The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday February 19 2025 #Lynx

The Scotsman

Dale hears from Heritage Correspondent Alison Campsie on the case for reintroducing Lynx to the Scottish countryside

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Wednesday.

00:04My name's Dale Miller.

00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Heritage Correspondent, Alison

00:11Campsey.

00:12Alison, we'll get to having a chat about something just slightly off-brief for you,

00:18although it's got an historic element as well to it, but firstly the front page of

00:23today's Scotsman.

00:25And we led on public services crumbling.

00:27This was an interview that our political editor, Alistair Grant, has done with the

00:32head of Unison and they are saying effectively, basically flagging that the existing council

00:40tax system is, quote, stupid and there's major problems about the crumbling sector

00:46and the inability to deliver the public services that, I guess, people and ratepayers and taxpayers

00:53have come to expect.

00:55This comes as the first council tax hike was agreed at 10% and this is for East Lothian

01:02residents.

01:03Now, there are proposals for a variety of increases across the country.

01:09John Swinney has said he doesn't think 10% increases are warranted and that they would

01:14be too high, but East Lothian has set theirs at 10% and there are a host of other councils

01:20that are looking and have even recommended at close to 10%.

01:24Edinburgh is 8% as an example.

01:27Glasgow, I think, is currently hovering around at 7% in terms of recommendations.

01:31Other councils like Fife meet on Thursday to decide their budgets.

01:36It's a big week and it's not good news if you're thinking about how much you're going

01:40to pay out for basic services throughout this year.

01:45Ellison, slightly less doom and gloom, I guess, to talk about.

01:50Something that John Swinney said, I think it was a week or two ago, under our government

01:55or under his government, they will not be considering the introduction of lynxes or

02:00any other carnivores, but the public have had a bit of a say around this and there's

02:05a slightly alternative view out there.

02:06Yeah, absolutely.

02:07It's become a really sort of interesting debate that should be kind of ramped up and this

02:13is about the reintroduction of lynx, particularly, and other predators in Scotland.

02:18So, John Swinney said that NFU Scotland had a room full of farmers in early February that

02:25he was not, he had no intention of reintroducing lynx to Scotland, but a poll has come out

02:33yesterday and it suggests that public support for the release of lynx, legal release of

02:41lynx into the Scottish countryside has grown.

02:44Sixty one percent, apparently, of the Scottish public would support the reintroduction of

02:48lynx. Now, so you're seeing another interesting fault line building up here.

02:54Farmers are wholly opposed to the reintroduction of lynx and other predators because they

03:00fear that they will attack livestock and undermine traditional land management

03:05practices. But the people who did this poll, which is a group called Lynx to Scotland,

03:11which is funded by a number of rewilding organisations, they say the time has come to bring

03:18lynx back in and into the Scottish countryside and basically rebalance the ecology.

03:24We know that the Highlands, you know, in many parts are kind of an ecological desert, and

03:28this is largely driven by huge numbers of deer, which have kind of over the years

03:34exploded over these highland estates in numbers, given the kind of prevalence of hunting

03:40and shooting. But deers are also very damaging to the countryside as well.

03:45They're seen to destroy trees.

03:47And although much work has gone on to try and control the impact of deer, rewilders are

03:52saying we need predators for deer to naturally keep down the numbers and naturally kind of

03:58restore the balance in the countryside.

04:01So it's a really interesting argument.

04:04John Swinney has been told to kind of, you know, have a rethink on this because the

04:09Scottish government has long told us that they are, they support moves, great moves to

04:16tackle climate change.

04:18They've kind of, they had these very ambitious targets to get to net zero.

04:24And, you know, I think Lynx to Scotland are saying you're missing a trick here.

04:28If we can actually bring this balance back in to the Scottish countryside in its ecology,

04:34we have more trees, we have more habitats, we have more biodiversity.

04:38These are key things which help on that road to net zero.

04:43And also Lynx were in the Scottish countryside for hundreds of years, but throughout

04:49hunting, through hunting and so forth, they became extinct, I think it was about 500 years

04:53ago. So they do have a place in Scotland.

04:56Historically, there's been a lot of attempts in Europe as well to bring back the Lynx.

05:01Now, I haven't checked out in detail the success of these schemes, but it's certainly

05:07suggested that in some places it is working.

05:11And I think Lynx to Scotland, by their nature, are getting very frustrated with this

05:17blanket no put down on their proposals, which I have to say are incredibly well thought

05:23out and detailed.

05:25And they've been doing a lot of work in the background, speaking to stakeholders,

05:29particularly up around the Cairngorms area, where it's kind of been long thought that if

05:33Lynx was to come back, this is the kind of area that it would go to.

05:38They've done a lot of work with stakeholders, really detailed work on the ground, trying

05:41to formulate a proper discussion.

05:44So the fact that John Swinney is standing up in front of farmers and saying, no, we're

05:49not going to do this, presumably to keep the farming community, a very important part of

05:56the Scottish economy on board.

05:58But there's a frustration, I think, of the lack of dialogue, the lack of discussion, the

06:03lack of kind of collaboration and thinking and lack of will really to get people around

06:08the table and say, could we do this?

