Marine and coastal restoration plan: business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 1: Background, aims and options

Background to policy issue

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) sets out that by 2045 “The health, condition, and resilience of pelagic, coastal, shelf, and deep-sea marine habitats will have been restored, supporting wider ecosystem function, providing increased benefits to society, and contributing to climate resilience and adaptation through nature-based solutions”. In support of this vision, the SBS Delivery Plan sets out that we will publish a plan for marine and coastal ecosystem restoration, including identifying actions to help prioritise habitats and locations suitable for restoration.

Restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems can play an important role in tackling the twin nature and climate crisis, and in contributing to statutory and non-statutory commitments, including Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Regulations 2010.

Active restoration is of increasing interest in Scotland, as a means to contribute to a healthy marine environment, but also as an accessible way for communities and individuals to take action and foster stewardship of our seas. The environmental purpose of restoration is to improve the quality, size, or geographic distribution of a habitat or species. Habitats and species that are the target of active restoration have the potential to deliver a range of ecosystem level benefits such as improved biodiversity. However, there is also the potential for socio-economic benefits such as job creation, generating overnight stays, and skills development/talent retention in rural communities. Active restoration also has the potential to negatively impact other sectors (for example if it is carried out inappropriately or without engagement with wider sea users), and there is a need to balance increasing demands on our marine and coastal resources.

The plan sets out a range of objectives and underpinning actions to support active restoration around Scotland. The plan will primarily focus on supporting and enabling active restoration, such as habitat creation (or re-creation) and/or species introduction (or re-introduction) – although there are actions within this first plan concerning pressure management as it relates to active restoration.

Purpose and desired effect

The overall objective of the Marine and Coastal Restoration Plan will be to support SBS Objective 1: Accelerate Restoration and Regeneration.

The plan will seek to:

• achieve a better understanding across marine users of where active restoration can best take place and how we can prioritise species and habitats
• maximise ecological benefits and social and economic opportunities from active restoration
• support community-led restoration and enable investment in restoration efforts

There is already growing interest in active marine restoration in Scotland, although there are a relatively small number of projects currently being undertaken. Without intervention from government and increased action from public and private sector to accelerate restoration, it is likely efforts would remain fragmented and small scale, reducing the potential for marine and coastal restoration to contribute to achieving Scotland’s climate and biodiversity goals, including statutory duties under the Marine Strategy Regulations 2010. Not taking action would also risk missing opportunities to generate socio-economic benefits from restoration at a time when green jobs will be critical for rural, coastal and island communities.

This BRIA has been developed to support the first plan. The assessment is relatively high level at this stage, however as actions under the plan are implemented we will consider the need for further assessment of business and regulatory impacts.

Options

In order to achieve the objectives of the plan, the following options were assessed:

• option 1 - Business as usual (also known as a ‘do nothing’) scenario
• option 2 - The package of actions included in the plan
• option 3 - Actions considered but not taken forward at this time

Option 1 – Business as usual (also known as a ‘do nothing’) scenario

Under this option no government action would be taken to accelerate marine nature restoration in Scotland under a marine and coastal restoration plan. Such a scenario would likely mean that restoration efforts remain fragmented and small scale. There is a possibility that further species and habitats that could benefit from active restoration efforts would remain unidentified and crucial windows for identifying restoration needs could be missed. Without a plan it is likely that the potential benefits of restoration, both ecologically and socio-economically, would not be fully realised.

Option 2 – The package of actions included in the plan

This option represents the plan as published. The plan sets out a series of objectives and underpinning actions, across five inter-related themes. No significant changes to the objectives and actions have been made as a result of the public consultation, however, one action has been added under Theme 1: Restoration opportunities and priorities, to work with nature conservation advisors to identify potential opportunities for active restoration in areas where measures to manage pressures are in place.

Theme 1 – Restoration opportunities and priorities

There are four objectives and eight underpinning actions, relating to the development of environmental opportunity maps, criteria to allow identification of habitats and species most urgently in need of restoration, supporting and enabling landscape/ecosystem scale restoration, and promoting the importance of a place-based approach and baseline surveys.

Theme 2 – Regulatory environment

Three objectives and ten underpinning actions, relating to providing support for projects navigating the regulatory environment, encouraging collaboration, transparency and information sharing across regulators and public bodies, and the future establishment of a protection mechanism for habitats and species undergoing restoration. Any legislative proposals for a protection mechanism brought forward under the plan would be subject to relevant consultation and assessment of impacts.

