THE female dotterel is a rare and sexually assertive bird. Every summer, high in the mountains, she courts and mates with up to five males. On each occasion she lays her eggs at a chosen spot in the moss, and then flies off in search of her next liaison. The male is left to raise the chicks entirely on his own.
Such role-reversal is extremely unusual among birds. But it is not the only reason why the dotterel is becoming a focus of keen scientific interest. This small, white-striped, chestnut-breasted plover is also a key indicator of the health of upland environments in Britain and across Europe. If the dotterels begin to die, say conservationists, the mountains are sick.
Later this month, as dotterels start returning to the Scottish Highlands from their wintering grounds in Morocco, representatives from European governments will assemble in a glen below. In a hotel in Coylumbridge near Aviemore at the foot of the Cairngorms, ministers and senior scientists from more than twenty countries will attempt to thrash out a strategy to preserve the fragile, decaying environment of Europe鈥檚 mountains.
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The conference, which will run from 22 to 26 April, is one of a series of intergovernmental meetings aimed at fulfilling the international commitment to 鈥渟ustainable mountain development鈥� made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. It will probably be the most important meeting on upland conservation that has ever taken place in Europe. But with mountains everywhere under increasing threat from pollution, roads and ski developments, the gathering faces an uphill struggle.
鈥淢ountains are suffering an unprecedented environmental crisis,鈥� says Dave Morris, Scottish officer for the Ramblers Association and a member of the mountain protection commission of the International Union of Alpinist Associations. 鈥淲herever you go in the world you can find the symptoms-wildlife killed by acid rain, landscapes wrecked by roads, slopes shredded by downhill skiing. It is time Europeans started to care as much about their mountains as they do about other countries鈥� tropical rainforests.鈥�
If delegates need an example of the crisis, they can find one no more than a few hours鈥� walk from their hotel. High on the slopes of the Cairngorms, Britain鈥檚 most ecologically important mountain range, conservationists are poised to pitch into battle with developers over ambitious plans to expand facilities for downhill skiing and tourism. The clash is a classic example of how not to manage the mountains.
That hostilities should be erupting as Europe鈥檚 governments come to Coylumbridge is an irony which conservationists will make sure does not escape conference delegates. 鈥淪cotland should be leading the way in sustainable mountain development,鈥� says Morris. 鈥淚nstead, developers have charged into battle again with another proposal that would scar the face of one of our loveliest mountains and sacrifice yet more of our wild land to mass tourism. In the absence of any overall policy framework, developments like this make a mockery of sustainability.鈥�
The central Cairngorms range includes four of the five highest mountains in Britain: Ben Macdui (1309 metres), Braeriach (1296 metres), Cairn Toul (1291 metres) and Cairn Gorm itself (1245 metres). The arctic plateau is unique for its high-altitude plant life, which includes rare mosses, lichens and dwarf shrubs. It provides an irreplaceable habitat for rare birds such as golden eagles, ptarmigan, snow buntings, purple sandpipers and dotterels. On the slopes of the mountains are some of the most important remnants of the ancient Caledonian pine forest that used to cover most of Scotland.
Under attack
The area鈥檚 importance is reflected by the welter of conservation designations it attracts. There are three large sites of special scientific interest, a proposed special protection area for birds and a proposed special area for conservation to protect natural habitats. The Scottish Office has even put the Cairngorms forward for consideration as a World Heritage Site, a prestigious designation bestowed by the UN on places like the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific.
Yet the Cairngorms are under attack. The Cairngorm Chairlift Company, which has run downhill skiing facilities on the northern flanks of Cairn Gorm for the past 35 years, has tried twice since 1980 to expand west into Lurcher鈥檚 Gully. On both occasions the company鈥檚 plans caused a furore and were eventually rejected by the Scottish Office. Now the company is back with a brand new idea. It wants to build a 拢17-million, two-kilometre funicular railway to within 150 metres of the summit of Cairn Gorm.
