Our latest investigation has found the financial rewards of Scotland’s energy transition are being unevenly distributed. The money earned by landowners often dwarfs the payments that wind farm developers make to local communities.
Deer overpopulation in many parts of Scotland is harming the environment. Attempts to tackle the longstanding issue are costing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds.
We asked about the environmental records of Scotland’s 25 best golf courses. The US president’s resort in the north east was the only one to breach its licence in recent years.
Scottish ministers have been privately urged to back plans for a golf course on a coastal wildlife site. This has been condemned as “backdoor lobbying that tries to bypass the rules”.
A well known salmon farming company was told by Scottish Government inspectors to cut lice numbers at three of its sites in Sutherland. It responded by suggesting that other salmon farmers were failing to report lice numbers accurately.
Scottish authorities had to intervene to keep deer numbers down at a Sutherland estate after the overpopulated animals damaged protected areas. Meanwhile, the landowner has received vast sums of public money.
A campaigner has made the first estimate of the total number of cleaner fish that have died while grazing lice on farmed salmon. It’s condemned as a “colossal waste of life” that should cease.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council monitors standards at Scottish fish farms to help consumers choose “environmentally and socially responsible” farmed seafood. But it showcased a farm that had breached its rules on sea lice 11 times.
