The RSPB is set to receive almost £8 million in payments from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for its land in Scotland, a report in the Press and Journal newspaper has revealed.
The payments cover the period from 2005 - 2013 and mean that the rich charity is one of the biggest recipients of the CAP in the whole of the UK.
SGA chairman Alex Hogg has condemned the payouts, arguing that the RSPB regularly squanders the rich wildlife and rare species attracted to their reserves. He said the charity wasn't prepared to take measures to deal with the increased numbers of predators which were also lured to the wildlife honeypots.
He added: "It's incumbent on a charity which receives such massive support from the public purse to sit round the table and discuss important wildlife issues in Scotland with people who understand that tough measures sometimes have to be taken to protect vulnerable and rare wildlife. No matter how good the habitat is for ground-nesting birds, you have to control foxes and crows or the eggs and chicks are decimated.
"It's time independent inventories of the wildlife on these reserves were carried out so that taxpayers know if they're getting any value for the millions of pounds of their money that's being spent on these wildlife schemes."
The information received by the Press and Journal also showed that the RSPB was penalised in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 for making subsidy claims on inelegible land involving cliffs and gullies. Penalties were also applied for human errors.