240322CNPABDPaper3Managingdeerconsultation

This document contains the Cairngorms National Park Authority's (Park Authority) response to the Scottish Government consultation on managing deer for climate and nature. The Park Authority is being asked to approve this response. The aim is to reduce the negative effects of deer and other herbivores in the National Park to allow woodlands to grow, reverse heather loss, help peatlands recover, and improve biodiversity and the landscape. The goal is to have a maximum of five to eight red deer per square kilometre by 2030 and to keep non-native deer within their current areas in the National Park by 2030. The consultation covers six areas: enhancing nature, compulsory powers, deer welfare, changes to close seasons, venison, and kept and farmed deer. The Park Authority supports the idea of Deer Management Nature Restoration Orders, which would give Nature Scot more power to improve nature, and wants to be involved in introducing any such orders within the National Park. The Park Authority also supports moving the close season for hinds but not the proposed change to the end date. Finally, it is keen to see more work done to promote and expand the use of venison in Scotland.