The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is advertising a three-year, full time position for a Raptor Conservation Officer, to deliver the actions laid out in the National Park’s latest Partnership Plan (2022-2027) aimed at increasing the home range, occupation and breeding success of golden eagle, hen harrier, merlin and peregrine across the National Park.
This is a promising move by the CNPA, who have previously faced severe criticism for not dealing effectively with ongoing raptor persecution in some areas of the Park, notably on land that’s managed for intensive driven grouse shooting (e.g. see here & here).
Crimes against birds of prey, especially those that take place within the Cairngorms National Park, are often high profile, and quite rightly so. For example the recent poisoning of a golden eagle on a grouse moor within the Park (here) and the poisoning of a white-tailed eagle on another grouse moor within the Park (here) generated widespread outrage and media coverage, as did the sighting of a young golden eagle flying around a grouse moor in the Park with a spring trap clamped to its leg/foot (here).
Last year, the CNPA stated its intention to address intensive gamebird management within the Park as part of its Partnership Plan (here), which was seen as a good move by many of us who know that raptor persecution is disproportionately associated with land managed for gamebird shooting. That, combined with the creation of this new Raptor Conservation Officer post, is indicative of things moving in the right direction.
Make no mistake though, this new post will be a challenging one. There are some fantastic estates in the Cairngorms National Park who have been hosting and protecting breeding raptors (e.g. golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, hen harriers) for some time now, but there are also other estates that stubbornly refuse to tolerate these species and still behave as though it’s the 1890s.
The post is full time for three years, attracting a salary between £33,652 – £40,362. The closing date for applications is Sunday 30th April at 23.59hrs.
A detailed job description and list of essential attributes is provided here:
To apply, please visit the CNPA website HERE
Raptor Persecution UK 
Would love to do a job like this, hope whoever gets this amazing position gets all the support they need, [Ed: rest of comment deleted as libellous]
Great news to here of this new post. As you rightly say this is a great step forward by the park authority and they should be congratulated for having such positive vision for raptor populations.
I would agree that the task is not straightforward and it will require a person with a good pedigree to cope with the demands of the role.
VERY welcome news!
Unfortunately, all our birds and wildlife need our protection. Land managed for grouse shoots do appear to be a danger area for our raptors, hopefully the new Officer in conjunction either the appropriate authorities can reduce the number of victims substantially.
Well done to all those involved in getting this badly needed post set up.
I hope, having read your blogs about the Peak District NPA, that this role is not manipulated by the grouse moor owners and their political chums
Hi Rachel,
No, this is nothing like the faux-partnerships currently operating in the Peak District NP & Yorkshire Dales NP and the wider RPPDG. This is a completely different scenario that’s been instigated by genuine and credible conservationists, many of whom are distinguished raptor experts.
Another 10k or so on the wage and (copying the RSPB Investigations Assistant model) they could employ two full time wildlife crime investigators instead – purely for the Cairngorms National Park. I’m not being negative about the advertised job at all – just wondering which would give the most “bang for your buck” and safeguard (via the deterrent factor of two sets of eyes / cameras in the field constantly) protected wildlife most effectively in the short & medium term.
I have to wonder how the creation of the post of raptor conservation officer will fundamentally change the position of raptor persecution within the Cairngorms national park, when the law, the police and the activities of the various NGO’s already in existence have failed to eradicate this issue?
Is the implementation of the actions laid out in the Partnership Plan going to be reliant on the success or failure of the individual who takes up this post?
If raptor conservation is being hampered by those estates, land owners, their employees and associates who deliberately persecute raptors through both legal and criminal means, would it not be better to create the posts of “crime pattern analysts” and investigators who expose exactly what is happening, where it is happening, and who is responsible, and then go out and gather evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice?
If one considers societies attempts to stop the illegal drug trade, then the methods which have been shown to work are crime pattern analysis and then specific targeting of the suspects, and direct intervention to target the vulnerable who either consume drugs or end up as low level street dealers.
As spaghnum points out, would it not be more effective to purposefully go after those believed responsible for raptor persecution, so they either end up in court, have GL sanctions imposed upon them, and are continually exposed in mainstream media and receive public condemnation?
My feelings are that this post is more about the Cairngorms national park authority wanting to be seen to be answering their critics, rather than actually taking apart the infrastructures which support and enable raptor persecution.
I also have wonder why this post is being created now, rather than waiting to see what comes out of the Scottish Governments proposed grouse moor licensing, and whether that licensing will lead to the necessity of new posts and jobs to implement the licensing effectively.
Hopefully I am wrong and this post will have a major positive impact on raptor persecution, but then I expect people hoped the implementation of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 would fully protect raptors – which of course it hasn’t.
Are we attempting to use the wrong methodology to tackle raptor persecution? Instead of looking at the issue as one of conservation, perhaps consider it as a a crime issue. In which case it might be better to focus much more attention directly on the perpetrators and create a post of “raptor crime officer”?