06:10I mean, there's the argument that if you bring Lynx back to Scotland, suddenly you've got

06:15this amazing new sort of draw to bring people into the country for tourism, ecotourism,

06:23rewilding tourism, which we know has become a big thing.

06:26So I think the poll shows that public support is up.

06:30John Swinney is saying no way, Lynx to Scotland are saying, let's just have a proper chat

06:35about this. Now, interestingly, the 61 percent figure of public support, that's gone up nine

06:43points since 2020.

06:47And the most recent poll was done following the illegal release of four Lynx into the

06:53Cairngorms in January.

06:55So that was a huge story and probably had the ability to focus people's mind on the issue

07:00on a very broad scale.

07:02So it's interesting that they're seeing a rise in support following this big news story

07:06about the Lynx, which really got people chatting about the issues and the broader impact

07:11that reintroducing Lynx into Scotland would have.

07:15Now, John Swinney said that a legal release was reckless.

07:19Lynx for Scotland agree that it shouldn't have been done that way.

07:23But they're saying there's a lot of capacity here to do this and to do it right and to

07:28do it to the benefit of the Scottish countryside.

07:30So a really interesting debate.

07:33Another one that kind of tilts the wishes of rewilders against the traditional stalwarts

07:38of the land, i.e. the farming and crofting community.

07:41But one, an issue, I think, which surely warrants some serious discussion if we are to

07:47improve the ecology of the Scottish countryside.

07:50Now, listen, we know that those four Lynx were domesticated in nature, so perhaps weren't

07:56a great example about how any planned release of Lynx into the wild would be managed if

08:03it was ever supported. I mean, I'm fascinated by the topic.

08:06My native Australia reintroduction of species has had some disastrous effects.

08:12But as you say, this was an animal that was present here 200 years ago in decent

08:19numbers. Yeah, absolutely.

08:21And, you know, there's an argument that historically the owners of the Scottish

08:24countryside, you have these massive estates in the highland back to back, massive tracts

08:28of land, which are very, you know, they're ecologically damaged due to generations of

08:37deer hunting. And, you know, it's like, well, is it not time to actually think again

08:43about restoring some of this countryside if we're serious about moving to a more

08:51ecologically rich landscape, one which could benefit a transition to net zero?

08:58So it really is such an interesting topic and it touches on such a lot of current

09:03themes. But there seems to be a real, I don't know, a sticking point over it.

09:11And again, it's you're seeing once more the rewilding agenda, those who are in favour

09:19of nature restoration, which has really got a lot of momentum in Scotland and kind of

09:23does a lot of work under the radar.

09:26Their aims, wishes, ambitions and hopes are constantly coming up against these arguments

09:32that things should really kind of stay the same.

09:35At least, surely, the Scottish public deserves to hear a proper discussion about this.

09:43And coincidentally, Alison, there was a new study released in the articles up on the

09:49Scotsman's website.

09:50You can find it under the Environment tab earlier this week about the reintroduction of

09:54wolves into the highlands, suggesting as few as 167 of the animals would be enough to

10:01introduce back into the environment and control.

10:04I think the number for links is that they reckon that the highlands could support 250

10:10links from memory.

10:11I think that's right. But I think what's really useful to understand is just the amount

10:18of detailed work that has gone into these studies and kind of proposals for the

10:27reintroduction of predators.

10:29They're not just being done on a whim.

10:31There's a lot of evidence base there as well.

10:33Now, Links for Scotland do completely appreciate the arguments that livestock could be at

10:42risk. And they're not denying that livestock could be at risk, but they're like, well, is

10:48there a way that we can have both?

10:51Is there a sort of a model we can bring in where livestock is protected the best it can

10:56be, but we can have predators too?

10:58And I think the quote from Links for Scotland, I'm not sure if it actually remained in the

11:05story, but they were saying that other, oh yeah, here it is, I thought it was quite a good

11:10quote. Other countries, often with more people and fewer resources than our own, manage to

11:14coexist with elephants, lions and tigers.

11:17Are we so exceptional in Scotland that we cannot manage to live with a medium-sized cat?

11:22Which I thought was a really good point.

11:25And the links apparently pose no threat to humans, they're very elusive.

11:32You know, they just want to go and hunt something to eat.

11:34They're not going to bother humans, as Links for Scotland would say.

11:38So, yeah, a really interesting topic.

11:40And hopefully, one, I would like to see this debate continue in a serious sense.

11:46I don't think it's just enough to say, no, we can't do this.

11:49Well, if we can't, why not?

11:50You know, who gets the upper hand here in the argument?

11:53Should it not be about a kind of collaboration and a sense of exchange in the discussion

12:00and the debate, rather than just saying no?

12:02You can read stories about everything that we've discussed, including our past coverage

12:07about the Links release and what happened in that case.

12:12A number of articles written by Elson's colleague Catherine Hay as well at Scotsman.com

12:17under the Environment or the Hay's Way tabs, you'll find plenty of these stories.

12:22Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, and go out and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow.

12:27We'll have our latest in our Justice Denied week-long series on the pressures on the criminal justice system.

12:34And we will be focusing on the victims in our coverage tomorrow.

12:38Alison, thanks to you and thanks to everyone else for joining us.

12:41Thanks very much.

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