BY BERT BURNETT

We keep hearing this soundbite …

“Scotland is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, and our country’s biodiversity has been altered by centuries of habitat loss, fragmentation and management changes.”

But where is this decline taking place?

It’s not on managed moors be they Highland, Perthshire, Angus or Southern. These areas abound with a complete package of waders, ground nesting birds and raptors. They support badgers, foxes, otters and many other mammals. They have the only sustainable populations of mountain hares.

The lowlands used for sporting game shooting also boast high populations of waders in some areas and a full range of songbirds and mammals like brown hares.

Landowning conservation charities on the other hand may support some of these ground nesting species but the problem there is that few successfully fledge young to sustain the national populations. You only have to look at Vyrnwy in Wales run by the RSPB as a perfect example of degradation, where most species of ground nesting birds like curlew and Blackgame have gone locally extinct.

Almost every area that stopped being managed for shooting has witnessed big declines in smaller birds, ground nesters and species like hares. Charity conservation bodies fail to tell the public these truths and are trying to deflect these facts by vilifying the – what is undoubtedly the more successful – management elsewhere.

Ask the conservation charities the questions that matter. At these comparable inland reserves etc. just what is it they have on their grounds that shooting estates don’t have, and in more abundance?

It’ll be a short list if any!

Their embarrassment is going increasingly public.

About time too.

Bert Burnett is a retired gamekeeper with more than fifty years involved in game keeping.