While the debate around the possible reintroduction of the European beaver in Scotland has been ongoing for many years, a number of illegal releases and the resulting populations have made a controlled, evidence-led introduction increasingly difficult.
Beavers are not currently considered native and therefore have no legal status and can be culled without fear of prosecution. However, three successive ministers have indicated that should the Tayside Beaver Study Group determine that beavers are now resident, they will receive automatic protection under the Habitats Directive. Should this happen, such a small population will by definition acquire the title of “Scotland’s rarest mammal” and thus become that much more difficult to gain the legal support for control.
Given that there are undeniably beaver populations in Scotland, the only thing likely to prevent this is if it is determined that the current DNA pool is too small to be sustainable and thus fails to meet IUCN guidelines. Testing has so far shown that Scottish beaver populations are closely related and this therefore remains a possibility.
The biggest concern in any wildlife introduction is the environmental impact, and evidence has shown beavers to be particularly concerning here. The beaver population has caused verifiable damage to flood defences in the eastern Tay catchment, affecting farmers in the area, and it remains a possibility that burrowing and damming by beavers will damage roads by increasing susceptibility to flooding, as has happened in Poland in recent years.
It is already politically difficult to control beavers, as the Scottish government is unwilling to test re-introduction in Knapdale (Scottish Beaver Trial) while simultaneously culling them in Tayside. This is despite the fact that many European countries cull beavers under their own licensing schemes.
The GWCT condemns the unilateral and illegal releases of non-native species such as the European beaver as ideological rather than evidence-led conservation. Consultations on a re-introduction must not focus on how to live with the re-introduced species, but rather the more pertinent question of whether such re-introductions are sensible in the first place.