THE Scottish Greens have accused Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) of trying to sneak through a change in rules to allow landowners to “slaughter” ravens.

On Wednesday, the public body launched a new consultation on wild birds and circumstances in which they can be “controlled under general licence”.

All wild birds are currently protected by law but in some circumstances, such as preventing serious damage to crops or to protect public health, they can be lawfully killed. This can only happen when there is “unlikely to be any conservation impact on a species”.

The Greens say that “hidden away” in the consultation documents, SNH says ravens can now be included in an unmonitored, light-touch regulation general licence – meaning that effectively they could be killed without an individual first having to apply for permission.

Last year, SNH sparked outrage when they granted a licence for an “experimental” mass cull of ravens in Perthshire. Hundreds of complaints were lodged with ministers, questions were asked in Parliament and more than 168,000 signed a petition calling for the immediate withdrawal of the licence.

Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman said of the more recent rule change: “This consultation was meant to be about improving protections for birds, but incredibly Scottish Natural Heritage has used it as a vehicle to allow the free slaughter of ravens, a protected species.

“SNH’s proposals would mean that land managers could freely kill as many of these magnificent birds as they like, with no monitoring or oversight, which is particularly astonishing given only last year SNH got into hot water for awarding a licence to kill up to 69 ravens a year.

He continued: “SNH is meant to protect Scotland’s natural heritage but once again it has shown it is completely unable to stand up to vested interests. I hope that they will walk away from these ridiculous proposals to kill yet more wildlife and focus on stopping the epidemic of wildlife persecution that continues across Scotland.”

A spokeswoman for SNH said: “We have launched this consultation to seek feedback on the most commonly used general licences – licences that are in place to ensure the conservation of wild birds, mitigate the damage to agricultural interests and protect public health and safety.

“As part of the consultation process we have asked for a range of views, including on the levels of damage perceived to be caused by raven and greylag geese. No decisions have been taken on removing licence restrictions on the killing of any wild birds, including ravens.

“We would encourage members of the public, practitioners and key interest groups to take part in the consultation.”

The consultation follows a legal challenge by campaign group Wild Justice which forced Natural England to revoke three general licences covering 16 species of birds which included crows, Canadian geese, gulls and pigeons. It also followed legal challenges about how they were issued and whether they were being used in a lawful manner.

The Scottish Gamekeeper Association has urged its members to take part in the SNH survey, “particularly following the disastrous situation in England which left land businesses struggling to protect stock, crops and wildlife at a critical time”.

It added: “There is still a widespread sense of dissatisfaction with new licences in England and it is important that we get this right in Scotland.”

It also follows the discovery of around 100 dead birds in a Perthshire loch, which was reported to police amid concerns of an illegal cull.

The pretext for last year’s cull was an experiment to see what would happen to wader populations locally, if ravens, natural predators and scavengers, were killed off.

In the last decade the number of dunlin in Scotland has fallen by 52%, while oystercatchers are down by a third, and the population of curlews has plummeted 23%.