10 October, 2019
Over 700 responses to SNH General Licence consultation
The Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) consultation about wild birds ended yesterday, garnering over 700 responses.
SNH will now consider this feedback, along with all other evidence about wild birds. Any changes to the current set of licences will be announced later this year. These changes would apply to all 2020 licences.
The consultation covers circumstances when wild birds can be controlled under General Licence. All wild birds are protected by law. But in some circumstances, SNH allows wild birds to be controlled – 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, said:
“We’d like to thank everyone for their feedback. We’ll be looking at all these responses carefully over the next few weeks to ensure that our licences for next year are clear, proportionate and fit-for-purpose.
“Our role is to make sure that 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.”
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. General Licences must strike the appropriate balance between species conservation and a range of other legitimate interests.
Robbie added:
“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.”
ENDS
Contact information
- Name
- NatureScot Media
- Telephone
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- media@nature.scot
Notes to editors
General Licences don’t require operators to contact SNH before using them and most don’t require return information to be submitted on their use. They represent a streamlined approach to licensing for relatively common situations where the conservation risk to target birds is low. There are conditions attached to General Licences and failure to comply with their terms and conditions can result in an offence.
NatureScot is Scotland's nature agency. Responding to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, we work to protect and restore nature by inspiring everyone to value our natural world. Our goal is a nature-rich, net-zero future for Scotland. For more information, visit our website at www.nature.scot
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