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The Scottish Executive is not aware of any planned studies comparing the biodiversity impactof GM crops with organic crops.

The results of the farmscale evaluations were peer reviewed and published in the PhilosophicalTransactions of The Royal Society: Biological Sciences. They wereimmediately forwarded to the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment(ACRE) for advice on the implications for the possible commercialisation ofthese specific GM crops.

In line with the PartnershipAgreement, environmental groups and other interested parties were invited tosubmit their comments on the results to ACRE.  In addition ACRE accepted the Executive’s invitation to hold an openmeeting in Edinburgh, on 4 December 2003, to afford Scottishstakeholders the opportunity to present oral evidence and discuss the results.

All oral and written evidence,including the outcomes of the Edinburgh meeting, were considered by ACRE beforethey gave their advice to government.

The review of GM scienceexamined the issue of horizontal gene flow and concluded that it is veryinfrequent and could happen whether the plant was transgenic, conventional ororganic. However, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environmentconsiders the potential consequences of horizontal gene flow, as part of theircase-by-case assessment. This approach is endorsed by the Science Review Panel.

The Executive, together withthe other UK Administrations, acknowledges that further research would bebeneficial to improve knowledge and understanding of soil ecosystems.

A cattle feeding study wascarried out by researchers at Reading University to investigate the effect of T25 (Chardon LL) maizeon ruminants. The study has been completed and the researchers intend to submittheir study to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. The Advisory Committeeon Releases to the Environment (ACRE) will be asked to fully assess the datawhen the peer review process is complete.

The researchers haveconfirmed that the study does not reveal any adverse effects on the health ofruminants fed T25 maize.

Twenty five sites have been designated as candidate SpecialAreas of Conservation for active raised bog in Scotland. This is around 9% of the sites identified as supporting some amount of active bog in the ScottishNatural Heritage report An inventory of lowland raised bogs in Great Britain (Lindsay, R.A. and Immirzi,P., 1996).

Twenty two sites have beendesignated as candidate Special Areas of Conservation for degraded raised bogstill capable of natural regeneration. This is just over 6% of the sitesidentified as supporting some amount of bog capable of regeneration in the samereport.

Many of the sites describedin the inventory are small remnants of previously larger sites.

There are three designatedraised bog candidate Special Areas of Conservation in Dumfries and Galloway (atCarsegowan Moss, Raeburn Flow and Solway Mosses North) with all three supportingboth active bog and degraded bog still capable of natural regeneration.

It is estimated that 68% of the active raised bog and 34% of the degraded raised bog habitat in Scotland isincluded in designated candidate Special Areas of Conservation.

It is estimated that approximately3,300 hectares of bog habitat meets the definition of active raised bog, andthat approximately 5,500 hectares meet the definition of degraded raised bogcapable of natural regeneration.

Article 4.1 of the Habitats Directive provides guidance on the selection process for SpecialAreas of Conservation. This states that member states should propose a list ofsites based on the criteria laid out in Annex III of the Directive and relevantscientific information. On the basis of these criteria, member states will designateareas according to their relative value for the conservation of each naturalhabitat type identified in Annex I of the Directive.

Theweb link to the Habitats Directive is:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/nature/habdir.htm.

In accordance with Article4.2 the UK list of raised bog sites has been the subject of detailed discussionwith the European Commission.

The Scottish NaturalHeritage report An inventory of lowland raised bogs in Great Britain (Lindsay, R.A. and Immirzi, P., 1996) identifies 807 raised bog sitesin Scotland. Of these, 281 are identified as supporting areas ofactive bog, and 344 supporting areas of degraded bog capable of regeneration. Itis important to note that the figures for degraded bog capable of regenerationrefer to sites supporting some area of vegetation capable of restoration to bogvegetation. This does not necessarily imply that each site as a whole iscapable of regeneration.