Rob Edwards

Edinburgh pandas are ‘pawns’ in diplomatic game

from Sunday Herald, 10 August 2008

Edinburgh Zoo’s controversial campaign to rent a pair of giant pandas from China next year has roped in Alex Salmond, the royal family and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Internal government documents seen by the Sunday Herald reveal that the zoo has been exerting influence in high places in order to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to agree to export the iconic, endangered creatures.

But the plan - despite being viewed as “primarily a commercial transaction” - has become entangled in the UK’s highly sensitive diplomatic relations with China in the run-up to the Olympics, opening in Beijing this weekend.

Revealed: the Cairngorm railway 'scandal'

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2008

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has been accused by the Forestry Commission of trying to hide the multi-million pound problems plaguing the controversial Cairngorm mountain railway.

Internal documents from the commission reveal that many of the facilities at the ski resort on the Cairngorm estate near Aviemore are badly in need of repair. Buildings are leaking, sewage discharge limits are being breached and the train’s undercarriage has not been properly checked.

Bringing the facilities up to scratch could cost up to £2 million of public money, the documents disclose. If the funicular railway has to shut, £6 million would have to be found to reinstate the land, and a £2.7 million grant from the European Union would have to be repaid.

Trump adviser says golf plan will damage environment

from Sunday Herald, 08 June 2008

The US billionaire property developer, Donald Trump, has ridden roughshod over a warning from his own scientific adviser that the controversial golf complex he plans for Aberdeenshire could ruin the environment. 

Dr Tom Dargie, a paid scientific consultant to Trump International Golf Links Scotland, told his employers that the proposed golf course would pose “a very significant threat” to the unique system of sand dunes at the Menie estate, near Balmedie.

But Dargie’s advice to move the links inland to avoid causing serious damage was ignored by the Trump organisation. It insisted that it needed to develop the dunes in order to create a “world-class” golf resort.

Plan for super-rich resort runs into opposition

from Sunday Herald, 25 May 2008

A £500 million plan to build the world’s most expensive and most luxurious get-away for global billionaires in rural Perthshire is running into fierce opposition.

Malcolm James, a property developer from Cornwall, is about to apply for planning permission for an unusual hotel, housing and leisure complex on the south shores of Loch Rannoch.

As well as plush suites, houses on stilts and an underwater restaurant, the complex will include an upmarket shopping centre, a golf course, a concert hall, a spa and a private plastic surgery clinic. “It will be a super-luxury resort for the super-rich,” James told the Sunday Herald. 

Beavers to come back next year

from Sunday Herald, 25 May 2008

They were killed off more than 400 years ago, and snubbed by the last government - but now they are coming home.

A historic plan to bring beavers back to Scotland will today be given the go-ahead by the Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell. Up to four families of the dam-building mammals will be released around lochs in an Argyll woodland next spring.

 

Russell has swept aside objections from landowners and overturned the former Scottish Executive’s decision to reject the return of the beaver. He is keen to oversee what would be Scotland’s first ever planned reintroduction of a mammal to the wild.

Wild land wins overwhelming backing

from Sunday Herald, 18 May 2008

It’s wild, it’s out there and it matters to almost everybody, even if they hardly ever see it.

Scotland’s remote and untamed mountains, moors and glens have been given overwhelming backing in a major new opinion poll for the government’s conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

Over 90% of people interviewed from across the country said they thought that it was important for Scotland to have wild places. Of the 1,304 who were questioned, only six suggested that wild land was not important.

Ancient forest 'damaged by cycleway'

from Sunday Herald, 11 May 2008

Wildlife is being damaged by the construction of a cycleway through one of the most precious and protected natural habitats in Scotland, conservationists have warned.

Work to drive a five-kilometre track through Rothiemurchus forest in the Cairngorms National Park is putting red squirrels, wood ants and ancient Caledonian pines at risk, they say, and amounts to “environmental vandalism”.

But this is disputed by the three public agencies who are overseeing the cycleway. They insist that the damage is “minimal” and that the project will bring long term gains.

Bombarding the birds of Cape Wrath

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

A massive multinational military exercise underway in the far north west of Scotland is putting lambs, seabirds and possibly whales at risk.

Around 70 aircraft and 36 warships are bombarding Cape Wrath, near Durness, as part of a two-week training exercise codenamed Joint Warrior, involving the armed forces of 17 NATO countries, including the UK, the US, Canada and France.

But the area is surrounded by farms, is vital for Scotland’s collapsing seabird populations and is frequented by whales and dolphins. Cape Wrath’s northern sea cliffs have been designated a special protection area for birds under European law.

One year on, how green is the SNP?

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

The SNP grew up on oil, is wedded to economic expansion and always wants to put Scotland first. As a political party, it has never developed a coherent theoretical approach to one of the defining issues of the age: the environment.

It comes as some surprise then, that after a year in power, the SNP has won warm plaudits from many environmentalists. There are still major reservations, of course, but most observers outside political parties seem to think that the SNP is doing a better job than its predecessors in government.

Moorland birds under threat from global warming

from Sunday Herald, 20 April 2008

One of the icons of Scotland’s moors, the golden plover, is under threat because global warming is killing the food which it needs to survive - daddy longlegs.

