First we should put efforts into protecting what we have, wild cats and several types of birds are in real trouble and we should stop them becoming extinct.
Second we need the right habitat to reintroduce species. Huge areas of Scotland could and should be extensive native forests. Land that is currently deer forests (which ironically don't have any trees) which is effectively used only for deer shooting should be a much more diverse and productive landscape. Incidentally since CAP funding was decoupled more than a decade ago sheep have disappeared from huge areas of Scotland so you can't argue that woodlands would be displacing productive agriculture - it has already gone from many of the areas that might be considered for reintroductions.
However, Scotland has changed a lot in the last 150 years. The most remote areas are totally empty of human population (where 200 years ago there were communities), I would love to see some of these areas being repopulated but it is not going to happen in the deer forests. Expanding out from existing settlements and roads around the coasts yes, but not the inland area.
In 1905 Scotland had 4.5% forest cover, today it is 18.5%. That is a huge change. A lot of that increase was the FC planting of monoculture spruce which is not much good for any wildlife but over the last 20 years or so the focus has been on native woodland. We are planting NEW broadleaf woodlands at the rate of 50 - 60 square km per year. Give it another 20 or 30 years and the increasing number of wee patches of woodland will link to become networks and the big landscape scale projects will be mature enough to support more wildlife (and there are some really big landscape scale planting/regeneration projects on the go).
Although a lot more needs to be done we are on the way to having suitable habitat for some (not all) species reintroduction.
I would love to see some species reintroduced.
I live in an area that would probably be considered as one of the first areas for species to be released so my lambs and chicks would be first in the firing line.
I love walking and climbing in the outdoors, predators would attract me to camping in the wilds not scare me away (and if you look at places like North America you will see that they have a much higher (than Scotland) participation in "backcountry" activities despite the bears, wolves, mountain lions, alligators, poisonous snakes and spiders).
One of the biggest reasons I live in the country is so that I can see and engage with wildlife. I don't want the country to be sanitised into a human only environment - If I wanted that I would live in a city!
I would like to hear some of the organisations that are so vociferously against reintroductions being a bit more consistent if they are to get my respect. Why are lynx so bad for agriculture when pheasants are OK? Pheasants are non native and wreck havoc. The thousands that were released near me destroyed about 80% of my potato harvest this year and they are now working their way through my field of winter forage. It looks like I will have to put the sheep onto the turnips now whilst there are still some left instead of keeping them for when I really need them in mid winter, thus forcing me to buy in more feed later in the winter. That will cost me more that the price of a couple of lambs (especially at this years prices).
Why is it OK to have introduced sika deer and reds at un-naturally high numbers and not a few beavers? I had to spend £6k on deer fencing to keep the deer out, that is a major cost to my modest agricultural business. I am confident that beavers would do much less damage to my land than the huge numbers of introduced Sika so why is there not uproar about the damage deer are doing to our agriculture and our landscapes?
I now fully expect to get a roasting but ................................................................
