NFU demands ‘effective’ rules to protect farmland from beavers

With beavers today gaining “protected” status, the focus must now turn to ensuring that the management and licensing schemes for the species are effective, NFU Scotland has claimed.

Since the illegal release of beavers on Tayside some years ago, numbers have risen around some of the country’s most productive farmland. And while the union said that it accepts that beavers are here to stay and that in some locations they can co-exist with farming, they said the species could also have considerable negative effects. NFUS yesterday said it had long argued that it was essential that protected species status was accompanied by a comprehensive management and licensing framework which allowed farmers to deal with problems where they arose – or to prevent problems from arising in the first place.

It welcomed the fact that the Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage had listened and established an appropriate management framework.

Environment and land use committee chairman, Argyllshire farmer, Angus Macfadyen, said that the union had welcomed the promise given by environment secretary, Roseanna Cunningham that the reintroduction would not be “at the expense of the productivity of our rural economy” and he hoped the way in which the subsequent scheme was operated would be fit for purpose.

He said that the negative impact on farmland had to be avoided – but the beaver population was already causing many farmers great concern where beavers were undermining river banks and protective flood banks and threatening to impede farmland drainage as a result of damming.