SCOTLAND: Spotlight on Health on Nation's Ecology
Copyright 2001 The Scotsman
September 10, 2001
By Jim Gilchrist
IMMEDIATE action is needed if Scotland is to forestall the loss of species and damage to the environment threatened by climate change.
This will be the message spelled out by the chief scientist of the government agency Scottish Natural Heritage at a landmark conference on the state of Scotland's natural environment, opening in Edinburgh tomorrow.
"What I'm saying is that we've established an awful lot of the bureaucracy but now we've got to see some action," says Professor Michael Usher, who will be among the speakers at the State of Scotland's Environment and Natural Heritage, a major two-day event at Heriot-Watt University, organised by SNH and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
The gathering of environmental scientists, policy makers and others, to be opened tomorrow by Rhona Brankin, deputy minister for the environment and rural development, will pose the most comprehensive environmental "health check" for Scotland to date, examining key issues such as pollution, global warming and land use.
An introductory address will be given by the environment and rural affairs minister, Ross Finnie, and topics will include the long-term threat to Scotland's vegetation posed by critical levels of atmospheric ozone, and the grave concern being expressed for the Atlantic salmon, total catches of which have declined by 70 per cent in recent decades and which, because its life cycle spans the gamut of fresh and salt water environments, is seen as an important indicator of environmental health. Other papers will deal with topics as varied as the state of Scotland's forests, moors and mountains and whether they are being adequately safeguarded; the need for Scots to become far more involved in decisions being made in Brussels - 80 per cent of environmental legislation affecting Scotland emanates from the EU; and a call for truly sustainable development that provides an opportunity to create radical new forms of democratic government in Scotland.
Professor Usher, speaking on Wednesday, will warn delegates that, overall, there is no room for complacency. Asked how concerned he is about the state of Scotland's biodiversity, he said: "I wouldn't express it so much as direct concern, but I think that we haven't yet got the message across to enough people, so in many aspects of our lives, in terms of government and industry and the ordinary public, we're still not really taking it into consideration."
One point Prof Usher makes is the difficulty of identifying, in real terms, just how much change there will be in Scotland's species richness, in terms of extinctions or new arrivals, over the next century. Of the estimated 90,000 species in Scotland and its surrounding waters (of which some 49 per cent are single-celled organisms) it is only a tiny fraction - the flowering plants and ferns at 1.2 per cent, and the vertebrates, 0.7 per cent - that can be effectively monitored. "For instance, there are only 186 or so species of breeding birds out of that 90,000 species in Scotland, so there are an awful lot of things we don't really know much about."
Almost certainly as a result of global warming, butterflies seem to be increasing in Scotland, with arrivals from further south expected to increase the present 28 species to 32 by the end of this decade. Birds, however, give rise for concern. UK figures record a long-term downward trend for some bird species, and in Scotland there is evidence particularly of the decline of farmland species, although, says Prof Usher, some increases in a few "charismatic" species such the reintroduced red kite and the corncrake may give "a false sense of well-being regarding conservation efforts".
So far as Scotland's flora is concerned, Prof Usher expresses disappointment that the number of species showing signs of decline are four times as great as the number recovering, and he calls for an urgent revision of data collection and analysis to provide a clearer picture of just how Scotland's biodiversity is changing, "and also to incorporate biodiversity into our thinking about sustainable development. We need to have biodiversity very firmly up there as one of the planks ".
In general, he says, there has been good progress in establishing the necessary bureaucracies, with these and other action plans covering habitat and species - "but bureaucracies tend to take on a life of their own - we've must see action now".
He added
"We have started to address the causes of climate change, but we have hardly started to address the consequences for our natural heritage. We may take a laissez-faire approach and accept that changes will happen, with loss of some species and arrival of others, as well as change in the character of habitats. Alternatively, we may be more interventionist and take proactive action. But these are decisions that we need to make now, before it is too late."
The State of Scotland's Environment and Natural Heritage is at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, tomorrow and Wednesday.