The Law - where does it come from?
Scottish law has dealt with wildlife since at least 1427. The objective
then was to rid the country of creatures regarded as pests - notably the
wolf - but in that same statute there is also evidence that even then it
was felt necessary to regulate hunting of other animals.
In the 20th Century the law has given increasing protection to wild creatures and plants threatened by man's unregulated activities. Since 1980 new legislation on species protection has been been driven by the need to implement three international agreements on the conservation of nature.
- The 1979 Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats [the 'Bern Convention'].
- The 1979 European Community Directive on the conservation of wild birds [the 'Birds Directive'].
- The 1992 European Community Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora [the 'Habitats Directive']
The Birds Directive and Bern Convention were incorporated in United Kingdom legislation in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; the Habitats Directive in the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations 1994.
With devolution of responsibility for our environment to Scotland, the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have endeavoured to plug loopholes in the existing legal framework and bring an improved consistency of approach to the different species protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Currently (June 2006) there is a consultation on further changes required by a ruling from the European Court of Justice that the UK had failed to adequately transpose certain aspects of the Habitats Directive into domestic legislation.