Who has the final say on land

A few years ago, in Denmark, I asked a simple question – if I was rich enough could I buy thousands of hectares of their best wildlife and landscape areas? No way was the answer. Apparently, when Denmark joined the European Union, they secured a derogation which prevented non-Danish citizens purchasing large tracts of land. Otherwise, I was told, the citizens of other member states would have purchased most of the Danish coastline for their private use.

In Scotland, by contrast, just one Danish citizen, Anders Povlsen, has been able to purchase three large estates in the Cairngorms National Park as well as extensive tracts of Lochaber and Sutherland. There is nothing to stop this rich businessman buying half of Scotland and more.

Nevertheless, most people rather like the outcome of Mr Povlsen’s purchases.

He is committed to wildlife and landscape conservation and the public enjoyment of his land. He employs a management team that has restored much of the natural beauty of Glenfeshie by reducing the grazing pressure from the red deer population. Heavy culling of the deer has secured widespread natural regeneration of the Old Caledonian Pinewood with the riverside flanks and lower hill slopes now clothed in young trees, shrubs and wild flowers. This is a huge contrast to the situation before in previous times when decades of effort by other private landowners and public bodies failed to reduce deer grazing to an appropriate level. Now, however, a flourishing forest ecosystem is emerging from what was a mown down, barren landscape beneath the ancient Scots pines where anything that tried to grow above heather height was eaten.

At the national level, a few months ago, the Scottish Government released the report of its Land Reform Review Group. Its recommendations included some modest proposals to improve the way that Scotland’s red deer populations are managed.

Yes, we the public are responsible for their well-being as deer are a public asset, not a private commodity. We therefore require the landowners to manage this resource on our behalf, in a sustainable way. But, right on cue, landowner representatives arose from the heather, condemning the whole idea of land reform and insisting that everything was alright on the hills and in the glens.

To the front came Atholl Estates, lauded as the perfect example of a modern highland estate that did not need any interference from pesky land reformers and politicians. But Atholl and Glenfeshie are neighbours, managing a common deer population, which depends on agreement and co-operation over culling regimes so that ecosystem health is maintained across a very large part of the National Park.

At present this appears to be very difficult, with excessive numbers of deer wintering in Glenfeshie, threatening the success of the naturally regenerating forest, because culling policies on neighbouring Atholl are inadequate.

Surely Atholl and other estates which manage deer populations in areas such as this should be required to meet public interest objectives, including the natural regeneration of our ancient woodlands, and reduce deer numbers accordingly? Otherwise is the answer new land reform legislation or a plea to more Scandinavians to buy up the rest of Scotland’s hills because our Scottish Parliament has given up on effective land reform?

The future of most of our native woodlands is a lottery, entirely dependent on who owns the land and the attitudes they bring to bear on the responsibilities of ownership. The public interest is weakly expressed – the landowner’s power to determine what happens to our natural habitats and the wildlife they support is too strong. In too many places that power is even reflected in the absence of birds of prey and the presence of illegal poison. Are there any other European countries where landowners are allowed to get away with so much, whatever the ecological consequences?

Even major construction work goes ahead in the hills with no public consultation. Government ministers go weak at the knees when asked to regulate what in every other walk of life would require full planning control.

So roads will continue to be constructed to summit ridges and massive fences will traverse the land.

Earlier this year 20km of impenetrable electrified deer fencing was erected across the hills near Tomintoul, within the Cairngorms National Park and without the knowledge of the Park Authority. Such fencing should be prohibited, as a first step to making Scotland a country where our land and its enjoyment is determined by what is in the public interest and not by the size of the landowner’s wallet.