Hansard

I thank all those who have supported today’s motion, those who have enabled this afternoon’s debate and those who will take part in it. I welcome to the public gallery representatives of some of the organisations that support nature champions, including—and especially—Scottish Environment LINK, which co-ordinates everything, and the Scottish Raptor Study Group, which covers the eight MSPs who champion raptors.

The nature champions initiative has become incredibly popular among MSPs, and an amazing range of flora, fauna and habitats now have a member speaking for them. Some 105 MSPs are nature champions. I thank Scottish Environment LINK—Andrew Marks in particular—and its 25 supporting organisations, which include RSPB Scotland, the John Muir Trust, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and WWF Scotland.

There is a theory that urban politicians, such as myself, should stay out of matters that affect rural areas. However, a lot of us love all parts of Scotland, including cities, towns, rural areas and the maritime environment—that is the way it should be. Looking at the list of MSPs and their adopted species, I saw that Kaukab Stewart has the corncrake, which is not common in central Glasgow, and Anas Sarwar has upland birch woods, which I have not seen in the city either. It is a good thing that we all take an interest in all parts of the country.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not the species champion for the Soay sheep on St Kilda, although maybe I should have taken them on as an additional species—despite the fact that there are actually too many of them rather than too few. My species is the kestrel. Although it is not in the most endangered category, it has been in decline over a number of years. We used to see kestrels regularly hovering over motorway verges around Glasgow, but we see them less often now.

As Fiona Hyslop has blanket bogs and Jamie Halcro Johnston has Caledonian pinewoods, I guess that they do not move around very much and that you can visit them whenever you like. However, others among us—such as me with the kestrel, perhaps Martin Whitfield with the adder, or Rhoda Grant with the wildcat— can be quite elusive and you have to get to specific places at specific times to see them up close.

In two different years I have gone out to watch a team ring young kestrels, which can only be done at a certain time when the birds are not too small and not too large. Kestrel numbers in Scotland are down by some 67 per cent since 1995, the reasons for which are not entirely clear but probably include changes to farming practices. Numbers fluctuate from year to year, depending on the availability of the kestrel’s main food source, which is voles. However, the reasons seem to be partly geographical, too, in that alternative food sources, such as baby starlings, might be available in some areas but not in others. The revival in the number of pine martens means more predators of kestrel eggs and chicks. However, I do not think that pine martens have a champion, so I am not blaming any of the members who are here today.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have chosen something that is easier to find, as Colin Beattie has done with rivers or Emma Harper has done with ponds and small lochs—they do not move around quite as much as kestrels do. There are some tricky situations where a species with a champion eats the species of another champion, such as Claire Baker’s puffins, which eat Willie Rennie’s sand eels. You might say that some species are a bit more exciting than others. Mark Ruskell has the white-tailed eagle—that is absolutely tremendous. However, Mercedes Villalba has road verges—I would need some convincing to get excited about them.

One of the purposes of today’s debate is to re-emphasise the importance of the nature champions scheme, especially as we head towards the end of the current session of Parliament, given that quite a number of MSPs are either retiring or will not come back for other reasons.

I hope that those champions who return will continue to support a species or habitat—either their existing one, or perhaps a new one—and that both they and the Scottish Environment LINK member organisations will have a real push to get the 60 new MSPs signed up.

In one sense, the question is, why would an MSP not take on the role? If more than 100 of us have done so, why not the other 25 or so? I realise that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands cannot take on a species because she might be seen to be biased in some way, but there are other members.

I was intrigued to see in the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals manifesto that 87 per cent of people in Scotland now identify as animal lovers. That is good, but my question is this: why are the other 13 per cent not animal lovers? The good news for that 13 per cent, which could be around 16 MSPs, is that they can still be a nature champion and take on something which—like Graham Simpson’s ash or Carol Mochan’s kelp forests—is not an animal.

There are some species that would probably benefit from having a nature champion but do not have one. An example would be badgers, about which I had an email the other day. Apparently 65 per cent of land in Scotland is completely devoid of badger presence, so I think that they need a champion in Parliament, and hopefully that can be changed.

However, new MSPs will have to be quick if they want to support a popular species. We all know that Christine Grahame regularly grabs the seat behind the First Minister each Thursday so as to be on television, and she has also grabbed a very popular species in the golden eagle.

I thank Scottish Environment LINK and its member organisations for setting all this up; I thank colleagues for all their work and interest in the subject and for their support today; and I look forward to hearing contributions from members—even Christine Grahame’s contribution on the golden eagle.