Up to 250k deer a year to be culled to save Scotland's woods and forests

Up to 250,000 deer will have to be killed in Scotland every year until 2030 to help restore the nation's woods and forests, according to an official report. A new Scottish Government biodiversity delivery plan says annual deer culls must rise by 25 to 30 per cent - or about 50,000 extra deer annually - as part of national efforts to halt nature loss by the end of the decade.

Current national cull levels are around 200,000. The six-year plan by the Holyrood administration sets out its first concrete actions towards delivering a landmark Biodiversity Strategy launched in 2022.

Under the plans, the government will introduce tough new targets to restore nature. It aims to halt decades of habitat and species loss by 2030 and by 2045, to have overseen a widespread regeneration of the natural world.

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Scotland’s deer populations have exploded to historic highs in recent years, with an estimated 1million wild deer roaming the country, up from around 500,000 in 1990. Unfortunately, the animals have become one of the biggest threats to Scotland’s woods and forests due to overgrazing and a lack of natural predators to control numbers.

As one of its key actions in the report, the Scottish Government pledged to “attain deer cull at level at which habitats and ecosystems can recover and regenerate” and “substantially reduce deer densities across our landscapes”. It will work with the deer management sector to secure average densities of 2 deer per km² in priority woodland, 5-8 deer per km² in key areas of the Cairngorms National Park, and more widely, a maximum of 10 deer per km² nationally by 2030.

The report added: “Careful alignment of incentives and regulatory levers will be needed to achieve optimal herbivore densities and reduced grazing and browsing impacts to support biodiversity outcomes.” The plan will also see further investment in woodland and peatland restoration, including taking the lead on six large-scale landscape restoration projects by next year.

Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world with one in nine species at risk of wipeout. A landmark State of Nature study last year found nearly half of all species in Scotland had declined strongly since the 1990s, with bird and plant species especially badly hit.

Launching the plan at Bawsinch and Duddingston Reserve in Edinburgh, acting climate minister Dr Alasdair Allan said: “The global climate emergency and the nature emergency are twin reinforcing crises: the actions we take to address each are fundamental to our wellbeing and survival as a species. We need a partnership approach to delivery – government cannot do it alone.

“This new Biodiversity Delivery Plan sets out clear actions that government, businesses and individuals can take to protect and restore our precious natural environment for future generations to come."

NatureScot chair Professor Colin Galbraith said: “We all rely on nature for our survival, and it is everyone’s responsibility to care for it. The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy is Scotland’s response to the nature crisis, and it sets out a clear and comprehensive plan, supported by a series of actions that will help restore nature back to a healthy, thriving state.

“To restore nature across Scotland will take a sustained national effort, but in doing so, we will increase our resilience to climate change and reaffirm our connection with the natural world. This will bring many benefits for the people of Scotland."

Bruce Wilson, Head of Policy at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: “This document represents progress, and the hard work and effort that went into it must be recognised. We particularly welcome some great commitments to develop species-specific work, plans to introduce six large, landscape-scale restoration partnership projects, and specific, measurable and attainable measures to get deer numbers down to environmentally sustainable levels.” But he added: “One note of concern is that some of the commitments are recycled from previous documents, strategies and pledges.”

Alistair Whyte, of Plantlife Scotland and Scottish Environment LINK, said: “Scotland has endured significant historic nature loss, and the threats to our environment are greater than ever today. It is vital that we act now to protect and restore our precious natural environment, not only for ourselves but for future generations.

“This framework outlines ambitious steps to restoring nature… however, reaching these ambitions will require increased investment and clear leadership from right across government, such as through agricultural reform.”

Anne McCall, director of RSBP Scotland, warned there "some crucial gaps" in the strategy "particularly in developing coherent national programmes of recovery for our wildlife and wild places most in need". She added: “For example, the catastrophic 70 per cent decline in Scottish seabird populations is not sufficiently addressed."

Lib Dem climate crisis spokesman Liam McArthur said: “Delays and excuses have dogged this strategy. Published two years after it was first promised, there are now big questions over how seriously the SNP is treating the nature and climate emergencies."

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