Goose Policy Delivery Plan 2025 – 2030

Background

Wild geese are an important part of Scotland's natural heritage and are a conservation success story. Goose numbers have increased in Scotland since the 1970s, assisted, in part, by the introduction of legislation to protect them, including the designation of sites to protect roosting and feeding habitats and restrictions on shooting.

In recent decades increases of certain goose populations has led to serious agricultural damage to crops in some areas. As a result, farmers and crofters affected by grazing geese regard them as agricultural pests and schemes have been in place on some areas to mitigate the impacts on agriculture over the past 2-3 decades. In some locations however, large concentrations of geese also support wildlife tourism and sport shooting (for quarry species).

A National Policy Framework (NPF) for goose management has been in place in Scotland since 2000 to help balance agricultural and conservation interests. A national co-ordinating body, the National Goose Forum (NGF) brings together key stakeholders.

The review of the National Goose Policy Framework undertaken by NatureScot and Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID) set the policy objectives as follows:

• Meet the UK’s nature conservation obligations for geese and support goose management in a way which helps to deliver Net Zero, and biodiversity targets.
• Support farmers and crofters to manage their agricultural businesses alongside important populations of geese and within Scottish Government’s vision for sustainable and regenerative farming and the National Development Plan for Crofting.
• Utilise clear criteria for using public funding to deliver government policy priorities whilst maximising value for money of public expenditure.
• Support airport managers to mitigate goose related risks to aircraft.

The policy review also sets out 11 recommendations which all came from the consultation exercise undertaken for the review. Amongst those is a commitment to develop a delivery plan. This document will set out that plan and the recommendations will be set out below with details of how these will be met, who is responsible and the timescales for each recommendation. Each recommendation will be addressed in detail below.

As agricultural support mechanisms are being revised, it is appropriate for NatureScot and SGRPID to reconsider the strategic position. There is an opportunity to review the previous approach to goose management, recognising that funding goose management on the current basis is not ideal when considering growing goose populations.

This goose policy delivery plan proposes how goose management policy, linked to wider agricultural policy, will be delivered over the next 5 years. The plan will build on previous achievements which include delivery of goose management schemes, development and implementation of the Islay Sustainable Goose Management Strategy and the delivery of adaptive management pilots for greylag geese.