Episode 14 of the Common Weal Policy Podcast
You can download this episode directly here.
Common Weal’s Head of Policy and Research Dr Craig Dalzell is joined by Max Wiszniewski, Campaign Manager for the Revive Coalition.
Craig and Max discuss recent news of the disappearance of two raptors over a Perthshire grouse moor as well as a pattern of similar disappeances there and over other moors in Scotland.
Up to 18% of Scotland’s land area is currently used for hunting grouse. These moors are often managed to the point of extirpating almost all forms of life considered detrimental to the intensive development of grouse populations – with population densities far in excess of those found in unmanaged habitats. The environmental impacts ranging from the burning of peatlands, the driving of roads through fragile hillsides and the introduction of toxic chemicals from open spreading of medication to tonnes of lead shot fired into the area is substantial.
Common Weal worked with Revive to produce a policy paper Back to Life which explores potential different uses for the land currently used for hunting. It is found that despite claims by the industry that hunting contributes £32 million per year and sustains over 2,600 jobs but when calculated on a “per hectare” basis these numbers are reduced to a paltry £20 – £30 per hectare per year and the requirement of 330 hectares of land to sustain just one job. Every other possible use of land examined by Common Weal – including housing, energy production and rewilding – produces more value and sustains more jobs per hectare.
In producing this paper, Common Weal also produced an illustrative map of what a Scottish grouse moor could look like if it was transformed using these alternative uses.
Common Weal’s work is only possible thanks to our generous supporters who regularly donate an average of £10 per month. If you would like to help us build our vision of an All of Us First Scotland, you can do so here: http://commonweal.scot/about/donate
The Policy Podcast would like to discuss all of Common Weal’s policy papers in detail over the next several months so if there are any papers that you would like to see covered sooner rather than later, send your suggestions in to craig@common.scot
Theme
“Hiding Your Reality” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/