The Rural Affairs and Islands (RAI) Committee recently met to debate amendments for the Natural Environment Bill. It was obvious from the off that the Scottish Greens, Labour and the Liberal Democrats had countryside activities firmly in their sights.

Lorna Slater MSP ran with her imaginative line that pheasants are a tropical bird, non-native to Scotland and therefore should be licensed when released. The same could be said of the domestic chicken, derived from the domesticated subspecies of the Red Junglefowl, a bird that is native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Whilst chickens are not generally released into the wild to roam freely in the countryside, they need to be recorded on the Scottish Kept Bird Register (SKBR), as do pheasants and other gamebirds prior to their release. After release, they are then classed as wild birds.

Marcedes Villalba, Labour MSP, and Beatrice Wishart, Liberal Democrat MSP also put forward amendments similar to Ms Slater calling for licensing of game birds, in particular pheasants, citing the environmental impact these releases have on the surrounding countryside. Research from the GWCT has shown, in fact that game shoots can privately fund a huge number of projects for habitat creation and management. A large-scale scientific study, published in a leading ecological science journal found that woodlands managed for pheasant shooting tended to be more open, with a more diverse vegetation structure that supported more breeding songbirds.

The Cabinet Secretary, Gillian Martin, did not support the amendments for the licensing of gamebird release without further investigation and research to determine the complete calculated number of gamebirds being released in Scotland, and for this we are grateful. The outright attack on the rural way of life again came from the animal extremist representative parties who take any opportunity to attempt to veil the banning of rural activities under any legislation they are able to, but this most recent attempt was called out by Convener Finlay Carson.

A number of amendments were also put forward to close the supposed “loophole” in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act, where it was suggested that the licensable area where grouse can be shot should be extended to include the entire estate. In Mr Fairlie’s letter, dated 11 November, he outlined his plan for submitting an amendment to the RAI committee at Stage 2 of the Natural Environment Bill. This was met by strong opposition from the Conservative MSPs, who doubted the legality of this amendment and deemed this an attack on the culture and heritage of rural communities across Scotland. The claims that led to the amendment appear not to have been substantiated with evidence that justifies such a damaging alteration. The Scottish Countryside Alliance have, together with other organisations, written to the RAI Convener to seek clarification from the Minister as we believe some of the claims laid out by the Scottish Government may be misleading, at best. We await further correspondence from Minister Jim Fairlie on this issue, as requested by the committee, since he was not able to be there in person.