Protect the land, too

Your report (13 October) on the Marine Bill does a fine job in warning policy-makers that development should not trump the protection of our ecosystems. I only wish we would extend that wisdom to our land environment.

The rape of the Scottish wilderness by thousands of wind turbines producing marginal amounts of intermittent electricity will have long-term effects on nature conservation and tourism.

Sarah Dolman, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, is correct in saying healthy seas are important for the future of Scotland, which depends so much on tourism.

One can only regret that WWF Scotland, another critic of the emphasis on development in the Marine Bill, did not see fit to protect the Lewis Peatlands special protection area from the Pentland Road wind-farm project, now approved, or the Eishken important bird area from the Eishken and Pairc projects.

I am all in favour of protecting the seas from our greed, but it seems that few people care about protecting the land. Where are our wildland trusts when you need them?

MARK DUCHAMP
Partida la Sella
Pedreguer, Spain

Fears for Scotland's marine environment, raised in your report "Emphasis on exploitation is a slow death", are, I believe, unfounded. Despite comments on the Scottish Marine Bill coming from various quarters, all the UK administrations agreed on a "sustainable development strategy" in 2002.

The policy that underpins that strategy recognises three elements to sustainable development: environmental, social and economic. We have to balance these three sets of interests sensibly to ensure we have enough to eat, reliable and benign sources of energy, stable communities and a healthy environment.

Everyone operating at sea now has to work to higher environmental standards than ever before. With our marine environment still containing many precious and special places, they are now actually far safer than they ever have been.

PHILIP MacMULLEN
Head of environmental responsibility, Seafish
Logie Green Road
Edinburgh