NatureScot

Um, in relation to Mr MacKinnon's question, uh, first of all, the, the Government has no intention of changing the provisions in the act.

Um, the, uh, uh, the issues that have been wrestled with by, uh, NatureScot are the consideration of scientific evidence.

I understand and appreciate there is quite vigorous debate about that scientific evidence, but NatureScot have fulfilled an expectation that I had that they would be open and transparent about the information that they had considered in coming to the conclusion.

I think it's important for me to state for the record that although a decision was taken in relation to the guga hunt in 2026, that does not pro- prohibit any, uh, application for subsequent years, and I hope that clarity assists, uh, the, um, the, Mr MacKinnon's constituents, who I know many of whom are troubled by this particular issue.

Thank you.

Here's yet another way to understand this fundamental compulsion.

What if I can make the argument through grammar? In a recent post by NatureScot, Scotland's nature agency based in Inverness with hundreds of preservation projects and programs nationwide, I found a presentation of natural benefits from nature and from the sea.

The message was delivered through a particular figure of speech, the gerund, which is for those of you who have forgotten, a form of a verb used as a noun.

I have used this distinction before, calling for the redefinition of a policy, a noun, into the more active application of a verb, a shift from passive to active that should transform the way we see the world, indeed, how we engage necessarily with our oceanic world to survive.

Please note, the law does not permit a license to be granted for mirror burn on peatland to improve grazing for livestock nor for moorland game or wildlife.

In order to identify if land is peatland or non-peatland, there's an interactive map available on the NatureScot website that groups land into three categories, peatland in purple, non-peatland in blue, and uncertain peat depth shown as green.

Peatland is any ground with a peat depth of more than 40 centimeters.

If your ground is clearly peatland and your application is for one of the five peatland purposes, no peat depth survey is required.

If you disagree with your peatland classification and want to apply for a non-peatland purpose, you will need to undertake peat depth surveys.

To survey, select an area on the interactive map that you would like to complete mirror burn on.

You will then get survey points that you will need to measure the peat depth at and submit the results to NatureScot for review.

Three top tips.

but further information was given in documents published by the government after Mr Swinney had delivered his speech.

Elsewhere in the plans, the reforms will see the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, SEPA, NatureScot, Zero Waste Scotland and Forestry Scotland be merged into a single organisation.

The Scottish Food Commission and the Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator will be integrated into Food Standards Scotland while maintaining their independent scrutiny functions.

Architecture and Design Scotland will form part of More Homes Scotland.

Quite a high up one in the programme for government is kind of the environmental bodies.

And it's like, I've wondered for a while why NatureScot and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency are separate things.

Like, Scottish forestry as well.

It's like, okay, bring it in.

The Programme for Government outlines extensive ways in which Scotland's public sector will be reduced and consolidated, including, but not limited to, cutting NHS Scotland's 14 territorial health boards down to just two.

Bringing various environmental bodies, including SEPA, NatureScot, Zero Waste Scotland and potentially Scottish Forestry, into a single outfit.

Integrating the Scottish Food Commission and the Scottish Pubs Code Adjudicator into Food Standards Scotland.

And reviewing all of Scotland's other public bodies for efficiency, while exploring the opportunities for joint working or merger projects.

So these are issues that are really hard to address.

It is the legal obligations, Natural England, NRW, NatureScot, etc.

They are doing things in line with their legal obligations.

The issue we have is they're often being, in our opinion, too precautionary in their nature.

Now, earlier this summer, a joint project to tag sea eagles was launched, and the main aim of the research is, I suppose, to discover how birds interact with livestock.

It's a project that's being funded by NatureScot and involving other partners, including RSPB Scotland, where Duncan Orr-Ewing is head of species and land management, and also chair of the research group involved in this study.

Good morning, Duncan.

Duncan.Good morning.

So what this, uh, project aims to do is find out a lot more about how, uh, sea eagles are behaving in the landscape.

We have over many years, uh, tagged a lot of golden eagles, uh, similar species, and, uh, yeah, we've, we've learnt a lot about these birds, how big their territories are, where they live, where they're spending their time.

So the aim of this project, working with NatureScot, but also with natural research who are experts in this area, i- is to tag as many sea eagles as we can.

This year we've managed to tag 32 chicks, and over time we will aim to find out a lot more about these birds, including whether they're spending, uh, significant amounts of time around lambing parks.