A new study by scientists has warned that, if nothing is done, populations of the bird could be wiped out by the end of the century. Other moorland birds who feed on the insect, like the curlew, greenshank and dotterel, may also be at risk.

Trouble ahead on breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 06 April 2008

Ministers are preparing to face censure over alleged breaches of European laws meant to protect whales and birds of prey and to prevent pollution, an internal report obtained by the Sunday Herald reveals.

The Scottish government is also anticipating “potential problems” with legal action from the European Commission (EC) over the controversial wind farm proposed for the Isle of Lewis, fisheries policy, environmental assessments and sewage leakages in Campbeltown.

An up-to-date database of all the active legal disputes between the Scottish government and the EC has been released under freedom of information legislation. Details of the so-called “infraction cases” were kept secret until the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, ordered that to end last December.

Disputed hawk trapping trial postponed

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

An intensely controversial scheme to trap sparrowhawks to prevent them from killing racing pigeons has been postponed because of last-minute problems in getting licences from the UK government.

The Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell, decided at the end of last week to delay a trial programme to relocate sparrowhawks hunting near pigeon lofts. The trial had been due to begin on Monday, but it won’t now take place until the autumn at the earliest.

The surprise decision prompted an angry reaction from pigeon-fanciers, who claimed they had been “shafted”. Wildlife groups, however, were pleased because they regarded the trial as unnecessary, illegal and potentially harmful.

Scotland's seas under threat from oil development

from Sunday Herald, 02 March 2008

There will be blood, and oil will be to blame. Scotland’s seas, and the teeming wildlife they harbour, are facing one of the biggest dangers they have ever encountered.

A massive new search for oil and gas launched by the UK government will put whales, dolphins and other marine life at risk. And it will jeopardise global attempts to cut the pollution that is causing climate chaos.

Plans to open up virtually all of the seas around the Scottish coast for multinational companies to explore for oil and gas have been greeted with widespread horror by experts and environmentalists.

New move to bring back beavers

23 December 2007

Plans to bring the beaver back to Scotland four centuries after it was hunted to extinction have taken a crucial step forward this weekend.

Two wildlife groups have formally applied to the Scottish government for a licence to introduce up to 20 European beavers for a trial at Knapdale forest in mid-Argyll.

Scotland accused of 65 breaches of European laws

from Sunday Herald, 16 December 2007

Scotland has been accused by the European Union (EU) of 65 violations of laws meant to prevent pollution, protect wildlife and control waste, according to a secret government database released to the Sunday Herald.

The number of alleged breaches of European legal directives over the past six years is twice as high as previously admitted, prompting accusations yesterday that Scotland's record was "shocking" and had been "covered up".

The range of environmental crimes investigated by the EU is very broad. They include breaking rules on overfishing, hazardous waste, water pollution, sewage, radiation protection, plant imports, pesticides, birds of prey and pigs.

Ministers facing protests for helping Donald Trump

from Sunday Herald, 09 December 2007

Scottish ministers are facing a rising barrage of protest - and the threat of legal action - over their unprecedented decision to call in plans for an international golf resort by the American billionaire property developer, Donald Trump.

The move has upset planning professionals, who fear that rules are being bent to pave the way for the £1 billion scheme on the Aberdeenshire coast. Environmental groups representing hundreds of thousands of people are also mobilising opposition, and talking to their lawyers.

The way in which Scottish Nationalist ministers handle the Trump development is now seen by many as the first major test of the new government’s green credentials. Leading environmentalists are warning that ministers risk being “bullied” by the tycoon, and are already making comparisons with the big environmental battles of the past over the Harris superquarry and the Cairngorm funicular.

Moray dolphins threatened by oil development

from Sunday Herald, 18 November 2007

Scotland's most famous school of dolphins is under threat because the UK government is failing to block oil and gas developments in the Moray Firth.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) in London - formerly the Department of Trade and Industry - has rejected calls from environmental organisations to exclude the Firth from the current round of oil and gas licensing.

If the area is developed by oil companies, its precarious population of bottlenose dolphins could be hit by "potentially lethal impacts", the groups warn. Other cetaceans, including whales and porpoises, could also suffer.

Nature agency 'putting wildlife at risk'

from Sunday Herald, 11 November 2007

The government's conservation watchdog has been accused of putting wildlife and wild places at risk across Scotland by preparing to relax its defences against development.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is under fire from environmental groups and insiders for allowing a coal mine and wind farms to go ahead despite the damage they could do to birds and bogs.

Urban green spaces seen as ugly and unsafe

from Sunday Herald, 14 October 2007

The parks, fields and other green spaces in Scotland's towns and cities are seen as dangerous and ugly by nearly half the population, according to a survey to be published tomorrow.

Almost 50% of the people questioned across the country thought that their local green spaces were unsafe for their children to play in, or for adults to take exercise. Just under half also regarded their green spaces as unattractive.

Salmon infected by dangerous worm

from Sunday Herald, 14 October 2007

The government's food safety watchdog has issued a warning about the spread of a potentially dangerous parasitic worm infecting wild salmon.

The nematode worm, known as anisakis, can cause severe illness if eaten, including violent abdominal pain, vomiting and anaphylactic shock. The disease it causes, anisakiasis, is often reported where raw fish is eaten, such as sushi in Japan.