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SECTION 3 Legal status, licensing, compliance monitoring
Current legal status - national and international
3.1 Since 2000, there has been no significant change in levels of protection for geese in Scotland, as described in paragraph 3.2 of the NGF Report.
Report on licensing arrangements and use of licences since 2000
3.2 The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) gives Scottish Ministers powers to grant licences in certain circumstances to kill or take wild birds, including geese, where there is no other satisfactory solution to prevent serious damage to agriculture. All licence applications are carefully considered to ensure compliance with the EU Birds Directive 15.
3.3 254 goose licences which relate to areas covered by goose management schemes have been issued between 2000 and 2005, to kill or take geese as an aid to scaring to prevent serious agricultural damage (Annex 4 contains further details). All licences issued were in line with the recommendations on population status and viability contained in the NGF Report. No licences were issued on the Solway or South Walls during that period as part of the protocol for those local goose management schemes.
3.4 Currently, the majority of licence applications are handled by local SEERAD Area Offices in consultation with local SNH staff. Licence applications relating to Annex 1 birds 16 on Special Protection Areas ( SPAs) are handled by SEERAD staff in Edinburgh, in conjunction with SNH staff. During consideration of an application a joint site visit is usually undertaken by SEERAD and SNH staff, to verify information and to discuss the range of scaring techniques/methods used. Licences are issued where scaring alone is insufficient and where joint site visits are undertaken, SNH follows these up with a report to the local SEERAD office providing commentary on the application, licence conditions and bag limits, if appropriate.
3.5 While bag limits are always provided for licences issued for Annex 1 birds, there has been an inconsistent approach taken by SEERAD Area Offices when providing bag limits for grey goose licenses. SEERAD offices that provided bag limits supplied a total figure of all grey geese shot and did not differentiate between grey goose species, apart from resident greylag geese where bag limits were provided. All licences issued require a bag return from the licence holder and these provide a breakdown of each species shot. Copies of all licences and returns are copied to local SNH offices.
Compliance and monitoring arrangements
3.6 Between 2001 and 2004 SEERAD agricultural staff undertook scheme inspections to assess the effectiveness of local goose management schemes in providing feeding areas for geese and preventing damage to grassland in Orkney, Islay, Kintyre and the Solway. During this process SEERAD staff noted that various scaring techniques were utilised in conjunction with licensed shooting with controlled bag limits and considered that these activities were generally effective in reducing the numbers of geese in the designated scaring areas. They concluded that implementation and rotation of a variety of scaring devices, supported by either live shooting to scare or kill, appear to have the best results for protecting grassland within the schemes.
Future needs
3.7 The legal framework currently meets the UK's nature conservation obligations by ensuring that wild geese in Scotland are accorded an appropriate level of legal protection. Where derogations from this overall legal protection are necessary and justifiable, it remains essential that licensing arrangements should be rigorous and robust.
3.8 In general, given that the overall status of relevant wild goose populations in Scotland has remained broadly stable since 2000, and that continuing work to monitor the viability of goose populations is planned, NGMRG considers that the fundamental principles underpinning original NGF Recommendation 11 remain valid. The Recommendation is therefore carried forward as follows:
Recommendation 13: No amendment to national or international legislation is required at present. Future changes to legislation should, however, be considered if monitoring of goose populations indicates that an increased or decreased level of protection (consistent with international obligations) would be appropriate.
3.9 SEERAD has indicated that further improvements to current licensing arrangements are to be made, in particular in relation to the detail of administrative procedures and the production of statistical data. The NGMRG welcomes this commitment and requests SEERAD and SNH to give particular consideration to the following recommendation:
Recommendation 14: All licence applications to kill or take geese to prevent serious agricultural damage should demonstrate that non-lethal scaring is not working and must be assessed in the light of advice provided by SNH. All licences issued should clearly specify the species, the maximum number of birds to be taken, the location where shooting may be used and the non-lethal crop protection methods to be deployed before lethal shooting may be carried out. Licence reports should be provided by the licensee, detailing numbers of each species taken.
3.10 NGF Recommendation 34 suggested that Scottish Ministers give further consideration to seeking changes to legislation to allow the sale of carcasses of quarry species and of geese killed under licence as part of management schemes. Given the current status of the majority of the Scottish goose populations, and the range of significant legal hurdles that are required to be overcome, combined with limited commercial interest in this proposal, there is currently no intention to change the law to allow the sale of carcasses. The NGMRG considers that scope should, however, be retained for future re-evaluation of the policy in the light of changing future circumstances, for example if it became clear that appropriate sustainable use could be made of this renewable natural resource without jeopardising UK nature conservation obligations.
Recommendation 15: No change is required to current legislative arrangements, which do not allow for the sale of carcasses of wild goose quarry species or of geese killed under licence. The situation should however remain open to potential future review.
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