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Would the member licence feral pigeons?

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?

I get that, and obviously “game” has a wide definition. However, specifically with regard to common pheasants or red-legged partridge, game shooting is part of that, and it is worth a huge amount—£760 million—even if we break that down and look at the amount that relates to pheasant shooting in comparison with other game-shooting activities. To be honest, most of the red deer are controlled by Forestry and Land Scotland, which is not part of the shooting aspect.

It is not non-native species in all game shooting.

As I said to the member, it is irrelevant whether we break that impact down; the member should have done that in the first place in order to prove that her amendments would have less of an impact than the loss of £760 million to the Scottish economy. Game shooting is important to rural tourism and rural jobs, and the member has set out an ideological position—I am really surprised that Labour and the Greens are coming from that point of view. Those amendments would, in effect, ban pheasant shooting.

The major pylon infrastructure project across the Borders, which Christine Grahame cited, is causing much angst among residents of the area. One of the key concerns that they have is that the Scottish Government overturned planning application decisions in 99.9 per cent of situations. If that continues and the amendment is not accepted, what other measures or means are there for constituents to have their concerns heard in this place?

Apologies if you believe that I am not, cabinet secretary, but the minister is not here to defend what he wrote or to explain his views on the concerns that the committee or others have about amendment 35. Considering that the Scottish Government said that it would not amend the section 16AA licence, the proposals go against what the Government committed to.

I mean for shooting.

May I apologise, convener, if the cabinet secretary believes that to be disrespectful? I will describe it in a different way. The cabinet secretary has an opinion on the amendments, which are supported by the red squirrel group. The evidence that the group has provided to me is being undermined by the cabinet secretary’s explanation of an awareness campaign as being something “bureaucratic”. The pox virus is spreading and is causing huge issues in the south of Scotland. I am not sure whether the cabinet secretary is aware of the extent to which that is happening.

Amendments 284 to 286 offer various approaches to improving the protections for the ancient wild goat herd in Newcastleton and Langholm. These amendments were prompted by discussions with my constituents in Newcastleton, including the Wild Goat Conservation Trust, which has raised serious concerns about the preservation of its local herd. In February, plans to cull 85 per cent of the herd were announced—an action carried out during the breeding season, causing significant distress to the community. That ad hoc and unscientific approach poses an existential threat to the herd. The goats are not only ecologically important but of significant cultural and heritage value. I remind the committee that 13,000 local residents signed a petition calling for the goats’ protection.

The goats have inhabited the moorlands between Newcastleton and Langholm for centuries. They are fully wild and form part of the delicate ecology of those protected uplands. However, despite their importance, wild goats have no legal protection in Scotland. The Government has stated that it has no plans to provide full legal protected status for primitive or feral goats. The lack of protection has left that specific herd vulnerable and its future increasingly uncertain.

Section 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 gives the animals that are listed in schedule 5 protected status and makes it an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure or take any wild animal listed in it. Amendment 284 would give the wild goat protected status by adding it to schedule 5 of the 1981 act.

As an alternative, amendment 285 would provide for the protection of wild goats and their habitat through the designation of a site of special scientific interest in Langholm and Newcastleton. That would not go as far as creating an offence but would outline the fact that wildlife, including goats, might be a consideration and are just as distinct as any other sub-population that is protected. The burnet moth is an example of that approach.

Amendment 286 would provide ministers with a regulation-making power to provide protection for Langholm and Newcastleton wild goats.

Amendments 291 to 293 were drafted following discussions with the Central Borders Red Squirrel Network, which aims to stop the decline of red squirrel populations in the Scottish Borders by containing or significantly slowing the progress of squirrel pox in the south of Scotland, and to improve conditions for viable red squirrel populations across Scotland. The population of grey squirrels, which is listed as one of the 100 worst invasive non-native species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is approaching 3 million, and the red population has fallen to around 287,000, with 75 per cent found in Scotland. My amendments aim to inform management interventions and to provide greater protections for red squirrels.

Amendment 291 would require a review of the squirrel pox virus, including the impact of the virus on red squirrels, the spread of the virus across Scotland and what action must be taken to tackle that. The amendment would allow for the review to be delegated to local authorities and NatureScot to work together to consider what action needs to be taken.

Amendment 292 would establish a red squirrel awareness campaign to promote awareness of the preservation and control of red squirrels and would require that ministers engage with relevant stakeholders when designating and implementing such a campaign.

Amendment 293 would require Scottish ministers to undertake a review of whether legislative change is required to further separate the provision for non-native species and non-native plants under the 1981 act. This amendment aims to separate the invasive grey squirrels from plants in terms of non-native species specification, with the aim of differentiating more explicitly the impacts of managing non-native animals and non-native plants.

The goats themselves are not feral—they are wild goats, which is why they are so unique. Their uniqueness is that they have been here for centuries. According to the conservation group, those British primitive goats are descended from goats that were brought to the British Isles by neolithic herdspeople more than 4,000 years ago. They are unique.

That is why this is so important. The conservation group is not against ensuring that older goats be controlled, because they must be. That is just the nature of things since the land sale has happened—Ms Villalba will be aware that Oxygen Conservation purchased some of the land, and Richard Stockdale has been making comments to that effect on some of Ms Villalba’s amendments. The conservation group is not against the control of goats, because they must be controlled, but it is supportive of the right method. My amendments would just give those goats a protected status, which would not have an impact on their control.

Moreover, other options exist to protect the habitat of the goat in relation to the regulation-making powers that the Scottish ministers could have. The cabinet secretary has options here, and I am sure that she will give us her opinion on how the three amendments that would ensure protection could be made possible.