Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2026 [Draft]
::The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, noted:
“Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.”
The Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill seeks to ensure that the people of Scotland do not waste our natural resources or rob future generations.
The twin crises of climate change and nature loss are interdependent risks and they need to be tackled together, which the bill seeks to do. The bill will establish the framework for targets, including high-level topics against which specific targets will be set, while the actual targets, such as the detail of the figures, will be provided in secondary legislation. That approach will allow targets to be adapted in the light of circumstances and will ensure that parliamentary scrutiny is maintained throughout.
The bill also brings together other measures that will enable us to restore and protect nature and support delivery of the Scottish Government’s net zero and biodiversity goals. Those measures include provisions to modernise the aims and powers of national parks by amending the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 and provisions to reform the way in which deer are managed by amending the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996, through implementation of many of the recommendations that were made by the deer working group.
As members have said, there is an urgent need for effective deer management across much of rural Scotland, and that is regularly raised with me by my constituents. I am pleased that an amendment that I lodged at stage 2, which built on existing legislation to widen the legal right of occupiers of land to cull deer to prevent damage to unimproved land as well as improved land, was successful. Although I appreciate that some estates have raised concerns about that part of the bill, I believe that the Government’s stage 3 amendments on notification requirements, along with the guidance that will be set out in secondary legislation, will provide reassurance on animal welfare, food safety and income from deer stalking.
The proposal was initially recommended and supported by the deer working group, which the Scottish Government established in 2017 as a result of its concern about continuing issues to do with the standards of deer management in Scotland and the levels of damage to public interests caused by deer. It is clearly essential for stakeholders to continue working together, as they already have been doing, to help to reduce deer numbers and support biodiversity recovery across Scotland. Improving our biodiversity is one of our best opportunities to adapt to, and to prevent, climate change and to ensure that we can continue to enjoy nature’s benefits, on which we all depend.
As other members have pointed out, this has been a long but, I think, successful parliamentary process. There has been a lot of engagement with the public, and, like other members, I convey my thanks to committee members and staff for doing that work.
As someone who represents an island constituency, I believe that the provisions in the bill before us are necessary to support communities as they respond to our biodiversity crisis and that the bill therefore deserves our support.