Bomb! A Class

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last week's New Scientist.

The barnacle goose is protected under European and British law. The 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act (W&CA) bans the hunting of barnacle geese and guarantees "special meásures" to protect them. But shal under licene see prent serious damage to crops"

The isle of Islay in Scotland is divided into a handful of large estates, the largest of which is owned by Lord Margadale, a former Tory MP with two Tory MPs for sons.

The land is farmed by tenant farmers, whose crops are sometimes damaged by the geese. Instead, anyone with £50 and an invitation from Lord Muck can go and shoot some rare geese.

Such shooting parties made £10,000 for Lord M. last year.

So who's in favour of this?

Not the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC), whom the Scottish Office has to consult before issuing the licences. They advised the Scottish Office that on 38 of the 53 farms covered by licences, crops could be protected by less drastic action, such as scaring. The Scottish ( Oftice even issued licences to shoot geese within two sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) set up by the NCC to protect barnacle that his continued support for the government was dependent on their recognition of the "traditional sports of the countryside"

This scandal is one more stage in exposing the sham of the Tories' wildlife policy.

Only six months after passage of the W&CA, the NCC reported the loss in the previous 30 years of half of Britain's ancient woodlands, with one fifth of the chalk grasslands in the previous 15 years. Halt of Dorset's heathlands had been lost in 20 years, with one third damaged in 1980 parsimony was the loss of part of Romney Marsh in Kent, one of the top SSSIs. The NCC was unable to offer compensation to farmers for not ploughing up the land and turning it over to intensive agriculture.

By doing this, farmers gained the advantage of guaranteed prices from the EEC for crops, most of which are already accumulating in a range of mountains of surplus.

By draining and despoiling Britain's unique wetlands, farmers even get government grants of up to 50%.

Under the W&CA, the NCC can designate any site as an SSSI. In thenry, it is protected, month waiting period.

Labour's response to this has been mixed. Michael Foot condemned the W&CA for making wildlife protection "worse, not better" and providing 'bonanza for the richest sections of society"

But Tam Dalyell, Labour's leading Parliamentary science speaker (despite his removal from the front bench for opposing the South Atlantic war), recently wrote a self-congratulatory piece in New Scientist on how many improvements he and his co-thinkers had made to the W&CA during its committee stages. His worries about the Act were few and vague.

Fighter sm ep pamphlet esimin, Tar o da.. us 10p 10p plus postage trom 214 Sickert Court, London N1 2SY.

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Socialist Organiser no. 154, November 10 1983 Page 12