measures the health of the notified features across all of Scotland’s protected areas, including European sites. The Programme also identifies underlying causes for unfavourable condition of features in order to inform management actions. Gamebirds are mentioned in around 0.2% of these assessments and gamebird releases have not been identified as the cause of any features on protected sites being in unfavourable condition.
Details of the monitoring programme are available on the NatureScot website: https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/protected-areas-and-species/protected-areas/site-condition-monitoring .