Natural capital: marine and terrestrial economic reliance analysis
This paper summarises further analysis that expands the methodology developed in the “Importance of Natural Capital to the Scottish Economy” analysis. It proposes a methodology to assess natural capital economic reliance by output and employment across two core distinctions: marine and terrestrial.
3. Marine Natural Capital Reliance Results
3.1 Headline Results
Out of the estimated £40 billion total direct and indirect output supported by natural capital in Scotland, at least 16% is estimated to be reliant on marine natural capital.
Industries reliant on marine natural capital, excluding non-renewable resource sectors such as oil and gas, supported approximately £6.5 billion of total economic output and around 38,700 jobs annually, directly and indirectly in 2019.
Figure 7 plain text version:
Scotland has an estimated £40 billion in direct and indirect output supported by natural capital, and around 260,000 jobs in employment.
This natural capital economic reliance is split between marine and terrestrial natural capital: marine = 16%, terrestrial = 84%.
Figure 8 plain text version:
Marine Headline Results:
£6.5bn of Scotland’s total economic output is supported by marine natural capital. 38,700 jobs are supported by marine natural capital in Scotland.
The industries most dependent on marine natural capital are: aquaculture, fishing, fish and fruit processing, electricity, and food and beverages services.
The industries (according to SIC code classification) most dependent on marine natural capital include:
- Aquaculture,
- Fish and Fruit Processing,
- Electricity,
- Fishing,
- and Food and Beverage Services.
The REPs estimated to have the largest shares of output and employment reliant on marine natural capital were:
- Highlands & Islands REP,
- Glasgow REP,
- and Aberdeen City and Shire REP.
3.2 Industry Level Results - Marine
| Industry |
Output (£m) (Direct and Indirect) |
Employment (FTE) (Direct and Indirect) |
|---|---|---|
| Aquaculture | £2,272.1 | 11,944 |
| Fish & fruit processing | £1,359.2 | 7,683 |
| Electricity | £1,275.8 | 3,474 |
| Fishing | £562.8 | 5,780 |
| Food & beverage services | £163.6 | 2,591 |
| Gas etc. | £121.2 | 272 |
| Retail – excl. vehicles | £88.2 | 1,320 |
| Accommodation | £53.0 | 906 |
| Health | £43.8 | 464 |
| Imputed rent | £36.8 | 25 |
These results show that Scotland’s marine environment supports far more than just Fishing and Aquaculture. Many industries have high levels of output and employment that depend on marine resources.
- Aquaculture’s high natural capital dependence is mostly driven by the value of the Scottish salmon industry. Maintaining healthy marine environments is crucial as farmed salmon spend an important part of their lifecycle in saltwater.
- The Fish and Fruit Processing SIC code, as presented in the National Accounts data, combines two separate industries: “Processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans and molluscs” and “Processing and preserving of fruit and vegetables”. In Scotland, the processing and exporting of seafood products is a major industry. This is reflected in the fact that over 50% of the Fish and Fruit Processing SIC industry’s activity is tied to fish, compared to less than 2% of activity tied to agricultural products.
- Industries with high dependence on marine natural capital output include Health (hospitals, medical practices, dentistry, and care) and Retail (retail sale of food, fuel, and other goods). These industries are highlighted due to their significant expenditure on electricity, of which a portion is generated from offshore wind.
- Accommodation and Food and Beverage Services also show marine natural capital reliance. This is not just from Electricity use, but also purchases from Aquaculture, Fishing, and Fish and Fruit Processing industries.
- The Electricity sector is a key contributor to Scotland’s marine natural capital economic reliance, even though offshore wind represented only 5% of the industry in 2019. It should be noted that the annual generation of electricity from marine sources (driven by offshore wind) has increased by over 124.9% since 201910 when the data used in this analysis was collected, further increasing its importance to marine natural capital reliance.
3.3 Regional Results – Regional Economic Partnerships - Marine
| Regional Economic Partnership | Proportion of total national output dependent on marine natural capital |
|---|---|
| Highlands and Islands | 41% |
| Glasgow City | 16% |
| Aberdeen City and Shire | 15% |
| Edinburgh and South East | 10% |
| Tay Cities | 8% |
| South of Scotland | 6% |
| Forth Valley | 3% |
| Ayrshire | 2% |
3.3.1 Highlands and Islands REP
The Highlands and Islands REP makes up the greatest proportion of output and employment reliant on marine natural capital, supporting an estimated £2.7 billion in output and 15,500 jobs in Scotland in 2019.
The industries with the greatest amount of economic activity supported by marine natural capital in the Highlands & Islands REP were:
- Aquaculture,
- Fish and Fruit Processing,
- Fishing,
- Electricity,
- and Food and Beverage Services.
