Scottish biodiversity strategy: report to Parliament 2020 to 2024

4. Outcome 4: Wildlife, habitats and protected places

The special value and international importance of Scotland’s nature and geodiversity is assured, wildlife is faring well, and we have a highly effective network of protected places.

4.1 Ensure that management of protected places for nature also provides wider public benefits.

Scotland currently has 43 National Nature Reserves (NNRs), covering 154,250 hectares or 2% of Scotland’s land – see the Scotland's NNRs website for a map. Of the 43 NNRs, 35 are managed by an individual organisation and eight are jointly managed by one or more partners collectively forming the NNR partnership. Many of these bodies also manage other nature reserves, with local authorities playing a particularly important role for Local Nature Reserves (LNRs). In 2022, 16 new LNRs were designated in South Lanarkshire to protect nature and for people to learn about and enjoy nature close to home.

NNRs are an accolade designation, internationally recognised as some of the best sites for experiencing nature and protecting some of a Scotland’s most important wildlife and landscapes. NNRs provide a number of high-quality visitor facilities designed, promoted and managed to ensure that people can actively experience and learn more about nature without harming or disturbing wildlife. Across the suite, there are a growing number of examples of nature recovery, including species reintroductions (e.g. beavers at Loch Lomond) and peatland restoration (e.g. Ben Wyvis). Several NNRs are now at the heart of wider landscape-scale partnerships to manage deer and to regenerate native woodland (e.g. Creag Meagaidh, Beinn Eighe, and Invereshie and Inshriach) or improve water catchments (e.g. Loch Leven).

Scotland’s two National Parks are increasingly at the forefront of nature recovery, with new Park Plans for each incorporating ambitious plans for landscape-scale working building on projects such as the Great Trossachs Forest NNR and Cairngorms Connect (see also s1.1). Both National Parks have demonstrated their effectiveness to plan for, and manage, the increasing number of visitors since Covid-19 with a range of measures put in place to facilitate enjoyment of their areas while protecting their special qualities.

4.2 Align habitat restoration in Protected Areas with national goals for improving ecosystem health, with local priorities determined at the catchment or landscape scales.

In line with the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 requirement that all Protected Areas are effectively conserved and managed, the monitoring programme is being reformed to strengthen its focus on delivering healthy ecosystems. The new programme will be based on guiding principles to ensure that damaging pressures and threats are identified and addressed using the best available evidence at appropriate scales.

4.3 Integrate Protected Areas policy with action for wider habitats to combat fragmentation and restore key habitats.

The Biodiversity Strategic Framework for post-2020 presents a way forward on Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 that ‘by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of Protected Areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs)’.

The Framework for Nature Networks, published in 2023, sets out approaches to connecting important places for nature, including Protected Areas and other approaches, through ecological corridors and stepping-stones. This complements the draft 30 by 30 and sets out the principles to deliver this connectivity to address historic habitat fragmentation, support resilience and adaptation to climate change, and provide a vital tool to support nature restoration. Funding through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) supports the management of Protected Areas and the surrounding habitats both on a farm level and also collaboratively.

Nature networks will provide ecological connectivity between important areas for biodiversity to promote restoration, increase resilience and adapt to climate change. Delivery of 30 by 30 and Nature Networks has the potential to transform our approach to Protected Areas and develop new approaches to area-based conservation. This approach also presents opportunities to ensure that these areas are more resilient, better integrated with wider land management, and support delivery of multiple benefits within and beyond their boundaries.

4.4 Develop a wildlife management framework to address the key priorities for sustainable species management, conservation and conflict issues, including reintroductions and invasive non-native species.

A modernised approach to living with wildlife means recognising the changing role that land managers and practitioners across Scotland are playing in managing human / wildlife interactions while considering climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Shared Approach to Wildlife Management sets out how a range of organisations will work together to establish healthy and valued populations of wildlife. It incorporates seven principles to encourage participants to work together and listen to and respect the range of views associated with wildlife management. Scotland’s Beaver Strategy 2022-2045 and the Common Ground Forum on sustainable upland deer management are two examples of such co-operative approaches. The new Wildlife and Species Management Forum will enable land managers to work with Ministers and officials to resolve any issues arising from changes in approach to wildlife management.

The National Species Reintroduction Forum continues to examine strategic issues relating to conservation translocations in Scotland, and formal links have been developed with the England Species Reintroductions Taskforce set up by DEFRA (see also s8.2 for examples of successful species reintroductions and conservation translocations).

4.5 Involve more people than at present in this work and improve our understanding of the poorly known elements of nature.

There are significant challenges to maintaining healthy populations of many species in Scotland, most notably breeding seabirds, upland waders and alpine plant communities. Developing a better understanding of the reasons behind changes in the extent and distribution of species populations is critical to reversing downward trends. We would not be able to report on the State of Nature, understand the pressures nature faces or the effectiveness of our conservation action without the efforts of thousands of people, mostly volunteers, who collect data on wildlife, such as that used in the State of Nature report (see also ‘s9 Looking forward’). The forthcoming introduction of a requirement in 2025 for ‘Whole Farm Plans’ including Biodiversity Audits will require more land managers who access agricultural support to understand the extent and distribution of habitats and species on their land (see s5.2 below).

4.6 Monitoring this Outcome