PLANS to turn the Cairngorms into a Natural Heritage Area are being
undermined by the Scottish heritage minister鈥檚 reluctance to give grants to
conservation groups to buy land for reserves. Conservationists claim that
lobbying by powerful landowners has led to new restrictions on grants to help
create new nature reserves.
Traditionally, Scottish Natural Heritage and its predecessor the Nature
Conservancy Council have helped voluntary bodies to buy land. But last week
Hector Monro, minister for natural heritage in Scotland, hinted that this was
a now thing of the past. He has said that he is 鈥渦nenthusiastic鈥� about SNH
using its funds to buy land.
鈥淗e considers that land purchase does not necessarily provide the best use
of SNH resources, says a spokesman at the Scottish Office. SNH and the NCC
have helped a number of voluntary bodies, including the Scottish Wildlife
Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the John Muir Trust and
the Woodland Trust, to buy land for nature reserves. According to Nigel Doar
of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the government has helped it to buy 22 of 26
reserves it has acquired in the past seven years.
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鈥淕rant aid is one of the most effective ways to secure environmental
objectives, says Doar. 鈥淭he only way to guarantee the future of a bit of land
is for a body with total commitment to conservation to own it.鈥�
Plans to create a Natural Heritage Area in the Cairngorms are well
advanced. In 1991, the Scottish secretary set up the Cairngorms Working party
to 鈥減repare an integrated management strategy for the Cairngorms area鈥�. The
working group said that 鈥渢here is no landscape or ecosystem quite like it
anywhere else in the world鈥�, and it 鈥渟hould be the keystone of the UK
contribution to global natural heritage鈥�.
The Cairngorms contain the last fragments of the ancient Caledonian pine
forests. Central to any strategy, said the working group, must be the
鈥渆xtensive regeneration of the Caledonian forest鈥�. This would require halving
the number of red deer which damage the forest while browsing.
John Hunt, the RSPB鈥檚 head of policy, argues that the only way to preserve
the central part of the Cairngorms is for conservation groups to own the land.
鈥淭his is the only way it will get the right long-term management.鈥� He says
grant aid was essential in securing its Abernethy reserve in the Cairngorms.
The reserve, which at 125 square kilometres is one of the biggest in Europe,
contains the largest surviving tract of native Scottish pine forest. The
reserve lies at the heart of the planned heritage area. The RSPB bought the
main part of the reserve in 1988 for 拢1.8 million 鈥� 拢500 000 of
which came from the NCC.
The other option is to put pressure on landowners to conserve habitats.
This is usually achieved with management agreements, under which the SNH pays
the landowner to adopt a more sensitive approach to managing the land. But the
terms of these agreements are 鈥渙ften expensive and unsatisfactory鈥�, says
Hunt.
Hunt claims that the privately owned Rothiemurchus estate, which is
adjacent to Abernethy, has received 鈥渉undreds of thousands of pounds鈥� from SNH
under a management agreement. Despite this, there are still too many deer on
the estate, says Hunt, and their browsing prevents the regeneration of
forest.
A spokeswoman for SNH confirmed that Monro opposes the idea of grants for
land purchases. But she insists: 鈥淭his is the minister鈥檚 opinion rather than
an edict and is open to interpretation.鈥� The main concern for SNH is 鈥渘ot who
owns the land but how it is run鈥�, she said. 鈥淢anagement agreements give us
wider coverage for our money than purchases.鈥�
Many conservationists see Monro鈥檚 move as a reflection of deep unease among
landowners who feel that they are losing their political clout as more and
more of Scotland falls into the hands of conservation groups. They are also
worried that the shift in ownership threatens the profitability of
neighbouring sporting estates, as new owners such as the RSPB embark on
vigorous deer culls to protect the native forest. 鈥淯ndoubtedly, the minister鈥檚
stance is the result of recent lobbying by landowners and their interest
groups,鈥� says Hunt.