Scottish Environment LINK’s Deer Group welcomes the historic move by NatureScot to enforce a compulsory control scheme at Loch Choire Estate in Sutherland. Deer densities on the estate have been identified as being at an unsustainable level, risking damage to important habitats, including four Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). NatureScot has intervened on this estate before, having used Section 10 emergency measures to enter land to carry out a deer cull in 2023. Since then they have failed to secure a voluntary agreement by the estate to bring deer numbers down.
This will be the first time that Section 8 of the Deer Act (Scotland) has been used since its introduction in 1996. Overgrazing by deer is one of the main barriers to tackling climate change and restoring nature in Scotland. It is clear to the Deer Group that the voluntary approach to deer management employed until now has not worked in bringing deer densities down to ecologically sustainable levels, and we have long called for NatureScot to use their powers to intervene more frequently.
With the draft Natural Environment Bill currently making its way through Parliament, containing proposed amendments to the Deer Act which would see nature restoration being included as a reason for NatureScot’s intervention powers to be used, the Deer Group are very encouraged by this historic move at Loch Choire. We hope it is a sign that NatureScot plan to use their powers more readily with nature restoration as the objective if and when the proposed amendments to the Deer Act come into force.
– Hazel Forrest, Vice Convener, Scottish Environment LINK’s Deer Group
Image: Simon Jones