Operation Countrywatch Partnership
Operation Countrywatch Partnership has been in existence in the west of Perthshire since 2004, with its forerunner being Operation Countrywatch, launched in 2000. The partnership, which was cited in the Thematic Review of Wildlife Crime, Natural Justice, is considered an exemplar of best practice nationally and is now very much part of the Tayside Partnership against Wildlife Crime (PAW) programme. The Tayside PAW group, of course, links in to PAW Scotland and to Scottish Government policy. Scottish Natural Heritage co-chairs the project with Tayside Police. Other partners are RSPB Scotland, Tayside Raptor Study Group, Ardtalnaig Estate, Atholl Estates, Drummond Estates, Glenbeich Estate, Glenturret Estate, Invergeldie Estate and Remony Estate. These estates cover nearly 95,000 hectares.
The partnership was set up to improve regional communication and cooperation among those with an interest in moorlands, to prevent wildlife crime and to promote the conservation value, economic value and wise management of heather moorland and its associated species. One of the outcomes was to deliver productivity from breeding attempts of the three raptor species. To the credit of all concerned, particularly the participating estates, this has been and continues to be achieved.
Full surveys are conducted annually of golden eagle, peregrine and hen harrier by a seasonal field worker employed by RSPB Scotland with 50% funding support from SNH and by members of the Tayside Raptor Study Group. A full survey of black grouse is also carried out. These surveys benefit from valuable assistance from estate staff, often with the estate gamekeepers reporting sightings of the key species. Working practices within the partnership have demonstrated that field workers and gamekeepers can each carry out their own work without one effect impinging on the other, and indeed in most cases complement each other. At the latest meeting of the group in November 2010 estates made clear that they were pleased with the way that the field workers presence on the estates dovetailed in to the variety of the duties of their gamekeepers.
Breeding success of hen harriers has been significant on the Operation Countrywatch Partnership area, and indeed shows an upward trend, with the fledging of a minimum of 35 chicks, when compared with the rest of eastern Scotland, which conversely has shown shown a decline over the last decade. In 2010, 25 breeding attempts of harriers on Operation Countrywatch estates compared with just 7 in the whole of England gives a perspective of the success of this initiative. The number of breeding pairs of golden eagles has remained stable at 3 or 4 breeding pairs, though in 2009 and 2010 combined they only managed to fledge a total of 3 chicks. Peregrine breeding success can sometimes be linked to bad weather just when the chicks are hatching, or insufficent food supply, which may be the reason that 6 chicks fledged in 2009, but only 3 in 2010. Perthshire is a stronghold for black grouse, which benefit from the mosaic of habitats associated with many traditional mixed estates, and numbers on the Countrywatch estates are very strong.
The hope now is that this successful model of partnership working can be established in other parts of Scotland. Against a background of continuing high profile conflict nationally between sporting and conservation interests, it is in everyone’s interests to be able to demonstrate practical examples of good and legal practice, with all parties contributing constructively to this.
