Yesterday in Parliament, Graeme Dey MSP for Angus South Constituency, took part in a Member’s Business Debate on the Hen Harriers Project and the Role of Species Champions.
You can watch my contribution to the debate below:
Or, you can read the transcript below:
Graeme Dey (Angus South) (SNP):
I congratulate Mairi Gougeon on securing this debate, and apologise to you, Presiding Officer, and to the members in the chamber, for having to leave before the debate has concluded, owing to another engagement.
The issue of hen harriers—or lack of them—in areas of Scotland is deeply serious. The polarised views on the subject sadly reflect the wider argument on raptor persecution.
Nothing can be done to change the past unacceptable, criminal and historical persecution of these birds, so, without in any way seeking to gloss over what may have happened, I will focus on the here and now and, indeed, the future, which undoubtedly must have the heads up for harriers project at its heart.
Although the headline figures of having 21 estates participating in the scheme, which produced 37 young this year, are pleasing, particularly when 11 of those estates are located in the Angus glens and Aberdeenshire, which have such a poor reputation around hen harriers, I was more intrigued by the underlying data. A total of 11 nests were monitored, with nine producing those 37 birds. Incidentally, that compares with five nests fledging 14 chicks in 2016. The reasons behind the failure of the other two nests were what caught my eye. The first failure was down to fox predation; at the other nest, which was located on a grouse moor in the Angus glens—an area where, notoriously, no hen harriers have been recorded for many years—natural causes were at the root of the failure.
In the black and white world of raptor persecution, the absence of hen harriers, or nest failure, is almost inevitably blamed on illegal activities—and let us be clear that such activity is utterly unacceptable—but here we have evidence to back the counterargument that, sometimes, although not as often as some might argue, there are other explanations. Therefore, although we need to clamp down hard on human predators, there must also be a role for managing the other issues.
For those of us who occupy that middle ground—who abhor raptor persecution, but are frustrated by the attitude and approach adopted by some at the other end of the argument—the key to making progress is evidence, as well as, I would contend, enforcing the muirburn code and thereby ensuring that potential hen harrier habitat is not removed by burning hillsides of a certain gradient in breach of the regulations.
Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab):
Does the member agree that, on persecution, it is important that we analyse the possibility of not requiring corroboration for the terrible crimes that happen, because of the remoteness of the areas in which they happen. Leadhills, which is in my constituency, is an example.
Graeme Dey:
That is a difficult topic to address in a debate of this nature.
As I was saying, it is only with evidence and by enforcing the muirburn code properly that we will challenge those who are guilty of exaggeration and those who are indulging in deflection and denial, and make the progress that the overwhelming majority of us want to see being made.
To that end, let us send a message from this Parliament tonight that we want to see many more estates, particularly those involved in driven grouse shooting, participating in the heads up for harriers scheme, thereby restoring species numbers and developing our understanding of the impediments to that.
Mairi Gougeon’s motion references not only her championing of the hen harrier, but the wider species champion programme. I am proud to be an active participant in the programme, but rather than wax lyrical about my role, I will highlight the work of some of the real heroes of the scheme—not the MSPs who front it, and not even Scottish Environment LINK and its member organisations, but the people who are out in the field almost daily, seeking to save these species. Right at the heart of that work stands the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
I had previously visited the botanics to learn about the work that it was doing to restore woolly willow numbers, and I heard about its replanting activities in Glen Doll in my constituency, but three months ago I joined the staff on an expedition to Corrie Sharroch and saw up close and personal the lengths that they go to in order to deliver their objectives. They were in the area to replant alpine blue-sow-thistle, which is another of the 181 threatened Scottish plant species. I tagged along in order to view the nearby woolly willows; I say that they were nearby, but the alpine blue-sow-thistle was in some rather high-altitude, inaccessible locations. The heights that the botanists scaled to plant alpine blue-sow were quite literally on another level. It was dangerous work.
Those guys are the real heroes of the species champions programme, but the irony is that, as a non-non-governmental organisation, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is not a member of Scottish Environment LINK and so is not formally part of the programme.
I wish that there was time available for me to more fully illustrate the role that the botanics performs in this area but, frankly, we would be here all night—besides, I noticed the Presiding Officer warning me to wind up. Therefore, I will settle for reiterating my absolute respect and admiration for the work that it does.
