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The vast majority of Ramsar designated land in Scotland is also designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and all land within Ramsar sites is designated as a SSSI and/or as a Natura 2000 site (a Special Protection Area and/or a Special Area of Conservation), appropriate to the site. Our policy remains that Ramsar sites are also Natura 2000 sites and/or SSSI sites and are protected under the relevant statutory regimes.

The projects receiving funding in 2019/20 can be found here: .

The total overall spend for 2019-20 is £8 million, from which a total of 87 projects will receive funding.

Emissions associated with wildfires are captured as part of the greenhouse gas emissions inventory, reported annually in the Scottish Greenhouse Gas statistics publication and are therefore included in the emissions used to evaluate Scotland’s performance against its statutory emissions targets. Wildfires represent a minor component of total greenhouse gas emissions; contributing less than 0.1 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions on average over the last 10 years.

Table 1: Scottish wildfire emissions (1990-2016) in Kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-23115 and S5W-23116 on 22 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

As this is a delegated matter, this responsibility lies with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). SNH requires users of these general licences to report on the numbers of birds killed or taken for those species which may have suffered notable declines in number or range. SNH is satisfied that the use of General Licences is not causing any such declines.

In view of the legal challenge in England, SNH is consulting with legal advisers and will consider if any changes may be required to its licences. SNH has also decided to bring forward its consultation on general licensing, originally planned for 2020, to later this year.

A total of 5 incidents of non-target capture were reported to Scottish Natural Heritage in 2018 by operators using meat bait in Larsen mate and Larsen pod traps under the terms of General Licences 01, 02 and 03.

As the issuing of licences is delegated to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the responsibility falls to them, as the appropriate authority, to ensure compliance with this requirement.

SNH has previously gathered information, including from public consultations, literature review and its own commissioned research, in order to inform this legal test.

In view of the legal challenge in England, SNH is consulting with legal advisers and will consider if any changes may be required to its licences. SNH has also decided to bring forward its consultation on general licensing, originally planned for 2020, to later this year.

If SNH conclude that they need to revise their approach, they have made clear that they will seek to work collaboratively with stakeholders to ensure there is an effective, proportionate and legislatively compliant approach to licensing in Scotland.

There were 21 operators making use of General Licences 01, 02 and 03 for birds in 2018 who notified Scottish Natural Heritage of their intention to use meat-based baits in Larsen mate or Larsen pod traps, and all 21 were permitted to use meat bait.

We are making good progress. The official statistics on woodland creation will be published in June 2019.

Further to my answer to S5W-20266 14 December 2018, SEPA have analysed BPA in surface waters since 2007 at over 20 sites. These are prioritised based on populace and inputs from sewage treatment works or denser concentrations of septic tanks. Annual mean concentrations at these sites ranged between 14 and 1150 ng/l, with the majority of the annual means being 50 ng/l or less (278 out of 334). A previous EU Risk Assessment Report for the substance identified a threshold for potential adverse effects in freshwater aquatic life as 15,000ng/l, and as 1500ng/l for marine waters. Based on current available data SEPA determine the risk to aquatic life to be low. Groundwater data at a sample of sites generally associated with industrial activities showed generally no detection of BPA between 2007 and 2018. In relation to potential point sources such as landfill, sewage and paper sludge sites, SEPA holds a limited quantity of sewage and trade effluent monitoring data for BPA. In addition releases of BPA have been reported to the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) since 2005; these concern releases from sewage treatment works. SEPA do not hold any BPA data for landfill leachates or for sites creating paper sludge effluents. BPA’s use in thermal paper was restricted in the EU from December 2016.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .