I AM sure the RSPB and the various contributors to your Letters Pages who have been calling for the licensing of grouse moors will welcome the fact that raptor crime is at a record low ("Crimes against birds of prey swoop to record low", The Herald, October 17).

The maps produced by the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime PAW) show that current strategies are clearly working and hopefully in the very near future will completely eradicate this totally unacceptable crime. It is also valid to point out that tagged birds are still wild creatures and can succumb to many alternative fates other than wildlife crime, yet there appears to be an assumption that any bird which goes missing must have been illegally killed.

Roseanna Cunningham's statement is obviously more influenced by the pressure from bodies such as RSPB to achieve political rather than conservation goals. She should be praising grouse moors and their gamekeepers for the magnificent efforts which costs the taxpayer nothing and protects many at risk species.

Unfortunately it is extremely optimistic to hope that the RSPB, its camp followers and politicians will accept that current policies are working and focus their efforts on assisting the keepered moors in their efforts rather than demonising this most important element of the conservation work. Licensing is just a bureaucratic irrelevance to real conservation.

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.