Chamber and committees

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) staff and volunteer trappers have conducted an informal assessment of the trapping sites and use local knowledge of the presence of otters and other protected species prior to making the decision to proceed with trapping. SNH does not conduct beaver trapping within 30 metres of otter holts.

The licence application by the Scottish Wildlife Trust/Royal Zoological Society of Scotland contains an exit strategy for implementation during, or at the end, of the trial. The exit strategy contains four options for implementation. These are:

Option 1: Repatriation of animals to the country of origin/transfer to other reintroduction programmes;

Option 2: Housing of animals in zoological collections;

Option 3: Capturing, neutering and returning animals to live their life span in the wild; and

Option 4: Humane control of animals.

There are 12 animals resident in the Knapdale trial area as of 18 February 2011.

Specifically:

(a) Six beavers of the original release and four from subsequent releases since June 2009 are currently resident in the Knapdale trial area.

(b) Two beavers have been born within the site.

(c) Two beavers died at the trial site (one of the original animals and one released since June 2009), and one animal (one of the original animals) was removed due to welfare reasons and later died at Edinburgh Zoo.

(d) Three beavers have gone missing from the trial area and are now assumed to have died.

There are no powers which enable Scottish Natural Heritage to gain access to land to capture beavers where landowners are not willing to give them permission.

However, The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, which was passed on 2 March 2011, introduces a new regime of species control orders that would enable access to land to control invasive non-native animals or plants.

This would be a matter for the courts to determine.

No beaver has been trapped by Scottish Natural Heritage in the River Ericht.

The Scottish Government has issued its own guidance on procurement policy relating to timber and timber related products. The guidance recommends that public procurement officials should specify in orders and contracts that suppliers must provide evidence that timber and timber products have been lawfully obtained from forests or plantations that are being sustainably managed. It explains which certification schemes can be regarded as evidence in this respect whilst making clear that other evidence of sustainability should also be allowed. It also draws attention to the Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) as a source of advice for assessing evidence for timber which is not part of one of those certification schemes.

The Scottish Government has not carried out any assessment of how the wider public sector in Scotland complies with the criteria set out by CPET.

The Procurement Policy Note on timber and timber products on the Scottish Government website recommends that public procurement officials should specify in orders and contracts that suppliers must provide evidence that timber and timber products have been lawfully obtained from forests or plantations that are being sustainably managed. The policy note advises which certification schemes can be accepted as fulfilling these requirements whilst making clear that other evidence of sustainability should also be allowed.

The Scottish and UK Governments are currently in discussions about timber certification procedures and are also developing criteria to ensure that biomass used to generate electricity under the Renewable Obligation, and heat under the forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive, comes from sustainable sources.

Once these discussions have been concluded, the Scottish Government will consider whether the current guidance requires to be updated.

The Scottish Government first issued guidance to public bodies in Scotland on the policy for procurement of timber and timber products in 2004. A further policy update was issued in 2005. This update gave details of four approved timber schemes, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) schemes, that can provide the necessary assurances that timber purchased has been legally harvested from sustainably managed forests.

This policy note also drew attention to the central point of expertise on timber which offers specialist advice on assessment of whether timber which is not part of the main certification schemes can be regarded as legally logged from sustainably managed forests.

In the Scottish Government, all timber products procured on behalf of its Facilities and Estate Services Division, are Forest Stewardship Council certified and the contractor holds evidence to this effect.

Scottish Government agencies are required to follow the guidance referred to above when procuring timber and timber products but no assessment has been made by the Scottish Government in the last 12 months of the relative proportion of FSC, PEFC, other certified or non-certified sources supplied.

The report itself calls for more work to be carried out to develop some of the recommendations further. We are taking this work forward with stakeholders before taking up a detailed position on the report. We have, however, identified some key principles which the Scottish Government supports including;

Improving sustainability of Scottish agriculture;

Fairer allocation of both Pillar I and Pillar II budgets;

Continuation of Pillar I Direct Payments;

Reform of Direct Payments (historical basis no longer justified);

Distribution of future payments (pure area-based system not suitable, need to consider alternatives such as Top-Up Fund);

Measures to tackle land abandonment (limited coupled payments);

Stronger links between payments and farming activity;

Addressing global challenges (climate change, biodiversity and food security);

Measures to support new entrants and other excluded sectors; and

Simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy to reduce the administrative burden.

I have undertaken to write to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee explaining those principles in more detail.