CleanerWolf
Anmeldungsdatum: 09.09.2006
Beiträge: 427
Wohnort: Berlin
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 Verfasst am: 01 Feb 2007 15:10 Titel: Schottland: Wölfe gegen Rotwildplage? |
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Der Artikel ist leider in englisch, zusammengefasst geht es darum, dass Naturschützer in Schottland darüber nachdenken, Wölfe aktiv wieder anzusiedeln, um die zu hohen Rotwildbestände in den Griff zu bekommen.
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Day of the wolf - but its evil image could stop it saving the Highlands
Study says reintroduction of predator could solve deer population problem
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
Wednesday January 31, 2007
The Guardian
They were last seen in Scotland more than 240 years ago, harried and hunted by the gun-wielding sheep farmers and country landowners who were then colonising the Highlands. But now, say ecologists, the time has come to reintroduce the wolf.
A new study published today by the Royal Society claims that the wolf - for centuries the most feared mammal in British popular culture - needs to be rehabilitated. It could, the study reports, help to rejuvenate the Highlands, recreating a chain of rich native forests over its hills and glens.
Article continues
The study's authors say that allowing packs of wolves to patrol the Highlands would solve an emerging ecological crisis over deer numbers, which have soared to record levels in the last 30 years. Some estimates suggest up to 500,000 deer could be roaming the hills, and in many areas they are perilously close to the land's natural "carrying capacity".
Where culling by stalkers and shooting by trophy hunters has only managed to keep deer numbers static, the wolf could make a significant difference.
Eleanor Milner-Gulland, of Imperial College London, one of the study's authors, said: "We have shown that reintroducing wolves would significantly reduce the need for expensive culling, and the resulting decline in deer numbers would lead to a marked increase in plant and birdlife biodiversity, and reforesting the area would be easier too."
The study estimates that up to 500 wolves could be released across the Highlands, allowing up to 25 wolves a territory of about 1,000 sq km . Within 50 or 60 years, they calculate, deer numbers would fall to a quarter of the present levels.
It would, the authors admit, be deeply unpopular with farmers and rural pet owners. They would deserve compensation for livestock and animal losses, and some regions would be too heavily populated to be suitable. Tourism agencies and hill walkers could equally feel somewhat nervous, but the academics' snapshot surveys of communities, including Glen Affric near Inverness, suggest there is tentative public support for the proposal.
Dr Tim Coulson, from Imperial College London, said their study was designed to stimulate debate, where previous discussions had been "ill-informed", and to provide the first scientific analysis about the impact wolves might have on deer numbers in Scotland. "We do appreciate that there would be problems and it would be controversial," he said.
Their findings met immediate approval from the charity Trees for Life, which is planning to plant 100,000 native trees this year as part of its programme to rebuild the ancient "Caledonian forest" now restricted to a few remnants.
The charity is a leading proponent, alongside Paul Lister, the owner of the Alladale estate in Sutherland, of attempts to reintroduce a host of native species extinct in Britain - the beaver, lynx, wolf and moose. But Alan Watson Featherstone, its executive director, said the substantial social and economic issues posed by reintroducing the wolf would take at least 20 years to resolve.
Its reputation was the most significant barrier of all, he said. "The wolf probably has the worst public image of any large animal on the planet, fed by children's fairy tale stories like the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, which is exacerbated by Hollywood movies about werewolves. They have a very, very bad PR problem. People think they're a real threat, but that's just not true."
But government agencies are far less convinced, as are conservation bodies such as the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the official conservation agency, and the Deer Commission for Scotland, which oversees deer conservation and control policy, said these problems were far greater than the wolf's backers suggested.
Professor Colin Galbraith, director of science at SNH, said the study was a useful contribution to the debate. "It's a bit theoretical, but it's quite well done in terms of the science," he said. However, the central issue of proving that a reintroduction was "socially acceptable" was actually essential, both legally and practically. Globally accepted guidelines on reintroducing species set out by the World Conservation Union made clear that if an animal was once hunted to extinction by humans, it would be unacceptable to reintroduce that animal where it would again be targeted by man. "That's very, very important. This is where the concept of reintroducing wolves to Scotland probably falls down," he said. It would also be extremely difficult to limit wolves to a particular area, and to ensure that sheep did not become their preferred prey.
Given all those constraints, SNH has again ruled out wolf reintroduction. Last week, it confirmed that it plans to focus solely on reintroducing sea eagles to Scotland and, over the next five years, to rekindle proposals to bring back beavers, a scheme controversially rejected by the Scottish executive two years ago.
Professor John Milne, chairman of the deer commission, said several of the report's central assumptions were flawed. There was no consensus that deer numbers were too high nationally, and its insinuation that deer stalking in Scotland was of minor economic value was unfair.
Although the report appeared to dismiss deer stalking as "trophy-hunting", in fact it added £105m to the rural economy and provided about 2,500 full-time equivalent jobs. "That income is generated often in rural areas where there aren't many job opportunities," he said.
While in some environmentally sensitive areas of rural Perthshire, the Cairngorms and Inverness-shire, deer grazing was severely damaging, he said, in many other areas their grazing had little effect on local habitats. As a result, intensive culling was being deliberately concentrated on the areas of greatest ecological damage.
Quelle: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2002471,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
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