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Background to General Licences
The Wildlife and Countryside Act ( WCA) 1981, as amended by the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, ensures protection for a wide range of plants, animals and birds.
However, it is recognised within the WCA that there are circumstances where it is desirable to allow appropriate authorities to licence acts which would otherwise be illegal under the terms of the WCA. The Act permits licences to be issued by SNH and the Scottish Executive. Licences issued by SNH include licences:
- for scientific, research or educational purposes;
- for the purpose of ringing or marking, or examining any ring or mark on, wild birds;
- for the purposes of the re-population of an area with, or the re-introduction into an area of, wild birds, including any breeding necessary for those purpose;
- for the purposes of photography;
The Scottish Executive issues licences for the following purposes:
- for the purpose of conserving wild birds;
- for the purpose of conserving flora and fauna;
- for the purpose of protecting any collection of wild birds;
- for the purposes of falconry or aviculture;
- for the purposes of any public exhibition or competition;
- for the purposes of taxidermy;
- for the purposes of preserving public health or air safety;
- for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease;
- for the purpose of preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters;
- for the purposes of taking gannets on the island of Sula Sgeir; and
- for the purposes of collecting gulls eggs for human consumption.
The issuing of such licences is compliant with Article 9 of the Birds Directive (79/409/ EEC), which allows Member States to make derogations from the Directive for the above purposes
The Executive issues General Licences to cover some types of activity. General Licences are not issued to individuals, but may be relied on by individuals who are authorised under the terms of the General Licences to undertake the specific types of activity covered by the licence. The General Licences impose strict terms of compliance on their users, and the breaking of the terms of the General Licences may result in a criminal offence being committed.
The current versions of the General Licences can be inspected at the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Wildlife-Habitats/16330/14319.
General Licences are issued in order to allow authorised persons to carry on legitimate and necessary work. The Executive does not believe that there is at present any other satisfactory alternative to the issue of such licences. General Licences allow users to take action as and when necessary, and were the licences not in place, there would be serious risks to public safety, agriculture and wild birds.
This consultation presents proposals which aim to make the General Licences clearer, more user friendly, relevant to the problems which people are experiencing with wildlife and consistent with the present conservation status of species.
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