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1.12 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. James Clappison): I am pleased to have the opportunity to make a contribution to this important debate. I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) on securing a debate on an important subject of wide interest in the House and outside. I am sure that it will be of great interest to many of my hon. Friend's constituents. I am also grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Mr. Atkins). I take on board the strong message about the importance of this subject and the need to maintain the bastions of red squirrels to help their survival.
My hon. Friend the Member for Hexham has spoken about the significant pressures on our native red squirrel. Indeed, the United Kingdom's red squirrel population has suffered a marked decline in the past 50 years. It is, after the water vole, our second most rapidly declining mammal. During the same period, we have seen the grey squirrel increase in numbers and range throughout most of England and Wales.
The spread of grey squirrels is one of three factors that have had a negative effect on reds. Habitat fragmentation is a second contributory factor, where areas become less able to support reds and thus indirectly increase their
vulnerability to displacement by greys. Disease is another contributory factor. However, although such situations are complex, conservationists agree that the spread of the grey squirrel, which was first introduced to this country from America about a century ago, is a main factor in the decline of the red squirrel. The Government do not underestimate the threat to that popular and important native species, and we are committed to its conservation.
The current population estimate of red squirrel numbers is at about 160,000. Its distribution, as the House has heard, is now largely confined to Scotland, Northern Ireland and the extreme north of England. There are scattered and isolated populations persisting in southern England, on three islands in Poole harbour in Dorset,at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, at Thetford in Norfolk, and, as the House has heard, on the Isle of Wight.The last mentioned is an important colony, and I am glad to see my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight(Mr. Field) in his place.
Mr. Barry Field (Isle of Wight):
Is my hon. Friend aware that it is an offence to take a grey squirrel to the Isle of Wight? In view of the declining population of red squirrels, will he consider whether that legislation is still adequate?
Mr. Clappison:
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, and I will consider the legislation to which he has referred.
In Wales, only a few thousand red squirrels remain, confined to scattered localities. In northern England, they are found only where greys have not yet established themselves.
It is estimated that the largest populations remaining in England are those in Cumbria--my right hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Maclean) is in his place--north Lancashire--my right hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble mentioned the island with which he is so familiar--and Northumberland. Those locations contain about 85 per cent. of the total red squirrel population in England. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham rightly said, it seems that Northumberland is relatively important in its red squirrel numbers, in comparison to the rest of the country,and it is therefore vital to safeguard its population from the encroachment of the grey.
The steps that I will outline as taking place to prevent the red squirrel from disappearing from this country are fully in accordance with the undertaking to maintain biodiversity which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made at the earth summit at Rio in 1991. I hope that it will be helpful to the House if I put this subject in that context.
At that summit, more than 150 countries recognised the importance of maintaining the existing range of fauna and flora species by signing the convention on the conservation of biological diversity. That convention recognised that action must take place locally, nationally and globally, if global biodiversity is to be protected.The conflict that we see in Britain between our native red squirrel and the introduced grey, and the threat that the latter poses to the red squirrel, encapsulates the need for our intervention to prevent a species from disappearing from our shores and perhaps further afield.
The United Kingdom has been at the forefront of the recognition of the importance of conserving biodiversity and, in response to the commitment made in article 6 of the biodiversity convention, in January 1994 the Government were the first to publish an action plan to secure that biodiversity. The House may be interested to know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment recently chaired the OECD environment policy committee at ministerial level. The meeting was very successful and identified a number of strategies and tools required to meet the environmental challenge facing OECD countries in the next century.
The biodiversity steering group, which was established early in 1994, produced its report and recommendations last December. While the Government will not formally respond to those recommendations until the spring of this year, the recommendations recognise the need to take action at a number of levels to conserve a species' status.
The red squirrel is one of 121 species for which the steering group has proposed a species action plan. The plan recommends a set of targets for the species and a range of actions to support those targets. Those actions form a wide-ranging strategy and fall into six broad categories: legislation and policy; site protection; species management and protection; advisory; continued research and monitoring; and communications and publicity.
The Government are already carrying out or considering many of those recommendations. I hope that, after hearing what I have to say, my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham and the House will be satisfied that the Government are taking seriously the threat to this native species. In the areas of legislation and policy, the red squirrel is afforded the fullest protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Under that Act, it is an offence intentionally to kill, injure, take, possess, disturb or sell any wild specimen.
Furthermore, in an effort to control its spread, the grey squirrel appears on schedule 9 of the 1981 Act, which lists those species which it is an offence to release or allow to escape into the wild. I hear what my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight says about the circumstances in his constituency. However, with numbers of the larger grey squirrel estimated to be2.5 million and rapidly encroaching on the remaining red squirrel populations, more positive action is required to address this problem.
Additionally, good progress has already been made by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee to complete the first target recommended by the biodiversity steering group, to achieve agreement on a UK red squirrel strategy. Indeed, this strategy is now nearing the end of an extensive consultative process, and is aimed to be published in the spring of this year.
The Forestry Commission will in turn be seeking to ensure that the needs of red squirrels are taken into account when indicative forestry strategies are prepared or reviewed. I take on board the important points that my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham made about the forestry role.
In respect of site safeguard, the Government have encouraged their agencies to work closely with conservation organisations to meet this challenge. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Forestry Commission and conservation bodies are currently developing a strategy to maintain the red squirrel in its
current strongholds. Management plans for all key sites with viable populations will be prepared and are to be phased, with plans for all marginal sites by the year 2000 and all other sites by 2005. For example, a 2,000-hectare conifer woodland in north Wales has been set up as a special reserve for red squirrels by the Forestry Commission, working with the Countryside Council for Wales.
