It is difficult to conceive of a more trenchant illustration of the bankruptcy of present mechanisms for safeguarding our natural heritage than the recent sales of Glen Feshie Estate on the international property market.
In 1988, Lord Dulverton, who had owned it for 20 years and was responsible for the jarring patchwork of conifer plantations and the ugly bulldozed tracks that disgrace the landscape to this day, put up the "For Sale" notice. Conservationists called on the government to allow the then Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland to purchase the estate for the nation. It refused, with NCCS claiming it was unnecessary since a new Nature Reserve Agreement, binding on the purchaser, would safeguard the "special interest, including regeneration of the native woodlands....." It didn't of course; things have since got worse.
So John Dibben, a kitchen manufacturer from Wiltshire, bought Glen Feshie for £1.8 million. He decided to take his profits in 1994, having in the meantime failed in his attempts to build 20 km of HGV roads on the estate, due to the public outcry engendered. The John Muir Trust and the RSPB, made a joint bid, financially supported by the National Heritage Memorial Fund but they were thwarted by Will Woodlands, who offered £4.5 million and claimed to be a conservation organisation, thereby causing the NHMF to withdraw its support.
Will Woodlands contributed a huge agribusiness type shed in the heart of the glen (thereby demonstrating the inadequacy of National Scenic Area designation), and removed miles of fencing around Dulverton's plantations. But the red deer population remained damagingly high, and many of the broad-leaved trees and naturally regenerated pine in the plantations were killed as the fences came down and the deer moved in.
Then came the startling news that a Dutch industrialist, Mr Klaus Helmersen, had bought Glen Feshie Estate from Will Woodlands for some £6.3 million. His purchase thwarted a similar attempt by a widely based consortium consisting of Scottish Natural Heritage, Forest Enterprise, Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the John Muir Trust and National Trust for Scotland.
Mr Helmersen's qualification for purchasing this "jewel in the Cairngorm's crown" - one of the most significant areas in Scotland for nature conservation and recreation - was the only qualification that matters; he offered more money than anyone else!
What sort of country, one might wonder is this? What government of any other developed country would allow its finest natural land to be traded to the highest bidder, irrespective of the nationality, intentions, previous experience or integrity of the purchaser? Visitors from Europe, knowledgeable of arrangements in their own countries, listen aghast to this bizarre and dismal history.
Of course the ownership of land would matter far less if designations existed to ensure careful stewardship; but they don't. Most of Glen Feshie Estate lies within the Cairngorms National Nature Reserve, established in 1954.. " for the purpose of conserving its native woodland and mountain habitats with their characteristic plants and animals, so these may persist and develop naturally with a minimum of interference from man's activities..."
Sounds great doesn't it? But the reality of Glen Feshie is a degraded land, abused by overgrazing, deeply ploughed conifer plantations, deer fencing, appalling erosion problems, bulldozed tracks, ugly buildings and a rubbish dump whilst the Caledonian woodland dies on its feet, with no regeneration on open land and even old pine trees cut up for firewood. Since the designation of the Cairngorms NNR, Glen Feshie has become a national disgrace, whilst Scottish Natural Heritage and its predecessors have been largely impotent, able to do little more than tweak the tail of landowners whose priority has been to run Glen Feshie as a deer stalking estate. That is the problem with an NNR based upon the voluntary principle.
The advent of Natura 2000 sites under the European habitats and Birds Directives, which should shortly see the NNR in Glen Feshie also become both a Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area for wild birds, should improve matters, though a recent remark by an SNH officer that it would make very little difference in practice (politely translated) is hardly encouraging. The SPA for example should require that any fencing would not be acceptable if cappercaille would be threatened and the SAC should enable the Deer Commission to intervene if (if?!) the habitat is being damaged by overgrazing.
But for any genuine positive change in management rather than just damage limitation, we will have to rely on Mr Helmersen, and he is still an unknown factor.
Put yourself in his position. You have £100 million or so to play with and need a tax-friendly investment. Advertisements in the Danish press assure you that Scottish Highland estates are a good investment, and the regulations are so lax that you can do almost what you want with them. You hear about Glen Feshie, and that a consortium of government agencies concerned with woodlands and natural heritage, of local government and of conservation bodies is desperately trying to buy the estate to rescue it from years of abuse. You visit and are rather taken by it, and decide that because you have the money, you outbid the local interests. The news of your purchase is greeted by universal condemnation, from government ministers and agencies to conservation groups. You appoint an environmental adviser and take some months to learn about your purchase. You know that your every decision will be scrutinised in the press, and you are conscious of your reputation for conservation in Denmark. You learn that the choice of Glen Feshie is between continuing as a commercial stalking estate, or a new beginning as a conservation estate; that you cannot have it both ways, and that the last owners left in ignominy because they could not face that reality.
Continuation of the abuse against the advice of all the public agencies and conservation groups involved, or a new beginning? The choice is yours.
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