Rob Edwards

Simon Pepper 1947-2018

Simon Pepper, who has died aged 70, played a major role in shaping environmental campaigning and policy in Scotland. He made WWF Scotland into one of the country’s most influential pressure groups, forged dozens of different organisations into a powerful alliance and was a key advisor to successive governments.

In 1985 Simon was WWF Scotland’s only employee, working from his study under the stairs at home near Aberfeldy. Over the course of the next 20 years under his leadership it grew to be an effective force for environmental good, with up to 20 staff.

With skilled behind-the-scenes negotiating, he helped stop a destructive plan to gouge a superquarry into a mountain on the isle of Harris. The French multinational behind the plan, Lafarge, sponsored WWF International to the tune of £3.5 million and admitted that internal pressure from WWF Scotland helped persuade it to abandon the superquarry in 2004.

Simon also was key in getting Scottish ministers to establish two national parks at Loch Lomond and the Cairngorms in 2002 and 2003. He fought plans for a funicular railway up Cairngorm, which turned out to be a financial and environmental disaster, and campaigned against fish farms and tax breaks for commercial forestry.

Simon knew that more progress could be achieved if Scotland’s disparate conservation groups learnt to work better together. That’s why he devoted much energy to founding Scottish Environment Link in 1987, which now includes more than 35 organisations representing half a million people.

The Millennium Forest for Scotland was Simon’s brainchild, and he helped run it from 1995 to 2001. That resulted in £27 million being spent restoring 22,000 hectares of woodland.

He served on the boards of eight government agencies, offering ministers advice on forestry, deer, wildlife conservation, sustainable development, climate change and lottery funding. He was elected rector of St Andrews University from 2005 to 2008 and - to his embarrassment - was awarded an OBE.

Scotland will stick to EU environmental law, says minister

from Sunday Herald, 24 July 2016

The Scottish Government is promising that it will abide by European Union (EU) environmental law protecting wildlife and preventing pollution despite Brexit.

The cabinet secretary for the environment, Roseanna Cunningham, is pledging not to weaken a raft of Brussels legal measures regarded as crucial for conserving plants and animals and keeping air, water and land clean and healthy.

Her promise comes on the eve of a summit with environmental groups near Perth this week. It is Holyrood’s first clear commitment on green legislation since the UK voted last month to exit from the European Union, and has calmed campaigners’ worst fears.

Conservationists had voiced concerns that Brexit could lead to the weakening of vital laws governing nature areas and the management of fisheries. In the past the Scottish Government has come under fire for breaching European directives on wildlife, air pollution and dirty beaches.

But now Cunningham is seeking to reassure environmentalists. “It’s not always easy for the Scottish Government to comply with EU environmental regulation,” her spokesman told the Sunday Herald.

Row over ‘destruction’ on Cairngorm mountain

from Sunday Herald, 03 July 2016

The Cairngorm ski resort near Aviemore has come under fierce fire for breaching planning permission during construction work high on the much-prized mountain.

The Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) has reprimanded the ski company for creating an access track and re-engineering a slope without consent. The works were part of a scheme to replace the Shieling ski tow in Coire Cas.

The company, Natural Retreats, was ordered to apply for retrospective planning permission for the two unauthorised developments. It submitted an application last week.

The high tops of the Cairngorm mountains are one the most protected environments in Scotland. The high altitude, near-arctic conditions are home to some of the country’s rarest plants and animals.

There has long been controversy over ski developments on Cairngorm, most notably the funicular railway. The latest “destruction” caused by the replacement ski tow angered walkers and conservationists, who complained to the authorities.

Peat to be mined in breach of government policy

from Sunday Herald, 12 June 2016

Plans to dig out large amounts of Scotland’s precious peat from a landowner’s estate near Edinburgh look set to go ahead despite widespread opposition from conservationists and government.

A loophole in the law is likely to allow peat to be extracted from Auchencorth Moss on the Penicuik Estate in breach of local and national planning policy. Peat is a vital store of carbon, and is meant to be protected to help prevent climate pollution.

But because the application by a horticultural company is seeking to renew a 30-year-old old minerals permission, it can’t be rejected. If new conditions are imposed, compensation may also be payable.

The situation has been condemned as “shockingly outdated and inconsistent” by environmentalists. They are calling on ministers to take urgent action to close the loophole.

The 3,000-hectare Penicuik Estate has been owned and run by the Clerk family since 1654. The family is currently headed by Sir Robert Clerk, the 11th Baronet of Penicuik Estate.

