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Nature Conservation Bill passed
05/05/2004
The Scottish Parliament today approved the Nature
Conservation Bill.
Environment and Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie
called it a major step forward in improving the
conservation of Scotland's natural heritage.
Mr Finnie said:
"The Nature Conservation Bill will make a real
contribution to the Executive's long term vision for
sustainability and responsible stewardship of our natural
environment.
"The Bill not only brings together important new
measures to protect Scotland's most precious places and our
rarest birds, plants and animals.
"It goes beyond traditional nature conservation
measures. For the first time, the Bill introduces a new
general biodiversity duty which will apply to all
Scotland's public bodies. In future they will have to
ensure that biodiversity issues are at the heart of both
their policy-making and their day-to-day operations.
"This duty will be supported by the Executive's
biodiversity strategy to be launched later this month. This
will be a 25 year vision to conserve biodiversity for the
people of Scotland.
"The bill will also improve protection for Scotland's
important Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI's)
which provide natural habitats for our vulnerable species;
enhance our ability to protect those species; and further
strengthen powers to tackle wildlife crime."
The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill was introduced
to the Scottish Parliament on 29 September and completed
Stage 1 on 7 January. The general principles of the Bill
were agreed to without dissent following the Stage 1
debate. Stage 2 finished on 3 March and saw 252 amendments
considered by the Environment and Rural Development
Committee. 54 amendments were lodged for Stage 3, the
final stage in the Scottish Parliament's legislative
process.
The Bill delivers the legislative components for a "new
system of nature conservation". It has three key Parts,
reflecting the three central themes of that new system:
Part 1 Conservation of biodiversity - A new general
biodiversity duty will
apply to all Scottish public bodies and office
holders. The duty will oblige public authorities to
"further the conservation of biodiversity" in the course of
exercising their functions.
Part 2 A thorough revision of the SSSI (Site of Special
Scientific Interest)
system for protecting Scotland's most precious
natural places.
Part 3 Further effective action to combat wildlife crime
- The Bill builds
on the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003. The bill
contains a number of additional measures to improve the
existing species protection provisions of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act.