It is generally accepted that greys usually out-compete reds in deciduous woods, while reds are better able to survive in coniferous forests. Grey squirrels are much bigger and heavier than reds, and are better able to compete for the large seeds that many of our broadleaved trees produce--either because they can harvest them before the red squirrel or because they can digest them better. Therefore, in the typical broadleaved British wood, with its mix of oak, beech, hazel and chestnut,the American grey effectively out-competes the British red. The result is that the red squirrel cannot put on enough fat to survive the winter, and either starves or suffers reduced breeding success the following year.
Conservationists agree that, over time, red squirrels will disappear from areas invaded by greys. The prognosis is not, however, entirely gloomy because, in mixed coniferous forests, where the small and more nimble reds are better able to access the tiny conifer seeds, scientists currently believe that the British reds can, the House will be pleased to hear, out-compete their American cousins.
Government agencies are encouraging research into exactly what type, or more likely mix, of conifer trees are best for red squirrels. This research will consider how we should design such forests so that they may stand as a refuge for the red squirrel. In the Kielder forest--this will be of interest to my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham--the Forestry Commission is planting Scots pine and Norwegian spruce in preference to the more commonly planted Sitka spruce. These are varieties which produce the larger cones which red squirrels prefer.
Although the Kielder forest is currently the only site where the Forestry Commission is actively switching the type of tree being planted, it has produced guidelines for the management of coniferous woodlands, which encourage the planting of large-coned coniferous trees. This policy is aimed at encouraging landscape biodiversity as well as the survival of red squirrels. In the long term, this will be the most efficient way of conserving our red squirrels--managing the habitat so that they can compete for themselves.
At a more local level, the Forestry Commission's woodland improvement grant scheme, which was introduced last year, provides one-off grants for work programmes in woods and forests. Although the scheme is currently applicable only to recreational projects,the Government will shortly be considering proposals to extend its scope to other activities. We shall consider my hon. Friend's suggestions during that review process.
Action on species management and protection work has been targeted with the development of strategies to guide and co-ordinate work. This has been addressed with a major campaign--Red Alert. I join the tribute which my hon. Friend rightly paid to that campaign. As he said, it has been initiated to raise public awareness. The establishment of a UK squirrel forum brings together Government agencies and interested parties. They all attend the forum to exchange information and to co-ordinate their actions for the benefit of red squirrel conservation.
While habitat modification is widely accepted as the long-term solution, in the short term the strategy includes a recommendation to provide food for red squirrels in selective hoppers. That will give the more specialised red squirrel a better chance to survive shortages of its normal food. Consideration is being given to the control of grey squirrels on the borders of red squirrels' territories. It is hoped that, if they are carefully targeted and carried out in conjunction with woodland habitat management, these measures will help to protect the remaining red squirrel strongholds.
Importantly, English Nature, the Government's scientific adviser in England, has introduced a species recovery programme, which includes the red squirrel, and aims to achieve long-term sustainable survival of endangered species. English Nature's work has centred largely on Thetford forest, Norfolk, where, jointly with the Forestry Commission, it has been removing grey squirrels from a designated red squirrel reserve and managing the forest to benefit the reds.
The project has already seen some positive results,as more red squirrels have been seen in the area recently. However, the population is believed to be too smallto be viable in the long term, and some restocking,in partnership with the People's Trust for Endangered Species, will be carried out once an ideal donor population can be identified from the results of a current genetics study. In Scotland, the red squirrel is one of Scottish Natural Heritage's top priority species within its species action programme.
The Forestry Commission in particular is undertaking research into methods of controlling grey squirrels.Live trapping is labour-intensive, but it is a commonly used method. I understand that the wildlife trust in my hon. Friend's constituency promotes training courses on live trapping. Warfarin poisoning is possibly as effective if carefully managed, and the Forestry Commission has developed a hopper for dispensing poisoned wheat to grey squirrels, which excludes red squirrels.
The Forestry Commission is discussing the use of the poison in this way with the pesticides safety directorate, with the aim of trailing the hopper for wider use in this way in 1997. I understand that the use of the poison in areas not specified in the warfarin order will not require any amendments to legislation, as permission may already be given under the control of pesticides regulations.If the trials are successful, there will be a major advance in controlling greys in areas where red squirrels arefound.
I appreciate, and I am sure that the House will understand, that many of the public would view the destruction by poisoning of a species to control it as rather brutal, particularly as many people have not seen a red squirrel--that is why the grey squirrel is regarded as a welcome visitor to urban gardens and parks. Conservationists agree, however, that, where there is possible conflict between the two species, the control of the grey squirrel may often be necessary to conserve the red stocks.
The Forestry Commission is considering alternatives to warfarin poisoning and is sponsoring a research project at Sheffield university into immuno-sterilisation, making grey squirrels sterile by using a vaccine in food. This is a promising line of research, but, even if it is successful,it will be at least eight years before it can beimplemented.
Government agencies are asked to provide advice to land managers on the relationship between reds and greys, and appropriate management. Guidance on forestry design has been developed to benefit red squirrels. The Forestry Commission offers advice to landowners in the form of technical publications and personal visits, and through the local squirrel management groups and the squirrelforum, and is preparing a comprehensive report on squirrel management. The commission also chairs the squirrel forum, and is involved in setting up aScottish squirrel group.
Future research and monitoring will undoubtedly be necessary to ensure a secure future for the red squirrel. Many of the measures that I have described this morning will meet that objective.
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