Growing campaign to ban landowners from shooting grouse

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2016

A new campaign to ban landowners from mass shooting grouse on sporting estates was backed by over 10,000 people last week, including TV naturalists, conservationists and animal welfare groups.

The move comes in the wake of mounting concern about the illegal poisoning or shooting of birds of prey, and large-scale culls of mountain hares. Raptors and hares are killed in order to protect grouse so that there are more available to be shot for sport.

A petition calling on the UK government to ban driven grouse shooting, which can kill thousands of birds a day, was launched last Sunday. By late Friday it had gathered over 10,800 signatures, enough to ensure that the government must respond.

One of the first to sign was Chris Packham, a presenter of the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumwatch and Winterwatch programmes. “Real conservationists have run out of patience with the illegal persecution of raptors and the continued abuse of our uplands which are drained, burned and denuded of life,” he said.

“We want the law to be upheld and sustainable management implemented, that’s all, and in a reasonable world that wouldn’t be a big ask.”

Queen’s estate accused of mass killing mountain hares

from Sunday Herald, 20 March 2016

The Queen has been urged to step in and stop her estate in Scotland from killing hundreds of mountain hares in the wake of new evidence of mass culls in the Cairngorms.

Delnadamph, which is part of Her Majesty’s Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, has been accused of working with neighbouring estates to shoot large numbers of hares. Two culls involving three estates were witnessed towards the end of February, one of which was said to have killed 500 hares.

The allegations have been made by the veteran Cairngorm scientist, Dr Adam Watson, who says he has reliable accounts from eyewitnesses and other informed sources. The two alleged culls are in addition to the mass killing suggested by a photograph of a pickup truck full of dead hares on the Lecht published by The Ferret and others.

“In each case, a brutal military-type operation occurred, with scores of quad bikes and snow scooters driving the hares up to armed staff hidden higher up, and frequent bangs from guns,” Watson said.

“These severe killings show no respect for the public or for wildlife under stress during snowy weather.”

Landowners insist that shooting hares is perfectly legal, and doesn’t jeopardise their populations. But Watson argues that mass killings are in breach of European law because they are indiscriminate and damage the animals’ conservation status.

Westminster blunder deprives Scotland of anti-litter laws

from Sunday Herald, 20 March 2016

Westminster has admitted mistakenly depriving Scottish councils of powers to force businesses to clean up litter, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The Home Office in London has confessed it made a legislative “error” when it repealed sections of an environmental protection act without realising that they applied to Scotland.

As a result local authorities north of the border no longer have legal authority to issue notices requiring companies to install rubbish bins and take other measures to prevent littering. They also can’t order public bodies to clean up their land.

The Scottish environment minister, Richard Lochhead, has accused UK ministers of having “a rubbish attitude towards Scotland’s rubbish”. He is writing to the Home Office minister, Mike Penning, demanding “urgent action” to rectify the blunder.

“Laws over litter and the environment are rightly devolved to the Scottish Parliament but the Tories at Westminster have gone ahead and repealed them without even informing the Scottish Parliament,” said Lochhead.

“It’s now over fifteen years since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, but that news doesn’t seem to have reached some parts of Whitehall yet. I am asking the UK government to reinstate the provisions they repealed – and what measures they are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

The Home Office’s mistake was made when it was repealing sections 92-94A of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act so they could be replaced by new powers in the 2014 Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.

Cairngorm music festival must protect birds to win licence

from Sunday Herald, 06 March 2016

An electronic music festival planned for next weekend in the middle of an ancient Caledonian pine forest in the Cairngorms has still to be granted a licence because of concerns it could harm rare birds.

Over 500 tickets for ‘Groove Cairngorm’ at Badaguish in Glenmore forest at the foot of the Cairngorm ski slope have already been sold. But Highland Council is still considering how to protect the forest’s capercaillie, one of Scotland’s most endangered species, from the traffic, noise and crowds.

Two government bodies – Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which is meant to protect wildlife, and the Forestry Commission, which manages the woodland – are worried that the event could prevent the birds breeding unless major measures are taken to protect them.

SNH has advised the council that the noise should be kept below 75 decibels, and that sound barriers will be required around the concert site. It also wants to prevent concert-goers from leaving the site, and lights from being shone into the woods.

The Forestry Commission said it was concerned about the event taking place near places where capercaillie perform their distinctive mating dances, known as leks.

