Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 (as amended) - Regulation 3ZA: implementation report 2019 to 2024

1. Main achievements under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &C.) Regulations 1994, as amended

1.1 Changes to the European Site Network

The Phase 1 report for the third SPA network review was published in October 2016. The Phase 2 report was published in May 2025. No changes have been made to the SPA network in Scotland as a result of the review.

1.2 Management of European Sites

There are two types of European Sites. Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) protect one or more special habitats and/or species. These can be terrestrial or marine as listed in Annex I or Annex II of the Habitats Directive. There are 244 SACs in Scotland. Special Protection Areas (SPAs) protect one or more rare, threatened or vulnerable bird species listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive, or certain regularly occurring migratory species. There are 164 SPAs in Scotland.

A major area of activity has been the management of habitats and species listed under the Habitats Directive to improve their conservation status, both within the European site network and the wider countryside:

NatureScot has produced Conservation Advice Packages (CAPs) for terrestrial SACs, that include site conservation objectives, conservation priorities and advice on measures necessary to achieve the conservation objectives. More information about advice documents for European sites in Scotland is available on the NatureScot website.

Conservation Objectives for each SPA are available through SiteLink; Scotland’s register of European sites.

The majority of SACs and SPAs are underpinned by the SSSI designation that includes additional conservation measures, including the regulation of land management operations that could otherwise damage the features of these sites.

NatureScot has produced Conservation and Management Advice documents (CMAs) for all Marine Protected Areas.

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 sets out the ambition for Scotland to be Nature Positive by 2030 and to have restored and regenerated biodiversity across the country by 2045. The current Delivery Plan which sets out a series of priority actions is available on the Scottish Government publications website.

The Scottish Government has developed a Scottish Seabird Conservation Action Plan (SSCAP) to address the urgent issue of declining seabird populations with a focus on improving their breeding success, food availability, and survival rates. The plan outlines actions to mitigate threats such as bycatch, habitat loss, invasive mammals, and disease. The plan also aims to have a coordinated approach across Scotland, and where applicable the UK, for strategic delivery of science and evidence to support management actions directly.

European Sites are core areas in the development of Nature Networks that will better connect nature-rich areas, supporting wildlife and natural processes to move and adapt to land use and climate change pressures. NatureScot has developed a framework for Nature Networks in partnership with over 200 individuals from nearly 110 organisations from a broad spectrum of Scotland’s sectors and communities. The networks will help build people’s connection to nature, providing biodiversity-rich spaces that deliver local benefits, and meet the priorities of local communities for nature. The Nature Networks Framework is available on the NatureScot website.

Marine planning

Scotland has a two-tier marine planning system. Scotland’s first National Marine Plan was adopted in 2015. As a policy framework for decisions regarding development and use of Scotland’s marine area, it includes a statement of Habitats Regulations requirements in amongst the context of broader environmental, social and economic objectives and policies. The plan was subject to Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA) prior to adoption. Three regional marine plans have been under development since 2019 but not yet adopted by Ministers – for Shetland, Orkney and Clyde marine regions – drafts include reference to Habitats Regulations, with draft plans also subject to HRA.

1.3 Assessing benefits and services provided by European Sites

Several strands of work are contributing to the assessment of the benefits and services provided by the European site network:

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy calls for an ecosystem services approach for the conservation of biodiversity. This approach recognises that nature is a system of many functioning parts that work in balance with each other. Nature provides us with many benefits, called ecosystem services, though they’re not always obvious to us, such as air, food, water, stable living conditions, beauty and inspiration. This approach applies to protected areas including European Sites and the wider countryside. More information on ecosystem services is available on the NatureScot website.

NatureScot are using a Natural Capital approach to landscape scale planning. A natural capital approach is when the full range of benefits that we receive from nature are taken into consideration within the decision-making process. These include ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services are the benefits that natural capital provides to people, such as insect pollination, flood mitigation, and carbon sequestration. The Benefits from Nature Wheel shows the ecosystem services we gain from our terrestrial environment divided into four categories; regulating, supporting, cultural and provisioning.

