The Scottish Government yesterday announced details of a new strategy to successfully manage the nation's wild deer population, and to ensure continued environmental and economic benefits from it.

As part of the strategy, the Deer Commission Scotland (DCS) will work to improve local management of deer populations and to improve shooting skills, to guarantee the welfare of the 100,000 deer culled each year.

The Government reports that wild deer are worth around £105 million every year to the Scottish economy, underlining the importance of successfully and sustainably managing this natural asset.

"The need to balance the environmental, economic and deer welfare objectives of the Scottish nation with the objectives that private landowners have for forestry, agriculture, sporting and other forms of land use is a challenge," said Environment Minister Michael Russell.

"This new approach seeks to address this head-on by setting out principles to guide and balance different interests and bringing a more inclusive approach to the management of all the deer species of Scotland.

"The strategy is a good example of the sort of joint working that this government wants to see in managing the environment, in the same way that we have been developing better ways to deliver rural services through the Sears project," he added.

Scottish Natural Heritage and the Forestry Commission Scotland were also involved in the preparation of the strategy, which will be followed by a DCS report on best practice for local management late this year.