Environmental groups have warned that disturbing capercaillie would be illegal, with one suggesting the event should be refused a licence. The festival’s organisers, however, insist that the event will be able to go ahead without the birds being harmed.

Shooting estates take SNH to court on bird of prey claims

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Two sporting estates are taking the government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), to court after it said that birds of prey had been illegally killed or trapped on their land.

Last week SNH named Raeshaw estate, south east of Edinburgh, and Burnfoot estate, west of Stirling, as sites where raptors protected under law such as peregrines, red kites and buzzards had been persecuted.

Based on evidence from Police Scotland, SNH rejected appeals from the two estates, and took the unprecedented step of imposing legal restrictions on the management of their grouse moors.

The Sunday Herald has learnt, however, that the estates are now launching a judicial review of SNH’s move. They deny any wrongdoing, and are challenging whether SNH has acted lawfully within its powers.

The fierce legal battle is the latest twist in the long and bitter war over birds of prey on sporting estates. The birds are known to prey on grouse, which some landowners fear could reduce the numbers available to be shot for sport.

Hen harriers exterminated in northeast Scotland, says study

from Sunday Herald, 07 February 2016

Hen harriers have been virtually wiped out by sporting estates across northeast Scotland, according to a new scientific study.

The number of breeding pairs in the Cairngorms National Park, Aberdeenshire and East Moray has plummeted from 28 in the 1990s to just one in 2014 because of “illegal persecution and grouse management practices”, nine experts from the Northeast Scotland Raptor Study Group have concluded.

Their conclusions are backed by wildlife campaigners, who are demanding tougher action by Scottish ministers to crack down on offending landowners. But the study has been attacked by a landowning group as a selective attempt “to besmirch grouse moor management.”

The study, published in the journal British Birds, identified 118 possible breeding areas for hen harriers in northeast Scotland. “The vast majority were on moorland managed for red grouse sport shooting,” it said.

“Peak numbers of at least 28 breeding pairs in the 1990s declined steadily to just three pairs in 2010–12, five in 2013 and one in 2014. Illegal persecution and grouse-management practices are believed to be the main causes of that decline, which occurred despite ample suitable habitat and prey.”

New bid to ban pesticides toxic to bees

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Toxic pesticides blamed for harming bees are still being used across large swathes of farmland in Scotland, according to the latest government monitoring.

Farmers have treated potatoes, wheat, barley and oats on more than 22,000 hectares of land with the three most dangerous nicotine-based chemicals known as neonicotinoids.

The revelation has prompted wildlife groups to step up their campaign for Scottish ministers to ban the pesticides permanently to protect bees. But farmers say this could be “premature and damaging”.

The European Union (EU) restricted the use of three neonicotinoids in December 2013, and is now considering whether to end or extend the restrictions. They were clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

But the restrictions do not prevent the three chemicals from being used on crops that don’t attract bees and other pollinators. In Scotland, this has allowed their continued use on potatoes, wheat, barley and oats.

The latest figures from the Scottish Government’s Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture show that the three pesticides were applied to crops covering 22,442 hectares of farmland in 2014. That included 11,477 hectares of winter wheat, 5,910 hectares of winter barley, 4,379 hectares of potatoes and 676 hectares of spring oats.

Trump breached planning rules on flagpoles

from The National, 15 December 2015

In his bid to become the next US president, Donald Trump has been accused of insulting Muslims and Mexicans, offending women and mocking the disabled. But now The National can reveal that he’s really done it: he has slightly upset Aberdeenshire Council.

The council has ruled that two 24-metre flagpoles erected by the property billionaire at his luxury golf resort at Menie on the northeast coast have broken planning rules. Officials say he will have to apply for retrospective planning permission to “regularise” them - or else. 

Trump has asked for planning permission to do something he has already done at Menie seven times since 2012. According to the council’s planning database, he has applied for retrospective permission for signs, a soakaway, a fountain, walls, a car park, a bag drop and accommodation.

The two flagpoles, both flying the Saltire, prompted a complaint to the council in October by local resident, Chris Edwards. He pointed out that the council had previously rejected planning applications for flagpoles because they were too high and would be visible for miles.

Aberdeenshire Council launched an investigation, and sent officials to inspect the site. “These flagpoles would not benefit from permitted development rights and therefore constitute a breach of planning control,” enforcement officer Robin Currie told Edwards.

He added: “However the planning service are of the view that the position could be regularised by the retrospective submission of planning applications for these flagpoles.”

Fury over proposal to ban camping by roads

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2015

The Forestry Commission has sparked outrage by privately proposing to bar thousands of people from camping on roadsides across Scotland.

