Deer management in the Scottish Highlands: change, conflict and finding common ground

Abstract

Conflicts over upland deer management in the Scottish Highlands have intensified in recent years, shaped by intersecting concerns relating to biodiversity loss, climate change, rural livelihoods and shifting expectations of land use. This thesis examines these tensions through drawing on data collected through the Finding the Common Ground on Sustainable Upland Deer Management (FtCG) mediation process and its successor, the Common Ground Forum (CGF). Drawing on 52 semi-structured interviews, extensive participant observation, estate visits, stalking experiences and survey data collected between 2022 and 2024, the research explores how land-use conflict, environmental conflict resolution and land-use change unfold within this changing socio-ecological and policy context.

The findings indicate that disagreements over deer management cannot be understood solely as a technical dispute over the environmental impacts of deer, as is commonly presented. Instead, conflict in this case operates at multiple, interacting levels. Surface-level debates over cull targets and habitat conditions were underpinned by deeper tensions relating to identity, legitimacy, historical grievances and competing understandings of land stewardship. Stakeholder groups were found to be internally diverse and often divided, challenging simplified depictions of polarised camps. In particular, the study reveals significant heterogeneity among deer stalkers, whose positions reflected varied combinations of professional identity, local attachments, ecological motivations and economic vulnerability.

A recurring empirical theme was a perceived loss of control amongst some stalkers and private land managers in the context of increasing state intervention and policy reform. This sense of diminished autonomy shaped responses to land-use change and influenced their engagement with the mediation process. The evaluation of FtCG suggests that whilst the process contributed to improved dialogue, relationship-building and opportunities for recognition, it did not resolve deeper structural disagreements. Rather than eliminating conflict, mediation reshaped the terms of engagement between actors and altered relational dynamics within the sector.

Conceptually, the thesis demonstrates how a layered understanding of conflict, combined with a critical realist approach, helps to illuminate the interaction between structure and agency in environmental governance. By analysing how values, rules and knowledge intersected in this setting, the research further shows how collaborative initiatives operate within historically embedded patterns, institutional reform trajectories and asymmetries of authority. Overall, the study contributes empirically grounded insights into contemporary deer management reform in Scotland and offers broader reflections on the possibilities and limits of environmental conflict resolution within rural socio-ecological transitions.