NATIONAL DEER MANAGEMENT

Dave Windle

At the end of April, the John Muir Trust wrote to the Government on behalf of a group of NGOs, including NEMT, advocating that a National Deer Management Programme be included in the Programme for Government. The need for such a programme had already been accepted by Ministers, and this was seen as an opportunity to raise its profile.

The National Deer Management Programme is a product of the work done by the Deer Management Working Group, whose recommendations were accepted by the Government some time ago. It will be part of the Natural Environment Bill, introduced on 19/02/2025. The proposed Programme makes a number of key points, as follows.

• High deer numbers are stopping Scotland reaching its climate and biodiversity/nature recovery targets.
• Increased deer cull targets are necessary.
• A coordinated approach, initially funded by the Government for 4 years, is needed to get deer numbers down to a manageable size.
• Managing deer numbers to a level where natural regeneration starts to occur will reduce the need for fencing and achieve greater woodland expansion at a reduced cost to the public purse.
• Increased community involvement can increase the number of people culling deer, provide a source of cheap, nutritious local food and contribute to the local economy.

In the event, this was not included in the Programme for Government. We now need to campaign to make sure that it still happens.

Not surprisingly, the shooting industry is already raising scare stories. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation has raised concerns over the "draconian measures" which propose that deer stalkers should have a baseline level of competence. Personally, I would have thought that it´s a good idea that people using high-velocity hunting rifles should have a "baseline competence".

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