Meeting of the Parliament 08 November 2016
I thank Graeme Dey for bringing the debate to the chamber and I congratulate Scottish Environment LINK on successfully relaunching the species champion programme into the fifth session of Parliament.
At one level, the initiative is a great bit of fun, but it is also a deeply humbling thought that we are living through the sixth great extinction period in the planet’s history. At Holyrood, we think in terms of electoral and budget cycles and, on occasion, we dare to think intergenerationally, too. However, to see the true vision of the garden planet that we are trying to regenerate, we need to look further back to previous millennia.
I turn to the species that I am the champion for—the white-tailed eagle, or the sea eagle as it is sometimes known. One hundred years ago, the species was extinct in Scotland and across the British isles. Records that go back to the late 1800s show that sea and golden eagles were limited to just a few hundred pairs.
Ground-breaking work that was led by the late Richard Evans examined ancient cultural references to eagles across the British isles that emerged through place names of about 1,500 years ago. For example, he found 276 place names that referenced eagles in Scots Gaelic and 152 in Old English. That was combined with modern ecological knowledge to build up a picture that showed far greater numbers than had been previously imagined. There were up to 1,400 sea eagle pairs and 1,500 golden eagle pairs across these islands, and they were not just in the Highlands but as far as the south coast of England, with large overlapping territories between the two species. Richard Evans’s work was critical because it gave us a tantalising glimpse of the state of nature in previous millennia, and it mapped out landscapes where the habitat might still exist to support reintroduced eagles today.
The reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle has already had early success. The first pairs were reintroduced to Rum from Norway in 1975, and the first wild chick fledged on Mull in 1985. Further reintroductions were done across Wester Ross in the 1990s and for the first time on the east coast of Fife in 2007.
Those programmes thrive because of the support of conservationists, landowners, farmers and the police, as well as the many community groups, passionate volunteers, the RSPB and the Forestry Commission, and they are all oiled with lottery and European funding. We now have more than 100 breeding pairs in Scotland, and an SNH study earlier this year predicted a doubling of that number in the next 10 years. The success of such an iconic species now inspires thousands of people, with eagle tourism bringing about £5 million to Mull’s economy every year.
Getting back to the late 18th century population levels would be a welcome second step to recovery, but pressures remain. Poisoning and destruction of nest sites still happen in 21st century Scotland, often on or close to driven grouse moors. The game bird shooting sector needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror in the months to come. The petition that is on its way to the Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee highlights the disgrace of raptor persecution and the need to consider a licensing regime for game bird shooting.
There is much work to do to champion beleaguered species and we must celebrate success while keeping an eye on the progress that we need to ensure continued success.
17:48