Grouse moors are intensively managed for one reason - so that animals can be killed for sport
Charities will unite in a radical new campaign to reform Scotland’s grouse moors.
Groups across the social, environmental and animal welfare sectors have formed the Revive coalition – a groundbreaking challenge to the intensive management of land across vast swathes of the country’s uplands.
Almost a fifth of Scotland’s entire land mass is a grouse moor, and despite popular perception these moors are not natural.
The land is intensively managed to create a habitat suitable for one species, the red grouse, which is farmed to beshot for entertainment.
A new report commissioned and published by the Revive Coalition, The Case for Reforming Scotland’s Driven Grouse Moors has been authored by Dr Ruth Tingay and Andy Wightman, providing an in-depth analysis of the issues relating to grouse moor management in Scotland.
The coalition includes OneKind, Friends of the Earth Scotland, League Against Cruel Sports, Raptor Persecution UK and CommonWeal.
Revive’s senior campaigner Max Wiszniewski said: “The aim of the Revive Coalition is simple, we want significant reform of Scotland’s grouse moors to benefit our environment, our communities and our wildlife.
“However, in reality this ask is anything but simple which is why we are excited to be working with a number of partners across a spectrum of issues to tackle the problems associated with intensive management of this land.
“We are under no illusion that this will be a short campaign, but we have laid the foundations to take the first steps towards reform and we relish the challenges ahead. This is the first time organisations have come together in this way and our partners did so with no hesitation. It’s time we took back ownership of Scotland’s uplands and make our vision of reform a reality.”
In order to support sport shooting in Scotland, intensive land management techniques are employed to ensure estates yield large numbers of grouse to increase bag sizes at commercial shoots.
This includes heather burning, rigorous predator control, mountain hare persecution and unnecessary construction of roads and tracks, among others, all of which have wider negative social, environmental and welfare impacts.
Broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham is backing the campaign.
He said: “The times when the wholesale mismanagement of Scotland’s grouse moors was out of the public’s sight and mind are long gone. The desire for urgent reform, fuelled by a horrible cascade of outrageous revelations in the media, grows daily.
“There is no doubt that we all deserve, need better uplands, a prosperous place for wildlife and people – and that is far from impossible. But making that turn will need a suite of skills and energies and that’s why I am keen to help inaugurate this partnership. Dead, burned and barren has to go – Scotland’s hills should be alive.”
