Des will summarise some key work being undertaken on raptor conservation and management in the UK, with a focus on Scotland, and especially work on golden eagles and hen harriers. Des was founder chairman of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (which gave rise to Raptors: a field guide for surveys and monitoring (three editions), and was recently elected Chairman of the UN Convention on Migratory Species’ Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia Technical Advisory Group. Des manages policy, research and advisory work on biodiversity and climate change, and has led some of Britain’s upland nature conservation work for the government and its agencies. He took his PhD and DSc from the University of Nottingham (publishing his PhD as the textbook Gulls and plovers - the ecology and behaviour of mixed species feeding groups, co-written with the late Chris Barnard). He has specialist interests in upland and bird ecology, and has published more than 200 papers, articles and books, including Ecological Change in the Uplands; Heaths and Moorland – cultural landscapes; Tundra Plovers; Shorebirds; Birds of Prey in a Changing Environment; Mountains of Northern Europe: conservation, management, nature and people; An Illustrated Guide to British Upland Vegetation; Alpine Biodiversity in Europe; and The Changing Nature of Scotland. His latest book, co-edited with John and Hilary Birks, on one of the world’s foremost experts on raptor conservation (Nature’s Conscience: the life and legacy of Derek Ratcliffe) will be published shortly. Des is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Ecology, and Chairman of the Field Studies Council.