Around 83% of the natural capital reliant employment and output associated with the Aquaculture industry, and 41% associated with the Fishing industry in Scotland, was attributed to the Highlands and Islands REP.
The output and employment associated with the Electricity industry can be complicated to attribute to specific regions, as the employment and output are not always attributed to the same area in which the electricity is generated. For example, wind turbines located on a site in Aberdeenshire may be managed by employees based in a different region.
To better understand where electricity is generated, we can look at the location of active plants (listed for offshore wind in Appendix 1). As of 2025, nearly half of all of Scotland’s active offshore wind turbines are located off the coast of the Highlands and Islands REP[15]. This reflects the importance of the region to Scotland’s marine natural capital.
3.3.2 Glasgow City REP
The Glasgow City REP (which encompasses Glasgow and the surrounding areas) has the second highest output and third highest employment supported by marine natural capital in Scotland at an estimated £1 billion in output and 5,800 jobs. As discussed in the original report1, it is worth noting that the economic activity attributed to the Glasgow City REP is reliant on marine natural capital located in rural areas across Scotland. The Electricity industry made up almost 50% of the Glasgow City REP’s total marine natural capital dependent output. However, none of Scotland’s offshore wind electricity generation is based near the Glasgow City REP’s coast – see Appendix 1 for a full breakdown of Scotland’s offshore wind turbine locations.
Outside of Electricity, the top industries contributing to the Glasgow City REP’s marine natural capital reliant output were Fish and Fruit Processing, Aquaculture, and Food and Beverage Services.
3.3.3 Aberdeen City and Shire REP
The Aberdeen City and Shire REP has the third highest output and second highest employment dependent on marine natural capital – estimated to be around 22%, or around £940 million, of this REP’s natural capital reliant economic activity. The economic activities making up the largest proportion of this marine reliant output are Fish and Fruit Processing (53%) followed by Fishing (28%).
The Aberdeen City and Shire REP has the largest proportion of Scotland’s Fishing sector located within it – almost half of all fishing-related output and employment is based in the region. Further, around a third of Scotland’s Fish and Fruit Processing is located in this REP as well.
3.3.4 South of Scotland REP
Looking at the share of marine as part of the total natural capital output and employment reliance in regions, the South of Scotland REP is the region with the third largest share of marine reliance, after the Highlands and Islands REP and the Aberdeen City and Shire REP. Around 12% of its total natural capital reliant output, or £360 million, was supported by marine natural capital.
The industries with the highest share of economic output supported by marine natural capital in the South of Scotland REP were:
- Fish and Fruit Processing (around £222 million and 1,300 jobs),
- Aquaculture (around £48 million and 250 jobs), and
- Electricity (around £28 million and 80 jobs).
3.4 Marine Tourism
This section sets out different estimates of marine tourism in Scotland due to the limitations of the methodology to provide tourism specific estimates. Tourism is an important part of the Scottish economy, especially tourism motivated or enhanced by the natural assets unique to Scotland. The value of tourism to Scotland’s economy is estimated at £5 billion in terms of GVA (using 2023 data) and supporting around 240,000 jobs (using 2024 data) [16]. According to Scotland’s Marine Economic Statistics[17], marine tourism represented around 12% of Scotland’s marine economy in GVA terms – generating £598 million and providing employment for 33,100 people in 2019[18].
A limitation of this study is that tourism is not treated as a distinct industry, and therefore an estimate for natural capital reliance of tourism cannot be provided separately. This is because the data underpinning this analysis comes from the National Accounts data which is organized by production sectors (e.g., Transportation, Accommodation, Food Services), whereas tourism spans multiple of these sectors. Tourists consume goods and services from various sectors, so its economic impact is best measured through the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) [19], which link tourism demand to these industries rather than creating a separate "tourism industry" category. Nonetheless, despite tourism not being a distinct category, the impact of tourism through those other sectors is still captured within the National Accounts data and as a result in this natural capital economic reliance analysis.
The natural environment is a key tourism asset motivating people to visit Scotland.
A study commissioned by NatureScot [20] estimates the value of tourism activity taking place in the natural heritage. Spending on nature-based tourism is estimated to contribute nearly 40% (or £1.4 billion) of all tourism spend and supporting 39,000 full time equivalent jobs, with the caveat that these are 2010 estimates. If we were to uplift the estimates to 2019 prices, this would imply £1.64 billion in tourism spend is due to nature-based tourism, if the assumption held true in 2019.
Due to overlapping motivators for tourism and trips to nature, it is hard to estimate a singular value for marine nature-based tourism. The NatureScot paper suggests marine nature-based tourism is likely to be around a quarter of the estimated total. This highlights the importance and uniqueness of the coastal environment for tourism, as seen with activities such as sailing and water sports as well as the natural heritage and general marine scenery and wildlife.
Contact
Email: EnvironmentAnalysis@gov.scot