Public consultations

Making a difference for Scotland's species:
An invitation to contribute

This is a consultation on a Species Framework. We're interested in your comments and suggestions to help SNH implement species management successfully.

Why do we need a Species Framework?

Scotland’s species are a vital part of our natural and cultural heritage. In forests, in freshwaters, on moorlands, the coast or in the sea, as well as in urban areas, they are a source of economic, social and environmental well-being.

Within healthy ecosystems species are constantly changing. Their numbers, geographic ranges and genetic make-up vary in response to environmental change (including climate change). Healthy and resilient ecosystems are important for biodiversity and for the services on which human life depends. SNH’s long-term aim for Scotland’s species is for thriving, self-sustaining and self-regulating populations of native species distributed throughout their natural range.

Human demands and pressures have had a profound impact on Scotland's biodiversity, and these threats continue. Importantly, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment recently listed the key threats to biodiversity worldwide as habitat loss and damage, climate change, invasive non-native species, and overexploitation of species.

Steps are already being taken to address these threats at international, European, national and local levels. The UK government has signed up to the Convention on Biological Diversity and to the European Union target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010. In Scotland the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 makes it a duty on all public bodies to further the conservation of biodiversity, and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (2005) sets out what we need to do to conserve and enhance biodiversity over the next 25 years.

There are times when management of individual species is necessary, in order to enhance the status of some species, or control others, or to manage the interactions between species and people. We consider there are four situations where direct management is appropriate:

• species conservation - to increase a species' range or population size because it is at risk, or because it plays a vital role in ecosystem health;
• invasive non-native species - to control species that are not native to a particular area and threaten biodiversity aims;
• conflicts of interest involving native species - where biodiversity objectives are at odds with people’s other interests;
• sustainable use of species - where a species in the wild is a resource of social or economic benefit (e.g. fieldsports, fisheries).

Species management can be controversial: public attitudes about individual species can vary and are often deeply felt. Action can involve conflict between public and private objectives. SNH's Species Framework seeks to provide a basis for species management decisions to be as clear as possible.

This framework makes explicit the assumptions behind species issues. It recognises the legislative status of species but does not take that as the starting point. It explains under what circumstances species are managed, and to what ends, and offers guiding principles. The initial list of species identified for action is based on Scottish priorities. These are the species for which SNH thinks some action will make the most difference to biodiversity, and where we know what to do.

How you can help

SNH would like to know your views on action for Scotland’s species. When is species management necessary? How should it be carried out? Which species should be the focus of effort and resources over the next 3-5 years so as to make the most difference to biodiversity?

For a paper copy of the consultation paper contact Anne Griffith, Scottish Natural Heritage, 12 Hope Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 2AS. Tel 0131 447 4784.

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by 30th June 2006. Please send your response by e-mail to: species.consultation@snh.gov.uk or by hard copy to the address above.

• An invitation to contribute (size 239 kb)
• Consultation paper (size 941kb)

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