'Loophole' in bill could allow fires to damage Scotland's peatland

Environmental campaigners fear the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill will not be tough enough on the practice of setting fire to vegetation on grouse shooting moors.

The bill is currently going through the Scottish Parliament and at the moment contains provisions to allow muirburn to prevent or reduce the risk of wildfires.

Objectors claim this is perpetrating a damaging myth because there is little to no evidence that muirburn does anything to prevent or mitigate wildfires, according to NatureScot’s own research.

Instead, the research found evidence that muirburn directly causes a proportion of moorland wildfires.

Heather moorland is commonly burnt to provide fresh growth for game and livestock and the new legislation would replace the current voluntary code of conduct for gamekeepers with special licences.

RSPB Scotland has stated it “can broadly accept that” muirburn should be one of the tools to manage wildfires but argues that it must “be done in extremis, rather than as normal”. It said “provision needs to be made in the bill to stop that becoming routine”.

However, the bill in its present form leaves a “gaping loophole” that Scotland can’t afford given the nature of recent climate emergencies, according to Steve Micklewright, chief executive of Trees for Life.

READ MORE: Scotland sees launch of first academic course in peatland restoration

He said muirburn as currently practised should not be licensed for the prevention or mitigation of wildfire as it is different from fire-based techniques that have been used globally to manage fire-prone vegetation and create firebreaks.

“Given the damage and misery caused by wildfires, it’s important ministers get this right and avoid self-defeating get-out clauses in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill which risk worsening future wildfires,” said Micklewright.

In its response to the bill, Trees for Life said appropriate mechanisms should be put in place to ensure a licence request for the purposes of preventing wildfire follows international best practice for the use of fire-based techniques in firebreak creation.

“This would enable gamekeepers with critically valuable skillsets in fire-management techniques to utilise these in the most effective way possible for wildfire prevention and mitigation,” the organisation said.

“These skills are invaluable – for example this year during the wildfire in Cannich in the Scottish Highlands, where gamekeepers were part of a major collaborative effort alongside other rural workers from Forestry and Land Scotland, RSPB and community Scottish Fire and Rescue Services.”

Micklewright pointed out that the Scottish uplands have become increasingly fire-prone due to the dominance of vegetation like heather and purple-moor grass, resulting from historical land management practices including over-burning and over-grazing.

“Muirburn can significantly damage Scotland’s valuable peatlands – causing our largest carbon store to emit carbon dioxide instead – and wrecks biodiversity,” Micklewright said.

“Very importantly, if we are serious about tackling wildfires, we need ambitious landscape-scale nature restoration.”

Trees for Life wants stricter regulation of how muirburn techniques can be used to create firebreaks and says they should only be used as a last resort, unless evidence suggests otherwise. It is also calling for more reporting and research by NatureScot when it comes to muirburn’s wildfire pros and cons.

Max Wiszniewski, campaign manager for Revive, said it would be “unjustifiable and unethical to allow licences for burning to be granted for a purpose as frivolous as increasing the numbers of grouse so a few people can shoot hundreds of thousands of them for entertainment”.

“Muirburn for grouse shooting in Scotland takes place on an area over 200,000 football pitches risking our vital peatlands and keeping much of our upland areas relatively barren,” he said.

“Three quarters of Scots are against muirburn for grouse shooting so licences shouldn’t be dished out for such an unnecessary and environmentally damaging purpose.”

If the bill passes, people will need a licence to undertake muirburn at any point in the year. There would be different requirements depending on the time of year and whether the muirburn is taking place on peatland or not.