Scottish Biodiversity Strategy: report to Parliament 2017 to 2019

2. Action delivery and progress

The following sections provide an overview of biodiversity action across the seven outcomes over the last three years and describes the progress that has been made in meeting the outcomes of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy 2020 Challenge.

This assessment is supported by a series of biodiversity state and people engagement indicators, which were produced by a working group chaired by RSPB following the publication of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy in 2004. These indicators, alongside other data and trends, provide an evidence base from which to prioritise and develop actions. A suite of Ecosystem Health Indicators has also been developed and published, providing further information on the status of our environment at national and regional scales, which are discussed below in section 3.12.

The following keys should be used to understand the indicators presented in this assessment.

Indicator Performance Rating Key

Performance Improving

Performance Maintaining

Performance Worsening

Performance to be confirmed

Indicator in development

A Summary of the status of all indicators is provided in Annex 2.

In reading this section, it should be noted that measurable environmental change often takes place over a number of years. Some data collection used for indicators and trends are therefore collated on relatively long timeframes and as such not all indicators have been updated during this reporting period. The latest data are identified in the 'Updated Date column'. Indicator data require quality assurance and analysis and this too can add a time delay between data being recorded and incorporated into indicators. Some indicators have been archived and others superseded.