Theme 3 – Funding and finance

Five objectives and seven underpinning actions relating to supporting funding throughout the lifetime of restoration projects (including in groundwork phases), ensuring that private sector funding benefits are realised at local community level, and considering how wider Scottish Government policies could support acceleration of active restoration.

Theme 4 – Supply chains and communities

Three objectives and nine underpinning actions relating to supporting knowledge and data sharing across the restoration sector, increasing participation and engagement of other marine sectors, and supporting more resilient supply chains for restoration.

Theme 5 – Evidence and monitoring

Four objectives and four underpinning actions relating to supporting improved evidence gathering and monitoring, understanding how restoration can contribute to environmental targets and generate environmental, social and economic benefits, improved availability of information on restoration projects in Scotland, and exploring the potential contribution of citizen science.

The objectives and actions identified for each theme have been designed to relate to and complement each other and therefore should be considered as a package.

Option 3 – Actions considered but not taken forward at this time

A range of other actions were also considered and discounted in the course of developing the plan. These include alternative actions, where a number of different means of achieving the same objective were considered, or actions which could have been included alongside the package outlined under Option 2. In identifying a package of objectives and actions, a balance has had to be struck between actions which are considered most important/urgent to support acceleration of restoration, and resource and financial implications.

Theme 1 – Restoration opportunities and priorities

Create a centralised process/expert for localised opportunity maps: Establish a process or expert to help with data collection methodology, and to support the creation of more localised opportunity maps by projects themselves. The resources required for this option were deemed to be too intensive for this iteration of the plan. We will still explore developing regional or local maps where there is appetite.

Set up a project to capture cultural knowledge of habitats/species: Establish a project to collect cultural knowledge of habitats and species so that this information could be fed into opportunity maps. This project would require resource, both staff time and financial, and was deemed to be less of a priority than other options. This does not rule it out for future iterations of the plan.

Theme 2 – Regulatory environment

Regulatory reform: Feedback from restoration groups has highlighted that many projects find the regulatory requirements for restoration projects difficult to navigate, in terms of the number of different processes, and the costs associated. In 2024 we consulted on legislative proposals that included a registration process for restoration projects, to replace marine licensing requirements for restoration projects. Ultimately, the proposals were not taken forwards at that time due to concerns about how they would be implemented. Other options considered under regulatory reform during the development of the plan were:

• a combined restoration licence covering multiple existing types of licence/consent
• creating a marine licence that covered restoration projects specifically
• allowing marine licences to be granted at project level rather than species or habitat level

Feedback from a stakeholder advisory group which helped officials consider options for the restoration plan suggested that regulatory reform may not be a proportionate response at this stage, and that additional support navigating the current regulatory framework was an appropriate action. Regulatory reform could be considered under future plans if deemed necessary.

Non-legislative protection mechanisms: Alternative non-legislative options for protecting restoration projects were considered, including the potential for actions to support voluntary agreements or codes of conduct. While these remain included in the plan as options to be explored, we consider a legislative mechanism will ultimately be needed where non-legislative agreements cannot be secured. This will also allow for consultation both during the development of such a mechanism, and at the point of any proposed uses of the mechanism in future. A legislative approach will allow us to include clear requirements and procedures putting in place measures (and ensuring they can be adapted/removed if necessary).

Theme 3 – Funding and finance

Develop accreditation scheme for funders: Award funders an accreditation for funding restoration projects, to incentivise investment. The resources required for this option were deemed to be too intensive for this iteration of the plan.

Theme 4 – Supply chain and communities

Hatcheries: Some stakeholders suggested that establishing a national hatchery should be considered, to mitigate supply chain challenges and shortages, such as those related to seed oysters, for example reducing reliance on overseas suppliers. The establishment of a publicly funded hatchery would be prohibitively costly and therefore this was not considered further.

Theme 5 – Evidence and monitoring

Mandatory monitoring and reporting requirements: Mandatory monitoring and reporting requirements for restoration projects were considered as a means to ensure a comprehensive picture of how restoration activities contribute to environmental targets. However, it is considered that this would put undue resource and financial pressure on restoration projects. This would also require a change to the current licencing process, or additional legislation. This option would in particular negatively affect smaller scale community led projects. However, monitoring requirements will be considered as part of the development of any legislative protection mechanism for restoration.

Sectors/Groups affected

There is potential for impacts on a range of sectors and groups if there is an increase/acceleration in restoration activity as a result of the plan. This includes organisations and groups directly involved in undertaking marine restoration activities, and “traditional” marine sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, energy industries, and marine and coastal tourism. The latest published figures associated with Scotland’s marine economy are available on the Scottish Government website. There could also be impacts for relevant public bodies and regulators who have duties/functions associated with the marine and coastal environment.