The Scottish Government is planning to introduce legally binding nature restoration targets in the upcoming Natural Environment Bill. In this blog Dr Paul Walton, Head of Habitats and Species, reflects on this major milestone and what it could mean for nature.
More than 30 years ago, nations of the world came together at the Rio Earth Summit to chart a new course for addressing environmental crises. The massive destruction of species, habitats and ecosystems across the planet had become too obvious to ignore, the need for urgent action increasingly clear. At Rio in 1992 the collective determination for change led to the creation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD).
Since then, each decade, the UN CBD – now signed by 193 countries representing virtually the entire planet – has laid out a painstakingly negotiated set of global Goals and Targets for tackling biodiversity loss. These have, of course, represented a compromise and many of us working in nature conservation have seen them as too weak, and too slow. Yet even with these modest ambitions, each decade, the nations of the world have, with staggering uniformity, failed to meet those targets. The loss of nature has continued apace - and Scotland is part of it, being ranked among the most nature-depleted countries in the world due to historic losses and with declines in nature continuing. Worldwide, we are now losing nature at a rate faster than ever before in human history.
Ironically, alongside the collective global failure to meet nature targets, our understanding of the implications of biodiversity loss has grown. We now grasp, far better than we did in 1992, how the living world delivers vital Ecosystem Services to humanity – from basics like air, water and food, to underpinning our economies through natural capital and the wellbeing of all our communities. We know that the climate crisis and the nature crisis are in fact two sides of the same emergency, that reversing nature loss will reduce atmospheric carbon and that limiting temperature rise will minimise impacts on wildlife. And we are beginning to appreciate the links between human connection with the natural world and human health and wellbeing.
The UN CBD countries again met at COP15 in Montreal in 2023, and a new set of international targets was agreed. With tighter wording and greater ambition, the targets are clearer. Despite past failures, there is a sense that international consensus may be reaching a critical mass and that there is new determination to make these targets deliver real results. Scotland has been part of this change, playing a leading role via the Edinburgh Declaration on the part sub-national governments must play in halting and reversing global biodiversity loss – a declaration now with 273 signatories across 40 countries.
Scotland has a chance to lead further, by turning the new global ambitions into legally-binding nature restoration targets. This will help transform the voluntary aspirations devised in Rio into firm and binding commitments that carry beyond short-term political timescales and help achieve the real change that is required for nature’s renewal.
Scotland's rainforests are one type of habitat that is in desperate need of restoration having been lost, damaged and fragmented over many years. Photo by Colin Wilkinson (rspb-images.com)
The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its plans for nature restoration targets as part of its larger consultation on a Biodiversity Framework. The consultation proposes to bring forward a Natural Environment Bill in 2024 to set nature restoration targets. This could and should be as big a moment for nature as setting the target to meet net zero by 2045 was for climate. Every voice counts. So, if you want to respond to the consultation you can read our ‘how to guide’ blog to find out more including our thoughts on the targets.
As a conservationist just starting out in 1992, I can see the critical milestone that we are just now reaching. I remember the hope generated around global ambition back then, and I remember the decades of disappointment that have followed. But I believe that the world is now maturing towards a better future, where we integrate nature as a core consideration in all areas. Nature is central to Scotland’s ambitions for food and energy security and healthier communities. We know what needs to be done and we know how to do it. Now is the time to make our shared ambitions a reality in Scotland.
Dr Paul Walton is Head of Habitats and Species for RSPB Scotland.
Header image: Island in background and rocky cliffs in the foreground with many hundreds of seabirds flying around and sat on the sea by Colin Wilkinson (rspb-images.com)