We have been campaigning for improvements to the next Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to ensure that Scotland’s amazing species are on the road to recovery. Thanks to everyone that has made their voices heard. This blog summarises what your action has achieved so far, and what needs to happen next.
Competition for politicians' interest is fierce in these turbulent times but thanks to your help, MSPs have been left in no doubt that the public still expects action on nature. The recent #SaveScotSpecies e-action – where we asked you to choose your favourite of eight species and send a virtual postcard to your MSPs - had over 1,500 people taking it leading to well over 11,000 virtual postcards being sent to MSPs. The eight species in question were Puffin, Curlew, Hen Harrier, Swift, Beaver, Mountain Hare, Great Yellow Bumblebee, and the lichens of our rainforest.
These postcards not only offered examples of some of Scotland’s amazing and unique wildlife but importantly asked how MSPs how they will: ensure a programme of targeted species recovery within the new Scottish biodiversity strategy; ensure ambitious targets for species recovery in the promised Natural Environment Bill and; ensure budgets for nature restoration are protected.
Of course, we want to see ALL nature protected, and while the eight species are not a definitive list of Scotland’s favourite species, it was interesting to see that Great Yellow Bumblebee was the most chosen species in the campaign, with Puffin and Curlew following closely behind. It has also been really helpful for us see the different responses from MSPs which reflect different levels of knowledge on the crisis facing Scotland’s nature. With this in mind, our future lobbying efforts can be more targeted.
Great Yellow Bumblebee proved the most popular species of the campaign. Once widespread, they are now restricted to a few locations in north Scotland and on some islands. Credit: Colin Campbell.
We know that, with your help, actions like these – where people speak up for nature - can have a massive impact. For example, last summer, over 650 people wrote to the Minister for Biodiversity, Lorna Slater MSP, to ask for greater detail and urgency within the Biodiversity Strategy. In December, an improved updated draft was published, that most notably included a commitment to a national programme of ecosystem restoration. We hope to see improvement again following the recent e-action.
Recent weeks have seen significant scrutiny of several environmental policies. This has shown that we need to work harder to communicate the scale of the challenges we face. The nature crisis is not just some global faraway problem. In Europe, total abundance of breeding birds has declined by 550 million individuals since 1980. Here in Scotland, despite nature being a key part of our identity, it is not faring well. The Natural History Museum in London, with RSPB support, ran an analysis of how intact biodiversity is across 140 different countries and territories. Scotland was ranked 28th from the bottom. Whilst much of the nature loss picked up by this analysis is historical, it shows the dire need for us to help nature to regenerate. Without nature, we cannot survive, but we also know that helping nature to recover and thrive can benefit people in many ways when well-planned and done together with local communities.
Rather than going up, we are still losing nature now and this trend is clear when we look at some of our most loved and iconic wildlife: Scotland’s species. Nearly 50% of our species have declined in abundance since 1994. To give just one example, Scotland’s seabirds, of which we have significant proportions of global populations and an international responsibility to protect, are suffering. The Scottish breeding seabird indicator showed a nearly 50% decline between 1986 and 2016. And that was, of course, before the devastating impact of Avian Influenza. We must keep reminding ourselves that the need to act for nature is urgent.
Puffins are one of Scotland's most iconic species, but like many seabirds, their future is under threat. Credit: Katie Nethercoat.
The Scottish Government is set to consult on a final draft of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and the first delivery plan over the summer. We hope to see all of your voices have been listened to and that there is a clear commitment to a national programme of species recovery, as well as a clear action plan set out for both that and the programme of ecosystem restoration. We need the Scottish Government to adopt a twin-track approach to tackling the nature crisis: an ambitious programme of ecosystem restoration and a national programme of species recovery. Only with these two approaches working together can we ensure the best future for Scotland’s nature.
The next big step in the journey to restoring nature in Scotland will be the introduction of a Natural Environment Bill. This will, for the first time, set legal targets for preventing species going extinct due to human activities, and for improving wildlife habitats. We will be doing all we can to secure the right ambition and the right action.
We firmly believe that together we can succeed.
For further background to the campaign, please see here. You can also read our species Q&As with staff for each species (curlew, puffin, mountain hare, great yellow bumblebee, Scotland’s rainforest lichens, hen harriers, beavers and swifts.
Header image shows a collage of all eight species included in the campaign: Puffin, Mountain Hare, Curlew, Beaver, Hen Harrier, lichens, Swift and Great Yellow Bumblebee.