The government agency, one of the country’s largest landowners, suggested “a blanket ban on camping within 400 metres of a public road” in an internal minute from 2014, just released under freedom of information law.

According to countryside campaigners, such a widespread ban would undermine the “right to roam” law, turn the clock back more than a hundred years, and criminalise people enjoying the countryside. The commission, however, says it was “a throw-away comment”.

The comment was made during a meeting with Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority on 22 September last year. The meeting was to discuss the park’s controversial proposal to ban camping without permission on long stretches of loch shores, currently being considered by ministers.

A minute of the meeting records Forestry Commission Scotland as being “keen to secure solutions which covered all situations”. The commission complained that ”the current understanding of the meaning of wild camping was poor and that car boot camping and motorhome issues were growing across all of Scotland.”

The commission promised to raise concerns about the need for “wider review of car boot camping and antisocial behaviour and instigation of new measures to deal with it,” the minute said. “A possible suggestion for this could be a blanket ban on camping within 400m of a public road or recognised formal recreation facility car park.”

Major wildlife conference under fire for corporate “greenwash”

from Sunday Herald, 22 November 2015

A major international conference in Edinburgh this week aimed at conserving wildlife is facing protests for helping big companies “profit from greenwash”.

The World Forum on Natural Capital to discuss how businesses can value and protect nature has run into fierce criticism from campaign groups in Scotland and India for hosting companies with controversial environmental records.

Amongst those due to give a presentation is Mary Draves, a global director of the US chemical giant, Dow. Critics hold the company responsible for the fallout-out from 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, which caused 25,000 deaths.

Carina Mueller, a scientist from the UK-Dutch consumer goods firm, Unilever, is also scheduled to address the conference. The company has been attacked for failing to properly clean up mercury contamination and compensate former workers at a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal in South India.

The World Forum on Natural Capital is organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and backed by other major environmental groups. Due to take place on 23-24 November in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, it is expected to attract over 500 delegates from more than 35 countries.

Wildlife under threat from proposed ‘dilution’ of nature areas

from Sunday Herald, 25 October 2015

A radical new review by the government’s nature agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has sparked warnings that Scotland is preparing to give up on its most precious wildlife areas in order to save money.

Environmental groups are worried that protection of the country’s 1,800 nature conservation areas - and the multitude of invaluable animals, trees and plants they contain - will be diluted. This would be a mistake for which future generations would not forgive us, they say.

They fear that SNH is bowing to the inevitability of future budget cuts, instead of fighting its corner for more money. SNH accepts that its review carries “significant risks” because of the opposition it will engender.

Among the many species at risk are puffins, harbour seals, fresh water pearl mussels and juniper. Areas where woodlands and plants could suffer include Loch Lomond, Ben Nevis, Glen Coe and the Cairngorms (see tables below). 

SNH has embarked on a major review of the way all protected wildlife areas, which cover 18 per cent of Scotland, are managed. It asked a panel of experts to produce some ideas, and it is now considering how to proceed.

Juniper is being killed off by deadly disease

from Sunday Herald, 25 October 2015

Juniper, one of Scotland’s most loved and treasured plants, is in serious decline and being killed off by a deadly new disease, according to a new survey.

Observations reported by the conservation group, Plantlife Scotland, suggest that 79 per cent of juniper in 2014 was mature, old or dead. And as many as 63 per cent of bushes surveyed were found to have brown patches, a sign that they were suffering from ill health or disease.

A new air-borne fungal disease known as Phytophthora austrocedri is spreading across Scotland and having a severe impact on juniper, Plantlife says. The disease was first recorded in Argentina in 2007, and it is not known how it arrived in the UK.

Juniper is also being eaten by deer, cleared by foresters and burnt by land managers. A report published this weekend by Plantlife concludes that the species is now in a “critical state”.

Juniper is a native coniferous shrub famous for its dark purple berries, which are used to flavour gin and stews. Historically a defining characteristic of Scottish woodlands and mountainsides, it is gradually disappearing.

Plantlife asked volunteers to report sightings of juniper across the country in a “citizen science” survey. “We know juniper populations are struggling, but they now face an additional threat,” said the head of Plantlife Scotland, Dr Deborah Long.

It was vital to work with landowners to help juniper bushes resist the disease and the other risks they face, she argued. “We need to ensure juniper has a future. It needs active conservation effort and intervention now for it to survive.”

