29 May 2018
The Scottish government has been
asked to ensure schemes that encourage wildlife-friendly farming continue in
the interests of a rare breeding bird.
Last year, numbers of corncrakes
fell to their lowest level since 2003.
They breed on islands including
Lewis, Harris, Mull, Orkney and parts of the north-west Highland coast and
Argyll.
RSPB Scotland has asked the
government to make a "firm commitment" to continue incentives that
encourage wildlife-friendly farming.
The Scottish government said it
awarded almost £50m last year to encourage environmentally-friendly land
management practices over the next five years, including for efforts that help
corncrake conservation.
RSPB Scotland said cooperation between
crofters, government, statutory agencies, conservation organisations and
agriculture organisations led to a recovery of the species.
RSPB Scotland said there could be
problems where corncrakes spend winter in Africa.
However, it warned that in
Scotland late springs could potentially have an effect, and it has concerns
that a gap between successive management contracts between schemes has a
detrimental impact on the area of land being managed to help the species.
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