Coalition sets out its political asks one year ahead of Scottish elections
REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform has published its manifesto outlining a number of asks, including an end to driven grouse shooting ahead of next year’s elections. These include tackling climate change, land reform, social justice and protecting Scotland’s wildlife and biodiversity.
Revive is a coalition made up of Common Weal, Friends of the Earth Scotland, League Against Cruel Sports Scotland, OneKind and Raptor Persecution UK, working for grouse moor reform in Scotland and campaigning to end the circle of destruction that surrounds grouse shooting.
Campaign Manager for Revive Max Wiszniewski said: “Driven grouse shooting, an intensively managed blood sport, is inherently unsustainable. Keeping the land managed as barren monocultures for this sport maintains a large area of Scotland’s land in an impoverished state.
"This is why the Revive coalition has proposed alternative visions for our moors and launched the manifesto we hope political parties will adopt into their own. We believe this is in line with voters expectations and hope a year from now we can go to the polls with all parties committing to address the environmental crisis in our countryside caused by intensively managed grouse moors."
Read the Revive manifesto here
Revive is calling for significant reform of Scotland’s grouse moors and is asking Scotland’s political parties to make the following commitments:
- Protect Scotland’s peatland by ending muirburn for the purpose of grouse moor management
- A ban on the use of medicated grit
- A change to the use of non-lead ammunition
- Regulation of off-road hill tracks
- Transformational land reform to be enacted on a national scale
- An end to the snaring, trapping and killing of Scotland’s wildlife for the purpose of increasing grouse numbers
- Licensing of all grouse moor estates
- A transition away from driven grouse shooting
Robbie Marsland, Director of the League Against Cruel Sports added: "Untold thousands of wild animals are killed on an industrial scale as part of rigorous predator control on intensively managed grouse moors just so there are more grouse available for sport shooting. The League is opposed to this senseless cruelty and wholeheartedly supports Revive's Manifesto calling for an end to grouse shooting and the circle of destruction which surrounds grouse moors."
The coalition claims that grouse moors managed for sport shooting is one of the least regulated industries in Scotland. Along with measures to tackle climate change and transformational land reform Revive is proposing a licensing system to end the unsustainable elements of grouse moor management.
Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, Richard Dixon said: “From their terrible toll on wildlife to their impact on climate change, grouse moors are a 19th century idea that should have no place in the 21st century. Scotland can do much better for local communities and nature.”
