Biodiversity Programme Advisory Group - nature restoration target topic recommendations: final advice

1. Introduction and background

Statutory nature restoration targets (herein referred to as ‘targets’) are a key part of the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Strategic Delivery Framework, which includes the overarching Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS), the 6 year rolling delivery plans and the Natural Environment Bill which provides the framework for statutory targets.

A four-step process has been developed for the selection and setting of targets that include:

1. Defining the Policy Framework - How will targets be set and within what parameters?

2. Describing, at a high-level, the key topics / areas that statutory targets should cover and why.

3. Assigning indicators to the proposed suite of targets - How to ensure targets can be measured and recommend which to select?

4. Setting quantifiable values to targets - What is the right value to set to the identified indicators and why?

It is imperative that the Scottish Government elicits the best scientific advice when developing statutory nature restoration targets so that they are selected and set in a way that maximises success against the vision and outcomes in the SBS. The Biodiversity Programme Advisory Group (PAG) is a group of external experts that have been brought together to advise on the development of the Biodiversity Strategic Delivery Framework. The PAG have already advised on the vision and outcomes of the SBS and the actions to go into the first 5-year delivery plan. Now, the PAG has been brought together to advise on the selection and setting of the targets. The first part in this process is to attain the PAG’s advice for Step 2, which is: Describing, at a high-level the key topics / areas that statutory targets should cover and why?

This paper briefly outlines the approach taken to eliciting the PAG’s advice before outlining the PAG’s recommendations for high level target topics.