BASC warns Bill adds pressure to deer sector

BASC has urged the Scottish government to resist introducing further regulations, in response to the proposed new Natural Environment Bill in Scotland. 

The Bill would seek to introduce disproportionate deer management nature restoration orders (DMNROs) that would amount to legally mandated culls on private land, as well as compulsory training for deerstalkers, all in the name of biodiversity recovery. 

The commitment to the new Bill was included in a document outlining the Scottish government’s policy and legislative plans for the year ahead. It is the equivalent to the King’s speech in England and Wales but is launched by First Minister John Swinney in the Scottish parliament. 

BASC has urged the government to avoid further regulation on the sector and focus instead upon incentivisation. It says this should come through community deer management schemes and greater funding for larders. 

BASC has also argued that DMNROs, intended to support nature restoration, lack a clear rationale and definition, unlike Control Orders under the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996, which are a last resort measure backed by criminal law. 

BASC’s Scotland director Peter Clark said: “Any new Natural Environment Bill must primarily reflect the hard work by BASC members, such as land managers and gamekeepers, in managing Scotland’s landscapes. The Bill is admirable in its goals of tackling the nature crisis, but they must incentivise change, not enforce further regulation. 

“We are concerned that the Bill will be used as a vehicle to deliver further regulation and unworkable deer management proposals set out in a consultation earlier in the year. 

Six-times UK Pro Stalker of the Year, Chris Dalton told Shooting Times: “I remain deeply concerned at the government’s attitude towards Scotland’s deer. Increasingly they are looked upon as little more than vermin. This is not helpful as we read about the possibility of further rushed-though, draconian legislative measures imposed on the deer sector, with an almost total disregard for any specialist input or science. 

“The blame, it seems, as far as the Scottish government is concerned to all of Scotland’s climatic problems lies with our deer. But on the other hand, they are happy to strip funding from sound environmental projects and divert it to pay for public sector wage rises — hypocrisy. 

“I ask again, having shot all these deer, where exactly are they going?”