The funicular, which includes a 250-metre tunnel, is billed by the company as Britain鈥檚 longest and highest. The plan also involves a new chairlift, three new ski tows, four new ski runs and provision for 150 extra car parking spaces. A 250-seat restaurant and 鈥渋nterpretive centre鈥� will be built at the top of the funicular 1100 metres up the mountain, tripling the capacity of the existing `Ptarmigan鈥� snack bar.
Tim Whittome, the company鈥檚 chief executive, says that the funicular is designed to attract more visitors in the summer, and improve facilities for skiers in the winter. He wants to quadruple the annual number of summer visitors, from the current 60 000 to 225 000. It is the prospect of so many extra feet tramping on the vulnerable summit plateau during the short growing season that most alarms conservationists. They fear that plants will be crushed, birds disturbed and the landscape eroded.
The company has attempted to overcome these objections by developing a 鈥渧isitor management plan鈥� aimed at controlling the movement of walkers. Whittome says the company could limit access to the plateau by charging people to walk to the summit under the supervision of a ranger. If that failed, the company could operate a 鈥渃losed system鈥�, confining people to the restaurant and visitor centre. 鈥淲alkers using the funicular would not be permitted to do whatever they wanted,鈥� says Whittome.
Doubts over the feasibility of this plan have persuaded the government鈥檚 conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), to oppose the funicular. In a fraught six-hour meeting last month, the board voted eight to four in favour of a motion suggesting that the visitor management plan could never be made to work. Three days after the decision, it emerged that a prominent opponent of the funicular, John Lister-Kaye, was being sacked from the SNH board by the Scottish Office because, insiders say, 鈥渉e was too good a conservationist鈥�.
SNH鈥檚 decision has incensed Whittome. He maintains that SNH had been encouraging the company to proceed with the funicular for months and that SNH officials had been actively engaged in helping to draw up the visitor management plan. 鈥淚f they didn鈥檛 think it was possible, why the hell didn鈥檛 they say that at the beginning?鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have to ask serious questions about the integrity of the way in which this was handled.鈥� However, he is still talking with SNH and is hopeful that a compromise can be reached.
Continued opposition from SNH would almost certainly force the Scottish Office to call a public inquiry. Whittome fears that this would delay the funicular for at least a year and could threaten its funding from the European Union. Scotland鈥檚 major environmental groups hope it will result in the project being scrapped. They have prepared an alternative plan for a gondola system that would operate on the lower mountain slope. But the funicular has influential supporters. It is backed by local businesses and skiing groups, not to mention the government agency which owns the land, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the local authority, Highland Regional Council.
The Cairngorms range has never been managed by a single authority. In common with other mountain areas in Scotland, it has not been designated a national park, unlike the Lake District in England or Snowdonia in Wales, where the authorities have powers to restrict development. Indeed, Scotland鈥檚 mountain ranges have less statutory protection than almost any of the world鈥檚 uplands. The World Conservation Union (IUCN), an alliance of government and environmental organisations, brackets Scotland鈥檚 approach to the preservation of its mountain ecology with that of Albania, Romania, Greece and Ireland. 鈥淭he issue of the management of Scotland鈥檚 most valuable natural areas has been debated for too long. Action is now urgently required,鈥� according to a recent report published by the IUCN.
Every delegate at the Coylumbridge conference will be given a copy of a new report on Scotland鈥檚 mountains by Scottish Wildlife and Countryside Link, an association of all the main environmental groups. 鈥淕overnment has been timid and unimaginative and has strangled any useful policy initiatives emerging from other parties,鈥� says the report. 鈥淯ntil there is a proper understanding about how to conserve and manage the mountains in a developed, post-industrial country, they will continue to suffer further damage and attrition.鈥�
Nevertheless, Des Thompson, SNH鈥檚 head of upland research, points out that the natural habitats of the Highlands are in a better condition than those south of the border. Snowdonia and the Lake District have been more degraded by acid rain and over-grazing by sheep, he says. As a result, upland mosses and dwarf shrubs in these areas have been replaced by grass, which supports a much less diverse range of wildlife.
