Norwegian blues over lynx depredation finds NFUS

Norwegian hill farmers have warned their Scottish counterparts that the reintroduction of predators such as the lynx into the country would be an “absolute catastrophe” for the sheep industry.

That was the message to come out of a recent NFU Scotland study tour to Norway which revealed that the authorities last year paid out compensation for 20,000 sheep lost to large predators – leading the union to reaffirm its total opposition to the reintroduce of such species.

The union said that it was “crystal clear” that any proposals to re-introduce large predators were a huge concern to Scottish farmers and crofters – and promised to press the message home at a meeting with the UK’S environment secretary Michael Gove early in the New Year.

The union said that their fears had been recognised north of the Border in the commitment made by Scotland’s rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing, who publically declared that he would never support such a reintroduction in Scotland – despite feverish press coverage of the proposals to reintroduce lynx to Kielder Forest on the Border between Scotland and England.

Despite reports that Gove would personally 0 Lynx are a major risk to sheep flocks in Norway take the decision, rather than leaving it to Natural England, the union said that it had been assured it would be kept fully informed of any moves on the current application for the trial reintroduction of six lynx.

But the union made it plain that while would continue to work with the National Species Reintroduction Forum (NSRF) in Scotland, it would also be making direct representation to Gove on the issue in the early months of 2018.

Following a recent trip to Norway, vice-president Martin Kennedy said that predation by large carnivores was the biggest challenge faced by Norwegian sheep farmers. And while they also had to cope with attacks by wolverine, bear and wolves, predation by lynx still accounted for 20 per cent of the total sheep kills.

He said that while official figures had shown that the number of cases of compensation had fallen in recent years this wasn’t due to lower predation, but to a drop in the number of another endangered species – hill farmers keeping sheep.

“The Norwegian NFU believe that around 1,000 hill farmers have given up keeping sheep in the last decade as they simply cannot carry on at the levels of predation.”

He said that while it was “all very well” receiving compensation for lost stock, this did nothing to allow for the psychological impact which the scale of losses had on farmers:

“Putting myself in their shoes, I can understand why they’ve given up,” said Kennedy.

“We are in this business to produce good quality food and looking after our animals is a priority, so to see a healthy breeding animal being taken out by a predator early in her life would be horrendous.

“The Norwegians told us that to reintroduce predators into our country would be an absolute catastrophe.

“Their experience has simply strengthened our resolve to ensure that any proposals to do the same in Scotland receive rigorous scrutiny. If they will have an unacceptable impact on farmers and crofters, the Union will act accordingly.”