Provisioning:

• Food and drink
• Natural medicines
• Water supply
• Materials
• Renewable and non-renewable energy

Regulating:

• Clean air
• Carbon storage
• Flood management
• Erosion control
• Water purification
• Disease and natural pest control
• Pollination

Supporting:

• Healthy soils
• Photosynthesis
• Nutrient cycling
• Space for wildlife

Cultural:

• Spiritual and religious connections
• Inspiration
• Sense of place
• Recreation
• Knowledge and learning
• Tourism
• Physical health and mental wellbeing

Ecosystem services are the benefits that natural capital provides to people, such as insect pollination, flood mitigation, and carbon sequestration.

The benefits from nature can be divided into four categories:

Provisioning – these are tangible goods that people can harvest from the environment such as food, timber, water, renewable and non-renewable energy, natural medicines and materials.

Regulating – these are the benefits from regulation of ecosystem processes such as clean air, carbon storage, temperature regulation, flood management, water purification, erosion control, insect pollination and disease and natural pest control.

Supporting – ecosystems cannot function without the services of the nutrient cycle, soil formation, photosynthesis and habitat provision for biodiversity, forming the basis for the other three types of services.

Cultural – non-material benefits that people derive from interacting with nature such as mental wellbeing and physical health, aesthetic inspiration, tourism, recreation, knowledge and learning sense of home and spirituality.

NatureScot has developed a Natural Capital Tool for Scotland which aims to support land managers and decision-makers to take a ‘natural capital approach’ to managing land in Scotland. A beta version of the tool is available.

Conservation Management and Advice documents for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) contain information on the benefits of each site. This makes the links between protection for habitats and species and the resulting contribution to natural resources and functions which lead to benefits for people.

Figure 2. Benefits to people associated with protected features of the Moray Firth SAC (from Conservation and Management Advice for the Moray Firth SAC, June 2025)

Marine Protected Areas with features like:

• Subtidal sandbanks
• Bottlenose dolphin

…contribute to Natural Resources like:

• Wildlife
• Fish and shellfish
• Socially valued places

…and Functions like:

• Carbon storage and climate regulation
• Biomass production
• Waste breakdown
• Resilience to invasive non-native species and disease
• Habitat for other species
• Physical barrier
• Coastal protection

These Natural Resources and Functions lead to benefits to people like:

• Health and wellbeing
• Food and nutrition
• Clean water and sediments
• Knowledge
• Prevention of coastal erosion
• Spiritual/cultural
• Healthy climate
• Aesthetic benefits
• Nature watching
• Tourism and recreation
• Pollutant immobilization
• Jobs and businesses

Peatland ACTION has supported greenhouse gas monitoring within the Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands SAC to better understand and improve emissions factors of Scottish Peatlands. The Scottish GHG Flux Network 2022 Review was the first network report combining data from instrumentation owned by a partnership of research institutes and universities.

This valuable work has already supported research publications (e.g. Evans et al. 2021). Peatland ACTION has also supported the functioning of numerous other greenhouse gas monitoring locations within Annex I habitats, including the Balmoral flux tower and Midlothian raised bog flux tower. Additionally, support was given to a project to monitoring the response of bog vegetation following the 2019 Flow Country wildfire (Andersen et al. 2024).

1.4 Positive changes in public acceptance towards biodiversity protection

Positive action for biodiversity must include steps to improve public engagement and understanding of biodiversity protection. The NatureScot Opinion Survey (NOS) is an annual survey designed to measure the public’s awareness of NatureScot, their understanding of the organisation’s work, and their attitudes to a range of topics that fall within the organisation’s remit. The full report is available on the NatureScot website.

Stakeholder views on marine management, conservation, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were collected across the Outer Hebrides during 2020 as part of the MarPAMM – Seas of the Outer Hebrides (SEASOH) project. Equivalent work, also carried out as part of the Interreg-funded MarPAMM project, was undertaken in Argyll and can be viewed here.