Thompson believes that the victory of grass in the south probably explains why the number of breeding pairs of dotterels in England and Wales (several of which will include the same female) has dropped from 50 to fewer than ten since the last century. The rest of Britain鈥檚 860 breeding pairs are confined to a few sites in the Scottish Highlands. Although the Scottish dotterels seem to be doing well at the moment, Thompson warns that they are very vulnerable to environmental change. 鈥淕lobal warming, increased acidification and the deterioration of habitat could render some local populations extinct,鈥� he says.
Elsewhere in Europe, conflicts between those concerned about mountain environments and developers are legion. Conservationists in Austria have recently attacked the multimillion-pound ski industry for wrecking the Alps. New crazes such as snowmobiles and skiing from helicopters are seen as particularly damaging to wildlife. And, according to one French alpine environmental group, entire rivers have disappeared because of the many hydroelectricity schemes built in the Alps over the past sixty years or so.
But by far the biggest threat is from new roads, says Ulf Toedter, director of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, which represents 80 environmental groups from seven countries. Eighteen major cross-border roads through the Alps are planned, all of which would damage the environment and increase pollution, he says.
Disputes between the Alpine countries on transport policy have prevented them signing an agreement drawn up at the 1991 Alpine Convention, which was meant to improve international cooperation on environmental protection. 鈥淚taly and Germany are being two-faced,鈥� alleges Toedter. 鈥淭hey say they want to protect the Alps, but they still want their roads.鈥�
The German and Italian governments are fiercely opposing attempts by Austria and Switzerland to cut pollution by restricting traffic through the Alps. A recent decision by the Austrian government to more than double the night-time toll for lorries travelling through the Brenner Pass, on one of the main routes between Germany and Italy, brought a threat of legal action from the European Commission. The Austrians say that the new toll is needed because the volume of traffic using the pass has risen by a quarter in the past two years.
In the western Pyrenees, a fierce battle is raging over the construction of a four-lane highway through the quiet Aspe valley, the last refuge of the Pyrenean brown bear. Building work has been repeatedly interrupted by protesters who argue that the road will ruin the landscape.
Regional governments around the Pyrenees are now trying to coordinate environmental protection by organising a joint forum. Martin Price, a mountain specialist from Oxford University, says that the Pyrenean attempt at cooperation is likely to be more successful than the Alpine Convention, which involves national governments with seats of power often far removed from the mountains. 鈥淚n the Pyrenees the initiative has come from the local people and that is much better,鈥� he says.
Price argues that the worst environmental disasters have occurred in the mountain ranges of eastern Europe. Whole forests in the Giant Mountains between Poland and the Czech Republic have been killed by pollution from coal-burning power stations. Mountain habitats in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine are being steadily degraded by grazing sheep, goats and cattle. In the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, the privatisation of land has spawned a new generation of village landowners who want to exploit the land rather than preserve it..
The Coylumbridge conference will not be able to solve all these problems. A paper prepared in the run-up to the conference by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN agency charged with promoting sustainable mountain development, is blunt about achievements since Rio. 鈥淎lthough effective mechanisms for international cooperation have been established, very little has so far been translated into concrete action on the ground,鈥� the paper says. And conflict over where the conference should be held has meant that the Coylumbridge event will be followed in October by a meeting in Trento in the Italian Alps. Proposals put forward in Scotland will not be finalised until then.
Last month, Crispin Tickell, the British government鈥檚 main adviser on sustainable development, chaired a meeting to consider Britain鈥檚 approach to the Cairngorm conference. The delegates concluded that 鈥渁t present it is difficult to establish government responsibilities for mountain issues鈥�, implying that mountains might be better protected if they were made the remit of a specific minister in each country. 鈥淓uropean governments in Coylumbridge have to grasp the nettle of mountain protection before it is too late,鈥� says Morris. 鈥淚 hope they can find the courage. I fear they will not.鈥�
