Consultation begins on plan to import animals

A renewed bid by conservationists to bring beavers back to Scotland will be launched this week - and will run into fierce opposition from a local landowner.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are tomorrow planning to begin consultations on a trial reintroduction of up to 20 European beavers at Knapdale Forest in mid-Argyll.

But the consultations have already been snubbed by Robin Malcolm, who owns the neighbouring Duntrune Castle estate at Kilmartin. Importing beavers was "completely irresponsible", he claimed, because of the damage they could inflict on trees and rivers.

According to wildlife experts, beavers were hunted to extinction in Scotland more than 400 years ago. They were killed for their furs and for the oil they secrete, castoreum, which has medicinal benefits and was believed to enhance sexual potency.

The Scottish government's wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, originally applied for permission to reintroduce beavers at Knapdale, a nature reserve, in 2000. But after a series of delays the application was rejected in 2005 by the previous administration.

In June, the Sunday Herald reported that the new Scottish National Party environment minister, Michael Russell, wanted to reopen the issue. "The beaver is a part of our natural heritage which was destroyed by man," he said.

In response, leading conservation groups have now decided to launch a two-month consultation with communities in Argyll. Leaflets are being distributed, a public meeting being held and comments invited.

The aim is to apply for a licence next year to import between 15 and 20 beavers from Norway and, after a period of quarantine, to release them into the wild. Their impact would be monitored before more were reintroduced.

"The launch of this local consultation is the first stage in the return of an important species missing from Scotland's wildlife," said the chief executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Simon Milne.

"We are committed to making this project a reality, but we need local support. Together this is our chance to be the first country in the UK to bring back this charismatic and useful creature."

Bringing beavers back now would be the first-ever planned reintroduction of a mammal into Scotland. To date only birds, such as the sea eagle and the red kite, have been officially reintroduced.

According to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs Edinburgh Zoo, beavers have been successfully reintroduced in over 20 other countries. "We believe that the time is right to bring the beaver back to Scotland," said the society's head of conservation, Iain Valentine.

"As well as being a keystone species, in terms of the benefits they bring to eco-systems, they will also provide a socio-economic boost by increasing tourism in the local area. Knapdale is an ideal location to trial the reintroduction."

Local landowner Malcolm, however, told the Sunday Herald that he had rejected an approach from the Scottish Wildlife Trust requesting a meeting, because the reintroduction plans were exactly the same as before.

Malcolm argued that if beavers successfully bred, they would pose great risks to the environment. Each family needed a 200 metres of river bank, and they would fell trees, build dams and drown the landscape, he alleged. Their droppings could spread disease, and their dams could prevent salmon from migrating upstream to spawn.

The historical evidence showed that beavers' original heartland was in East Anglia and the Thames Valley in England, he argued.

Malcolm said: "They really belong in the south but the English have conned the Scots to do their dirty work for them, to put it bluntly."

He warned ministers that they would be liable for any damage done by beavers "from now until eternity". Last time around, he said he had had the backing of the Scottish Nationalist MSP Fergus Ewing, now the minister for community safety.