On Tuesday, environment minister Roseanna Cunningham will announce proposals to create six large new “special protection areas” in northern and western Scotland.
This will give the Government more powers to help prevent the birds of prey from being poisoned or shot by gamekeepers. It will also encourage landowners to site potentially damaging developments like wind farms more carefully.
“Scotland is an internationally important stronghold for the golden eagle but their future is finely balanced due to their need for large, undisturbed spaces in which to live,” said Cunningham. Details of the six new areas will be released this week. There are an estimated 442 breeding pairs of the birds in the UK.
“We congratulate the Scottish Government on its proposals,” said Stuart Housden, director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland.
But wind farm developers Wind Prospect and Ridgewind fear that their plan to build 14 wind turbines south of Dalmally in Argyll and Bute will be prevented by one of the new protection areas.
“We are extremely disappointed,” said a spokesperson.
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