The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the Future of National Parks. Niamh Coyne, Conservation Planner explains a bit more about RSPB Scotland’s response and the exciting opportunity this consultation presents to strengthen the role of National Parks to deliver for nature, climate and people.
Scotland currently has two National Parks – The Cairngorms, and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs. Our National Parks include some of Scotland’s best places for landscapes, nature and people. They support a wide range of important wildlife and complement Scotland’s network of protected nature sites, with vast areas of good quality semi-natural habitats.
Scotland’s National Parks already cover 7% of Scotland’s land; therefore, inevitably they will play a major role in our efforts to tackle the nature and climate emergency. And we have much work to do. Despite Scotland’s spectacular landscapes and wildlife forming a key part of our national identity, we continue to witness the unprecedented decline of nature at home here in Scotland as well as globally. In fact, Scotland was ranked a near rock bottom 212th of 240 countries and territories on how intact our biodiversity remains. Some of this loss of nature is historical, but more recent evidence shows we are also losing nature now, with 49% of species in Scotland having declined in abundance since 1994.
We therefore welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to designate at least one new National Park within this parliamentary session and we are delighted that this has kickstarted a wider national discussion about how Scotland’s National Parks will help tackle the nature and climate emergency.
The existing Parks are already doing some great work, but it is absolutely critical that all of Scotland’s National Parks – new and existing – deliver much more for nature. They must lead the way on demonstrating how nature recovery can be delivered at scale and in a way that helps create a just transition locally and nationally.
National Parks have a unique opportunity to further protect nature to meet vital targets for nature recovery and net-zero in the coming years. Here’s a round-up from our response of some of the things we support in the consultation and what we want to see happen next for Scotland’s National Parks.
A crested tit in the Cairngorms National Park. Image credit: Louise Greenhorn (rspb-images.com)
A new overarching aim and refreshed selection criteria
Particularly significant and welcome is that the Scottish Government consultation has proposed to establish an overarching purpose for National Parks in Scotland, to require National Parks to have “leadership on nature recovery and a just transition to net zero”, as well strengthen and align the selection criteria for National Parks in Scotland. We strongly support these ideas, as they will undoubtedly provide clarity and guidance as to how National Parks in Scotland can play a key role in leading nature’s recovery at scale.
Updating the Aims in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000
The existing National Parks in Scotland were designated over 20 years ago. At that time, the severity of the nature and climate crisis was not well or widely understood: this refreshed approach of updating all of the existing aims to better reflect current evidence and terminology and to include a much clearer focus on protecting and restoring nature would therefore bring our National Parks in Scotland up to speed with the vital need to respond to the loss of nature and climate change at scale and at pace.
National Parks and delivering the 30x30 target through Nature Recovery Zones
The Scottish Government has committed to protect at least 30% of Scotland’s land and seas for nature by 2030, and highly protect 10%. Whilst RSPB Scotland and Scottish Environment LINK have been clear that National Parks should not count towards the target in their entirety and in their current form, there is a huge opportunity for National Parks to expand their role in nature restoration and protection at-scale. With support and reforms to build on the existing positive direction the parks are going in, more and more areas within the parks should meet the criteria and, over time, count towards the 30% target. It may be helpful to consider where National Parks can lead on nature restoration through ‘Nature Recovery Zones’, with active management for restoration and ecological links to build ecosystem wide resilience via a Nature Network.
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Image credit: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
To sum up, we really welcome the opportunity to participate in this consultation. Scotland’s National Parks must be exemplars of nature recovery at scale and delivering a just transition, so this consultation process continues to create an exciting opportunity to ensure that all our National Parks are fit for the future so that they can lead the way on delivering nature positive and net zero.
Header image credit: Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
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