Marine and coastal restoration plan consultation: Scottish Government response

Theme 5 – Evidence and monitoring

Headlines from analysis

At least 70% of those responding rated objectives in this theme as important to some extent, with the exception of “Explore potential contribution of citizen science to data collection and monitoring” which 54% of those responding rated as important to some extent. At least 78% of respondents thought that each of the four actions in this theme should be included in the plan, with the highest percentage (83%) saying that “Work with projects and research institutions to develop and share user friendly, standardised data collection best practices for before, during and post-restoration” should be included in this plan.

Response

It was clear from the consultation that respondent’s welcome action to support and improve data collection and monitoring, and raised valuable points for implementation of the plan. Key points raised were about the need for a proportionate approach to implementing action to support evidence gathering and reporting, while others noted that citizen science and new technologies can play a role in reducing the cost and effort associated with evidence gathering and monitoring.

Ensuring that data collection processes are easy to understand and implement on the ground will be critical to ensure adequate capacity and quality of data collected. This could include not only guidance to support best practices on monitoring, but also in relation to data flows and accessibility. Respondents also flagged the importance of monitoring the impacts of restoration from social and economic perspectives as well as environmental, with some noting that learning from instances where restoration efforts are not successful is also important. We agree that this is key to support learning from experience and will explore how we can facilitate this, for example through user-friendly, standardised monitoring and data collection. We will also look into the point made that while existing guidance is available, there is a backlog of inputting data into national databases.