Biodiversity Programme Advisory Group - external engagement session minutes: 17 July 2025

Attendees and apologies

Scottish Government

• Aisling Duncan, team leader nature targets
• Jack Bloodworth, principle science adviser
• Rebecca-Katie Sinclair, policy officer

External participants - 41 attendees

• James Hutton Institute
• SRUC
• NatureScot
• Aberdeen City Council
• Scottish Water
• Glasgow City Council
• Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust
• Scottish Borders Council - MELROSE, Roxburghshire
• University of Strathclyde
• Scottish Renewables
• Welsh Government
• North Lanarkshire Council
• Consumer Scotland
• Highland Council
• Crofting Commission
• CIEEM
• Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority
• West Dunbartonshire Council
• Stirling Council
• DEFRA
• FEL Scotland
• WSP
• University of Aberdeen
• NESCAN Hub (North East Scotland Climate Action Network)
• South of Scotland Enterprise
• Marine Conservation Society
• Ramblers Scotland
• East Ayrshire Council
• East Lothian Council
• Historic Environment Scotland
• AECOM
• SEPA
• ScottishPower Renewables
• Community Land Scotland
• Green Action Trust
• City of Edinburgh Council
• Forestry and Land Scotland
• Rob Bushby Consulting
• East Dunbartonshire Council
• East Renfrewshire Council
• South Lanarkshire Council

Items and actions

Meeting Agenda

These sessions will provide an overview of policy progress, updates on the Bill, governance, monitoring and evaluation as well as future internal and external engagement opportunities. They are designed to help integrate biodiversity and environmental sustainability into policy across the Scottish Government.

Welcome and introductions

Purpose and aims and structure of session explained.

Actions

N/A

Presentation

From slide 2

Actions

Share slide pack with attendees - closed

Question and answer session

Are targets likely to be framed as "pass/fail" or framed in such a way as to recognise degrees of progress?

The Scottish Government are considering this now and will be dependent on the form and quantifiable values of targets along with the approach to monitoring and evaluation.

How will these targets relate to net-zero targets and if so, how will this be addressed?

That is a consideration the Scottish Government are hoping to take into account, and engagement with other policy areas and align as much as possible with other government actions and priorities.

How can input indicators such as those measuring actions, interventions, and funding be used to sustain momentum and influence broader policy areas like Agricultural Policy funding? For example, how did the previous strategy help maintain commitments to agri-environment schemes and preserve mechanisms like cross-compliance and greening?

Input targets are one of three types that the Scottish Government considered along with outcome and output targets. Input targets focus on whether resources, such as money, equipment or people have been committed. For Example: £X spent on nature restoration within a specific timeframe. The Scottish Government therefore proposes that targets, when set in secondary legislation, should include a combination of ‘outcome’ targets and ‘output’ targets. The focus for targets is to create accountability for delivering the Vision and Outcomes of the Strategy with the aim to drive, rather than dictate, the actions that are required.

How do external organisations identify what's preventing SG achieving targets? E.g. sector planning - unclear commitments and targets, lack of funding, etc.

Response was followed up by email exchange.

The policy intention is that successful targets for nature restoration will be ones which incentivise the necessary action and ensure that biodiversity is factored into policy development at all levels of government. They will help to create certainty and clarity across public, private and voluntary sectors, set a shared level of ambition, create legal duties for Ministers to act, drive consistent policy across Government and establish a cycle of monitoring, reporting and accountability.  They will also help to strength and support duties on public bodes (e.g. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 and The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011) on their compliance with the biodiversity duty. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with bodies across the public and government sector to ensure they are taking ambitious action and weaving biodiversity into their policy development and delivery. Overall statutory targets will prove the additional level to ensure that our activities are supporting outcomes for biodiversity. By creating an imperative to deliver the necessary actions to achieve the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy vision and outcomes, alongside monitoring and evaluation, it ensures there are the processes and mechanisms in place for success.

What are the four target topics that were not proposed to be taken forward?