Lomond park board member forced to resign over gold shares

from The National, 14 September 2015

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park has been branded an “embarrassment to Scotland” after one of its leading members was forced to resign from the park board for failing to declare shares in a £200 million gold mining company.

Owen McKee, who bought shares for £12,000 in the Australian company Scotgold after it was given permission to dig for gold at Cononish near Tyndrum in the park, has triggered a by-election next month by standing down as an elected member of the board. He had previously sold his shares and resigned as vice-convener and chair of the planning committee, but remained a member of the board.

Our sister paper the Sunday Herald revealed in August that McKee breached the park’s code of conduct by failing to declare his shareholding at 15 meetings over more than two years. It has emerged that two days after the story appeared, he wrote a letter resigning from the park board “in the light of recent media coverage”.

Dave Morris, the former director of Ramblers Scotland, described McKee’s resignation as “inevitable” after the “cover-up” of his mistakes was exposed. “It is unlikely to be the last resignation as the board's reputation continues to spiral downwards,” he claimed.

“Our national parks were supposed to demonstrate best practice, but instead in Loch Lomond we have never-ending lessons in leadership failure. It is an embarrassment to Scotland.”

Coal industry’s bid for tax breaks under fire

from The National, 08 September 2015

An industry bid to win carbon tax breaks for opencast coal mines in Scotland has run into fierce opposition from environmentalists in the run-up to a debate by MPs at Westminster.

The Durham-based coal company, Hargreaves Services, is lobbying for exemptions to carbon taxes so that it can mine new coal and use some of the profits to restore derelict opencast sites. But critics say the tax breaks could just end up subsidising mines that damage the environment and fail to restore some of the worst sites.

Instead they are proposing using carbon taxes to build up a £100 million restoration fund. This could ensure that restoration is properly targeted, sustainable and of real benefit to communities and the environment, they argue.

After two coal companies went bust in 2013, Scotland was left with a massive £200 million hole in the funds needed to clean up the mess made by 32 opencast coal mines in East Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife and Midlothian.

Ministers and industry have since been struggling with how to ensure that the promises made to local communities to repair their scarred landscapes are kept. Hargreaves, which now operates seven opencast mines and looks after another seven defunct mines in Scotland, warned in December that falling coal prices would lead to a big drop in profits this year.

National park under fire for ‘cover-up’ of shares in £200m gold mine

from Sunday Herald, 02 August 2015

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park authority has been accused of a “cover-up” over the resignation of one of its leading members for failing to declare shares in a £200 million gold mining company for more than two years.

Internal documents seen by the Sunday Herald reveal that Owen McKee resigned as vice-convener and chair of the planning committee in December. This followed his admission that he had bought more than half a million shares for close to £12,000 in Scotgold, an Australian company that is planning to dig for gold under a hill at Cononish near Tyndrum in the national park.

After “serious concern” from fellow board members about the “reputational risks” to the park, he decided to sell his shares hours before a meeting due to discuss arrangements for considering the gold mine. He remains a member of the park board and planning committee.

Board members were repeatedly warned to keep what had happened secret, and were not given the full report of an internal investigation into McKee’s shareholdings. “This matter is highly sensitive and confidential and is not in the public domain”, they were told by park convener, Linda McKay, in December.

Outdoor campaigners allege that the park authority deliberately tried to hide the reasons for McKee’s resignation from the public, and have lodged a complaint with the ethical standards watchdog. The authority is “not fit for purpose”, its leaders should be suspended and a government investigation launched, they say.

Rare bee discovered in path of Cairngorm housing scheme

from Sunday Herald, 26 July 2015

Wildlife experts have discovered a rare and unique bee in an ancient Cairngorm woodland destined to be turned into a housing estate.

A pinewood mason bee has been recorded and photographed on the site of a planned development at Rothiemurchus near Aviemore in the Cairngorm National Park. Known as An Camas Mòr and envisaging a 1,500-house new town, the scheme has long been opposed by conservationists.

The ginger and black bee (Osmia uncinata) can only be found in a few parts of the highlands, as it favours sunshine, Scots pine trees and one particular flower, bird’s foot trefoil. It is a solitary bee without a hive, and burrows in holes left in old trees by longhorn beetles.

It was found earlier this month by Dr Gus Jones, convener of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group. “This find again shows that the An Camas Mòr area in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park has precious wildlife,” he says.

“To pretend options exist for construction of a new town here that are sustainable and leave natural heritage interests unscathed is to ignore ecological understanding of this special area.”