In 2021/22 NatureScot facilitated a review of protected areas that used insights from behavioural science to develop lessons for stakeholder and wider public engagement with protected areas. The research considered three questions:

1. How can NatureScot work with owners and land managers of protected areas to change their perception of the sites from being a constraint/burden to an asset and motivate them to proactively manage them?

2. How can local and wider stakeholder interests be encouraged to get involved in decision making and management of protected areas?

3. How do we achieve greater public appreciation and support for protected areas?

The findings and Think-piece are available on the NatureScot website.

Building on the review, the 30 by 30 Framework developed by NatureScot to deliver Target 3 in the Global Biodiversity Framework was developed using a co-design approach, utilising expertise of over 120 individuals from nearly 100 organisations from a broad spectrum of Scotland’s sectors and communities. Theme 4 – Participation engagement, and communication recognises three key delivery principles that value public understanding and support.

• The value of 30 by 30 sites for nature and people is clear;
• Collaboration is key;
• Landowning public bodies will manage their land to contribute towards 30 by 30.

1.5 Improved co-operation between authorities, nature conservation and other groups

A series of measures and tools are used to help improve and facilitate co-operation between authorities, nature conservation and other groups. NatureScot works closely with the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN) and the Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF) to secure biodiversity data from citizen scientists and improve the use of this data in decision making and policy.

The Better Biodiversity Data project (BBD), led and managed by the NBN Trust and supported by NatureScot and The Scottish Government, aims to develop the first steps in a strategic approach to the collection, collation and sharing of biological data across Scotland. The Output Report 2025 is available on the NBN website.

Species on the Edge is a groundbreaking partnership programme between NatureScot and seven nature conservation charities, dedicated to protecting 37 of Scotland’s rarest and most vulnerable coastal and island species. These include species listed in Annex I or Annex II of the Habitats Directive and looked after by the European Site network. More information is available on the website.

As part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) process, Scottish Government led on convening partners from subnational and local governments to contribute to the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). This ‘Edinburgh Process’ developed an ‘Edinburgh Declaration’ that outlined the high-level political objectives of these subnational, regional and local governments.

The Edinburgh Declaration calls on national governments to adopt a GBF that recognises the vital role played by subnational governments, cities and local authorities. It outlines the role of devolved governments in implementing, mainstreaming, and securing finance for, biodiversity actions, and it notes the ‘need to develop effective policy, governance and financing solutions at all levels of government and ensure vertical integration across national, subnational, city and local levels to affect transformative change’. It also notes that these solutions ‘should address both the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and integrate all dimensions of sustainable development’.

1.6 Increased availability of information

To increase engagement, improve positive management, and enhance cooperation we work hard to make information and data findable and accessible. The following are examples of the work that has gone into making information on European sites and features findable and accessible.

The SiteLink database provides key information on individual European sites.

Data, including habitat data can be viewed and downloaded from NatureScot and Scottish Government.

Information about the Scottish marine environment can be found here, including resources that are made available by the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate and partners. The mapping site National Marine Plan interactive (NMPi) allows marine biodiversity data to be viewed alongside data on activities and developments in the marine environment.

NatureScot and Scottish Government are investing in new data sources including earth observation data to support mapping habitats. The Land LiDAR programme started in 2025 will provide additional data on habitats and land cover.

NatureScot is working with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) to understand how earth observation data can be used to detect change in the condition of habitats (Black et al. 2023).

The Scottish Land Cover maps provide habitat and land cover data at EUNIS level 2. This data is not detailed enough to use in the present report. The maps are available as open data, and support landscape-scale decision-making.

In 2025 NatureScot worked with Alma Economics to understand the need for habitat and land cover data and the value of this data in enabling others to take data-driven decisions for nature. NatureScot Research Report 1382 suggests a framework to assess the value of open data.

NatureScot has worked with Scottish Government to make public sector data easier to find. The Find Data tool helps everyone to discover Scottish Public Sector data, saving time in data searches and helping to gain insights on data quality and use.