These are all listed in policy memo in relation to Natural Environment Bill and can be found on the Parliamentary website: Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website.

The other target topics, which were recommended by that PAG has having merit for consideration of the development of targets but not included on the face of the NE Bill are;

• ecosystem Health and Integrity
• citizens and society understanding, benefitting from and contribution to nature

There were a further two target topics recommended by the PAG that while highly significant to the success of achieving the vision of the Strategy, were assessed to be unsuitable to be taken forward as statutory targets. These are:

• investment in nature; and
• positive outcomes for biodiversity in public sector and government

Did the Scottish Government consider a target related the amount of living biomass?

RESAS have not specifically considered living biomass as a target. but note that there are also circular economy targets in development. The main consideration around this suggestion would be how it could be measures in order for targets to be set against.

Widespread but declining species are important for biodiversity restoration. Are the Scottish Government strictly focusing on threatened species?

The target topic 'Threatened Species' is not just species that are currently threatened, it is species that are important to Scotland. General indicators for this target topic are the marine and terrestrial species indicator, the red list of species indicator and the genetic scorecard which shows species resilience. It is broader than the term threatened species, but recommend you have a look at the policy memo.

How will the monitoring framework take account of context, to understand how and why desired outcomes are (or are not) being achieved? 

The main mechanism for this will be the evaluation approach that is currently being developed as part of the wider Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Framework. RESAS would be keen for more modelling capability to help understand effectiveness, a challenge to our academics and researchers.

Once the target values have been defined, what kind of mechanism(s) do the Scottish Government envisage using to encourage/enforce compliance for individual organisations?

Response was followed up by email exchange with additional questions raised.

The purpose of introducing statutory targets is to enable the Scottish Government to succeed in halting and restoring biodiversity in Scotland. The introduction of statutory targets will provide the additional level to ensure that the Scottish Government’s activities support outcomes for biodiversity. The provisions, as drafted, allow an agile approach for setting and amending targets but also the accountability mechanisms through the reporting and reviewing cycles along with ESS and the independent review body to ensure Scottish Ministers meet those targets. By creating an imperative to deliver the necessary actions to achieve the targets (through delivery plans), meet targets and achieve the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy vision and outcomes, alongside the monitoring and evaluation, it ensures that there are the process and mechanisms in place for success.

Targets will help to create certainty and clarity across public, private and voluntary sectors, set a shared level of ambition, create legal duties for Ministers to act, drive consistent policy across Government and establish a cycle of monitoring, reporting and accountability. They will also help to strength and support duties on public bodes (e.g. The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 and The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011) on their compliance with the biodiversity duty. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with bodies across the public and government sector to ensure they are taking ambitious action and weaving biodiversity into their policy development and delivery.

Will the targets include a quantification of habitats and species mainly derived from data in protected areas (e.g. SPA, SAC, SSSI) or will they also take in consideration the wider countryside?

The intention will be to set targets using indicators that are representative of as wide an area as possible. Protected area condition was one of the indicators considered by the PAG but they also considered other indicators such as the Ecosystem Red List which assesses all areas for example.

It will be interesting to know the relationship between habitat extent/condition and ecosystem extent/condition, the latter of which is a GBF top hitter. Can you detail the difference between 'area of land under good practice' as an outcome or as an input?

Response was followed up by email with additional context and questions raised in the exchange.

With the example provided (via email), a target that represents a designation of land that is ‘set aside’ for nature recovery would be an output target. An input target around that example might be a commitment to fund land owners to manage their land for nature.

To illustrate that further, on a purely hypothetical demonstration of what an input, output and outcome target might look like for the example provided:

Input – £X million is set aside for land managers to manage their land as nature rich habitat by 20XX

Output – X% of farm land is managed a nature rich habitat by 20XX

Outcome – X% increase in the farmland bird indicator by 20XX.

Can the Scottish Government share the policy memo link with the group please?

Action completed with follow up email of presentation and links to all attendees.

Policy Memo can be found here: Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website.