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Crofters in the Scottish Highlands are asking: ‘Is it a cull too far?’ as the John Muir Trust uses out-of-season licences to shoot deer at night on the Quinag estate.
The Assynt Crofters Trust, or ACT, depends on the animals for its commercial deer stalking operation. Now it plans forcibly to buy JMT’s land.
Crofters say the cull is unwarranted. They used a freedom of information request, or FOI, to find out the details of what is happening near them.
Bob Cook of ACT says the details they uncovered do not justify a cull. He says: “The FOI doesn’t given any justification whatsoever for the wholesale slaughter of deer on Quinag.”
Woodland advisor Victor Clements, who acts for ACT, says what the FOI reveals is a lack of due process. He says: “If you look at it there’s no evidence in there about what the project is. There’s no information about trees or where they are, or where the seed sources are. There’s no record of the communications they had with other people.”
He says applications for woodlands would normally contain more information. He says: “You’re expected to put down on a map the things you’re trying to do and where it is, and that allows people to understand the extent of it.”
The crofters are so fearful of the impact JMT is having they are threatening to use Scotland’s land reform laws to force the sale of the estate.
Bob says crofters are frustrated that they can’t find an amicable arrangement with JMT.
He says: “The problem is that I don’t think we’re being told the whole story. In one of the various documents that I’ve read recently, JMT set out how much carbon capture Quinag could make if there were no deer, and if it were covered in trees.
“I’m wondering a little bit if this isn’t what they’re aiming for: to set up a carbon-capture wood and then sell the units to the polluters.”
Ecologist Cathy Mayne believes a sale of the JMT land to the crofters would be hard to achieve. She points out that one of the impacts of the carbon market is the price of land in Scotland has almost trebled.
She says: “Community buyouts are now unaffordable because, what was £1 million is now £2 million or £3 million, and the land fund just doesn’t have the resources, nor is it possible to raise the additional money for local people to buy land.”
The John Muir Trust says it is the body that can best protect the future of Quinag. Alan McCombes from the trust says he believes the conflict between the shooting sector and the conservation sector will be resolved. He says: “We think things are improving and there are more people coming closer together. I think it will be resolved by change at a national level over time, which will allow land to be managed for environmental goals.”
Despite Alan’s calm approach, the tussle between crofters and the conservation industry is escalating.
Shooter and deerstalker Niall Rowantree of West Highland Hunting says he doesn’t believe all of the rhetoric about he hears about the conservation benefits of slaughtering deer.
He says: “I’m struggling to be convinced that 130 crofters are driving the entire climate policy of the Scottish Government over the edge –and that alarms me. The idea that if we kill all the deer in Quinag, then you can drive your cars in Scotland with no impact is complete tosh and it’s deliberately misleading people.”
He says it’s driving communities apart at a time when, to fight the climate crisis, communities have to work together.
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association says the crofters’ concerns need to be addressed. Kenneth Stephen of the SGA says it doesn’t look as if the John Muir Trust wants discussion. He says: “They’re doing what they feel they need to do, whereas the local community feels that they’re on the outside of everything, having to watch as far as things which could be detrimental to them are carried out. And that’s not an ideal position for anybody.ç
Scientists say what is playing out in Quinag reflects the wider battle for the future of the land in Scotland.
Ecologist James Fenton says there is a huge amount of tree planting of commercial and native trees across the whole of the Highlands on a large scale.
He says: “That is converting one of the most natural landscapes remaining in Europe into a ‘design’ landscape. We are converting the Highlands to be like everywhere else in the world where humans are in charge – rather than just standing back and letting the Highlands carry on as they have for the last 10,000 years.
Ecologist Cathy Mayne says one of the impacts of the carbon market is the price of land in Scotland has almost trebled.
She says: “Community buyouts are now unaffordable because, what was £1 million is now £2 million or £3 million, and the land fund just doesn’t have the resources, nor is it possible to raise the additional money for local people to buy land.”
In 1992 the crofters became the owners of the North Assynt Estate. It was a pivotal moment in the land reform movement.
The current land reform laws allow for crofters to mount a community buyout of the mountain from JMT. Crofters are exploring the feasibility of the purchase. Victor is in favour of a buyout.
He says: “It’s a really big undertaking. When the crofters bought their land 30 years ago there wasn’t unanimous support. There were some people who thought, ‘yes, let’s go for this’ and there were some people who thought, ‘can we do this? is it too much? how do we raise the money?’.”
He says there will be a variety of views on the new idea of a buyout, which is a huge undertaking.
Cathy would like to see wider land ownership.
She says: “I would like to see a wider understanding of how we can reap those environmental benefits in meaningful remunerative ways for local people, rather than always being the preserve of incomers of whatever type they are.”
Niall says the microscope of society is on shooters. He says: “We are a community like any other. At the moment there is legislation in place in Scotland for communities – when the neighbouring landowner does not serve their social community interests – to make a bid to buy.”
Niall says the fieldsports community should join forces to consider buying Quinag. He says: “I would say to your viewers, ‘We are a community’. Maybe we should look carefully at community opportunities – do what’s right for the community. Maybe there’s scope for us to join with people like the Assynt Crofters and say, ‘We’re here to support you’.”
He says the Fieldsports Nation is a community of interest and could support change where things aren’t working. Handing the ownership of Scotland to the viewers of Fieldsports Channel may not be in the SNP’s original vision for land reform, but there is legislation to make it happen.
As the conflict between crofters and conservationists gets fiercer, Quinag could be site of a new battle we will one day view as historic. It may shape the future of how the Scottish landscape is managed for generations.
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