In this guest blog, Paul Walton, Head of Species and Habitats, explains why 2023 has been such a big year for nature in Scotland and how 2024 could be even more important.
The past 12 months have seen extraordinary projects delivering directly for nature on the ground across Scotland, through cooperation and partnership, working at scale and at pace. Many were celebrated at this year’s Nature of Scotland Awards event a few weeks back. Since our inception, RSPB Scotland has been engaged in practical conservation work like this, on our nature reserves and beyond, collaborating with communities, land managers and many partner organisations.
To highlight just a few – the Biosecurity for LIFE project on seabird islands is embedding critical safeguards for key breeding birds; Scotland’s Peatland Programme is restoring ecosystems to benefit both wildlife and carbon storage; Species on the Edge is partnering with communities to roll out ambitious action for wildlife around our coasts; Corncrakes are on the increase again in the west, and new understanding of Corn Buntings is helping farmers in the east provide nest sites and food for the species, alongside agricultural production. We thank all our members, supporters, partners, collaborators and funders for the opportunities and action we undertake together for nature.
But we know that to truly restore nature we need systems change and this is something that the whole of society must come together to do. This must include scaling up conservation action to deliver transformative progress across Scotland – and this must be driven and supported by a step-change in national policy and law, which only the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament can deliver.
2023 has been a pivotal year in building appreciation and understanding of the natural world, and in defining what must be done to halt losses and restore species and ecosystems. The Wild Isles documentary series brought home to huge new audiences – literally, and with immense power and poignancy - the staggering natural treasures we still have on these islands, especially in Scotland.
The 2023 State of Nature in Scotland report delivered the best possible evidence base on how these treasures are faring now, the scale of historic and ongoing nature losses, how we compare with the rest of the world and the conservation challenges facing society. The outputs are sobering.
The latest State of Nature in Scotland report revealed an average decline in abundance of 15% across well monitored species, and one in nine Scottish species are at rist of being lost.
The recent Seabird Census report - Seabirds Count - focused down on the species group for which Scotland, arguably, has most urgent international responsibility – and the findings are genuinely shocking.
Seabirds count revealed so many of Scotland’s seabirds are in trouble. In just the last 20 years decreases ranged from 11% to 79% including a decline of at least 21% for the much-loved Atlantic Puffin. Chantal Macleod-Nolan
Yes, we still have incredible natural wonders in Scotland, but we are eroding them to such an extent that, on current trajectories, future generations of Scots will inhabit an environment impoverished in nature – with all the associated costs to health, wellbeing, culture and economy.
Growing understanding and appreciation brings genuine hope. There are signals now in Scotland that nature positive change, at the transformative scale and pace so badly needed, is finally within our grasp. There has been a major shift in Scottish Government language on nature – now unequivocally acknowledging the urgency and scale of the nature and climate emergency here at home. The Parliament has just passed at Stage 1 debate the outline of new, and a forthcoming Agriculture Bill represents an opportunity to fully engage our largest land-use sector in tackling the global emergency. The prospect of an end to industrial fishing for sandeels, the primary food source for so many of our beleaguered seabirds, is in sight and a new Scottish Seabird Conservation Strategy is in preparation.
The Government is currently consulting on wide and far-reaching policy reform including the new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 and its first Delivery Plan, with the prospect of new National Programmes of Species Recovery and Ecosystem Restoration; the function and future of National Parks; securing the global commitment to have 30% of land protected and well managed for nature by 2030; the creation of ecological connections through Nature Networks; the deployment of novel green finance mechanisms for nature.
And perhaps most significantly we have a Natural Environment Bill due next year – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to build stronger and more effective laws to protect and enhance biodiversity. This will contain proposals for legally binding Nature Restoration Targets for the first time in Scottish history – a hugely significant intention that could at last mainstream biodiversity considerations across government and across sectors and make genuine progress in tackling the nature and climate emergency a legal responsibility for this and future administrations.
There is still time to have your say in the big biodiversity consultation, so I encourage you all to respond if you can, as this is an incredibly important opportunity that has implications for everyone’s future here in Scotland. You can find more guidance and tips on how to respond to the consultation in our ‘how to guide’.
The potential for a step-change towards a nature positive Scotland is greater now than at any point in my 25-year career in conservation. 2023 has laid the ground for that change: 2024 can, and I hope and believe will, prove to be the year when that change starts to become a transformative reality. It is intensely exciting and deeply moving to sense a desire and commitment across Scottish society for progress for our incredible natural environment. Future generations of Scots need us, collectively, to make that desire a reality.
Main image: Corn Bunting singing from a fencepost. Ben Andrew