Seòmar agus comataidhean

Last but not least, I call Bill Austin.

Welcome back, everyone. I welcome our second panel, who will be discussing the terrestrial environment. We have with us Dr Helaina Black, honorary associate, and Professor Rob Brooker, head of ecological sciences, both at the James Hutton Institute; Professor Marc Metzger, chair in environment and society at the University of Edinburgh; and Professor Pete Smith, chair in plant and soil science at the University of Aberdeen.

I will kick off with a statement:

“For terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, land-use change has had the largest relative negative impact on nature since 1970, followed by the direct exploitation, in particular overexploitation, of animals, plants and other organisms mainly via harvesting, logging, hunting and fishing.”

Is that level of pressure the same in Scotland as it is globally? Do those global impacts affect Scotland in different ways? I ask Professor Brooker to kick off.

We are short of time. I will hand over to Marc Metzger, who has indicated that he wishes to respond.

I sometimes feel that, with a lot of the species loss that takes place in Scotland, the process does not happen right in front of our noses. For example, we do not notice that sand eel and other feedstocks are moving further north, and the general public are not aware that cod are getting closer to the Arctic circle.

Professor Fernandes, can you give us an idea of what is happening to our fisheries? As that takes place below the surface of the sea, we obviously cannot see what is happening. How is climate change affecting our fisheries in Scotland?

If you could bear with us, we will try to improve the sound quality.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting in session 6 of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. I remind members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent mode.

Our first item of business is consideration of the legislative consent memorandum for the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I welcome Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, and her officials, who are not joining us remotely but who are certainly remote in that they are at the back of the committee room. I welcome Andrew Voas, the veterinary head of animal welfare, and Keith White, a solicitor, from the Scottish Government. I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.

I think that the committee will come to NPF4 sooner than we expect, and there will be a bit of work to do there.

We move to questions on blue carbon from Mercedes Villalba.

Perhaps we can hear from Professor Sir Ian Boyd on those points, before I bring in Ariane Burgess for a supplementary question.

Thank you. I will kick off with a question. Given that it is some time since we left the EU, why has this legislation been brought forward only now?

I ask Rob Brooker for a brief response, followed by Pete Smith. I will then bring in Rachael Hamilton for a supplementary question.