Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Official Report 526KB pdf

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Petitions

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Scottish Wild Salmon (PE1547)

The fourth item of business is consideration of petition PE1547, by Ian Gordon and the Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland), on the conservation of Scottish wild salmon. I refer members to the paper and invite comments from them on what action we wish to take.

Given the previous interest in wild salmon, I am surprised that no one wants to make any comments. It is recommended that the committee welcome the action taken by the Scottish Government to recognise in the Conservation of Salmon (Scotland) Regulations 2016, in the draft national strategy and in the draft wild fisheries bill the issues raised in the petition. It is also recommended that the committee close the petition and write to the petitioner to inform him of its decision. Are we agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

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Control of Wild Geese (PE1490)

The second petition is PE1490, by Patrick Krause on behalf of the Scottish Crofting Federation, on the control of wild geese numbers. I refer members to the paper and invite comments.

The petition should remain open, because the goose problem is far from solved in any part of my constituency. Indeed, on Monday afternoon, my office told me that a man from the island of Lismore had been on the phone to say that the most useful thing that I could do during the election campaign would be to go to Lismore with a gun and shoot geese. There is a considerable continuing concern.

I am slightly concerned by the way in which the Scottish Crofting Federation is seeking to divide crofters and farmers on the issue. There is a common interest between crofters and farmers throughout my constituency and elsewhere on it, and we require continued action. I am afraid that the Scottish Government has not, so far, resolved the issue, and I would therefore like the petition to remain open in the hope that the successor committee will take it on board.

I completely concur with Mike Russell: the petition has to remain open. The problem is not going away, and closing the petition would send the wrong message to current and future Governments and to stakeholders. I therefore support keeping the petition open.

I agree with Graeme Dey and Michael Russell.

There is no doubt in my mind that the petition must be kept open. It is clear from the Scottish Crofting Federation’s most recent submission that there are still problems with greylag and barnacle geese on the Uists, and I know from personal experience that the issue on the island of Lewis is far from resolved. At the cross-party group on crofting, we hear anecdotal evidence that, as Michael Russell has said, greylags are spreading to inner Hebridean islands.

The rural affairs committee in the next session of the Parliament must maintain pressure on the Scottish Government to ensure proper funding for goose management programmes. I reiterate the point that was made when the committee first considered the petition: if we are not careful, it will soon be the crofters, not the geese, who will be endangered.

I agree with other members.

We have several things to think about. We can bring the petitioner’s comments and the information from the Parliament of Norway to the attention of the Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage. Do we agree to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

We can also suggest to our successor committee, via our legacy report, that it might want to consider examining the outcome of SNH’s review of wild goose management, with a view to deciding what further action, if any, should be taken on the petition. I think that we should add that there should be proper funding for goose management in the budgets of SNH and so on. Do members agree?

Members indicated agreement.

Does that mean that we are keeping the petition open?

Yes, definitely. I beg your pardon—

So we have resolved to keep the petition open.

We have resolved to keep the petition open and to include it in our legacy paper.