Site based conservation, including protected areas, are a key tool for conserving and restoring nature and new peer-reviewed science provides further evidence about how important protected areas are for species. Other recent reports have set out key actions for the Scottish Government to improve our protected areas. In this blog Isobel Mercer, Senior Policy Officer for RSPB Scotland, summarises the latest findings for protected areas on land.
Our best places for nature
Protected areas are often our best remaining places for nature. These nature sites receive legal protection from damage and require specific management, because they have been identified as being particularly important for biodiversity.
In Scotland there are over 1,800 protected areas, covering 18% of Scotland’s land and targeted at protecting a range of species and habitats, such as carbon-rich blanket bog, Caledonian pinewood, golden eagle and freshwater pearl mussel. Not all our protected areas are effectively managed or working as well for nature as they should be, with around 65% of the species, habitats or geology that these sites are special for in a good condition. There are a range of different protected areas for nature in Scotland, including nationally important Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), and internationally important European sites known as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
Image credit: iStock
New science continues to show protected areas are vital for threatened species
This week, two new peer-reviewed papers were published that provide important further evidence about protected areas.
One paper, published by RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), looked at whether there was a link between species abundance and legal protections in Britain. The paper found that the birds in most trouble do indeed fare better in SSSIs than they do outside of protected areas. Importantly, the paper also found that threatened birds are doing even better within European sites, which receive a higher level of protection. The paper also found potential evidence of a ‘spill-over effect’ where protected areas boost populations beyond their boundaries. What’s significant is that this finding applied across the species identified as red or amber on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern, and thus of high conservation importance, not just the species that had been specifically protected at the sites. This is a significant finding that tells us our protected areas are essential not just for protecting the best of what we have left, but also in helping restore nature.
A second paper by the BTO reinforced these findings, confirming that places with more protected land are home to more species and higher numbers of birds. Importantly, it also reported that breeding success was greater in protected areas for some species.
These papers both therefore provide critical further evidence about the that protected areas play in supporting species, within and importantly beyond their boundaries. Given that 49% of species in Scotland have declined since 1994, this evidence is important in showing us that protected areas continue to be one of the best tools in our toolkit for supporting species. You can read more about these papers in this blog by Green Alliance.
Image credit: Andy Hay
Improving our protected areas in Scotland
World leaders are currently gathered at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, to agree a new global deal for nature. This new agreement will hopefully include a target to protect 30% of the planet’s land sea for nature by 2030, known as ‘30 by 30’. The Scottish Government have already agreed to this pledge in 2020, promising to protect at least 30% of Scotland’s land and sea for nature by 2030, and highly protect 10%. The UK is also signed up to the target.
The Scottish Government are now embarking on a process to decide how to deliver this target on land. The first stage of this is a ‘co-design process’ led by NatureScot involving a series of workshops with a wide range of stakeholders to gather views. Staff from RSPB Scotland and other Scottish Environment LINK members have been attending these workshops and we look forward to seeing the outputs. It is vital that the Scottish Government gets this process right. There is a huge opportunity to support nature’s recovery through this target, but to realise that potential plans for 30 by 30 must be robust, ambitious and most importantly delivered upon.
Image credit: Ben Andrew
What do we want to see?
Two key reports have been published recently which set out our key asks for 30 by 30. RSPB’s report ‘A World Richer in Nature’ sets out our vision for a nature positive world by 2030. For protected areas, the report states that “the governments of the UK need to ensure that protected areas are not just lines on a map, but are our very best sites where nature can thrive through proper protection and good management. To achieve this the Government need to designate better, bigger, more and joined up protected areas and recognise and value their benefits”. The report sets out key steps for achieving this across the UK countries.
This week a further key report was published by Scottish Environment LINK, setting out a roadmap for making 30 by 30 meaningful in Scotland. The report says that, as well as increasing the coverage and quantity of protected areas, and exploring new ways to protect land for nature, it is the quality of our best nature sites that is vital to make the 30 by 30 target effective.
The report calls for:
This blog just talks about protected areas on land, but marine protected areas are also vital for nature – read more about our hopes for improving Marine Protected Areas here.
Header image credit: Andy Hay