Driven grouse moors - socioeconomic and biodiversity impacts: summary report

4. Aims and Objectives

The aim of this 'Phase 2' research was to build on the existing research knowledge base regarding grouse moors and to understand in more detail the employment rights, attitudes, motivations and behaviours of gamekeepers. The research has focused on providing new evidence on five key objectives relating to grouse moor management, with each reported separately due to their distinct focus. The specified objectives for the research were:

1. Examine the extent and impact of economic connections between grouse shooting estates and surrounding businesses and communities.

2. Evaluate the socio-economic impacts of alternative land uses for moorland and how they compare against land used for grouse shooting.

3. Understand the employment rights and benefits available to the gamekeepers involved in grouse shooting, as well as their working conditions, attitudes, behaviours and aspirations for the future.

4. Provide a more up to date assessment of the area of grouse moors in Scotland under management for driven grouse, mapping clearly the areas of moorland that are actively managed for grouse and the intensity of current management regimes.

5. Understand further the impacts of driven grouse shooting on biodiversity making use of more up to date estimates of grouse moor management intensity and linking it with the best available biodiversity data.

The findings from these four distinct pieces of research are presented below, with an explanation of the background, data caveats, methodologies and findings provided for each of the themed reports.

• Section 5 summarises the evidence on the socio-economic impacts of grouse moors and alternative moorland uses (Part 1 Report – undertaken by SRUC: p.10).
• Section 6 presents the key findings on the employment rights of gamekeepers (Part 2 Report - undertaken by SRUC: p.22).
• Section 7 provides an overview of the GIS work undertaken to improve insights into grouse moor coverage and intensities (Part 3 Report - undertaken by JHI: p.29).
• Section 8 provides a summary of the relative presence of different species under different intensities of strip burning (Part 4 Report - undertaken by JHI: p.35).