Strategic Biodiversity Framework Delivery Plan 2024–2030

Objective 1: Accelerate Restoration and Regeneration

Large-scale ecosystem restoration across our land, freshwater and seas is at the heart of our efforts to tackle the nature-climate crisis in Scotland. Healthy and restored ecosystems will significantly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and help us adapt to the climate change which is already happening. The restoration of ecosystems in urban areas is as important as that in rural areas. We need to allow the flow of species that enhance ecosystem health and resilience across different habitats and landscapes. Ecosystems need to be ecologically connected across and between rural, urban and peri-urban landscapes, and this will require changes to the way we plan and manage the green and blue spaces of our towns and cities.

Work is already in progress across Scotland to restore, regenerate and connect ecosystems and habitats including, for example, ambitious woodland creation and peatland restoration programmes, but we urgently need to accelerate and expand the scale of our efforts.

Priority Actions

The most significant actions to realise Objective 1 are set out below.^[1] More detail on supporting actions is set out in Annex 1 . We will:

• Introduce Statutory Nature Restoration Targets. Through the Natural Environment Bill we will put in place a framework for statutory nature targets to help drive action.
• Introduce a programme of Ecosystem restoration including:
  • Using spatial evidence identify and facilitate six exemplar large scale landscape restoration partnership projects with significant woodland components by 2025 and establish management structures, with restoration work progressing by 2030.
  • Implement Scotland’s strategic approach for Scotland’s rainforest which aims to improve its condition and health so that it can regenerate and expand whilst providing benefits to communities.
  • Continue our Peatland ACTION programme investing £250 million over 10 years to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peat by 2030.
• Develop and implement the Scottish Plan for Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) Surveillance, Prevention and Control, and secure wider support measures to enable long- term effective INNS removal at scale. INNS management and damage costs increase rapidly over time as new species arrive and established ones continue to spread due to many factors, including as a consequence of climate change. Investing in prevention provides economic returns up to fifty times higher than trying to manage an INNS after it arrives.
• Increase resilience in coastal and marine systems by reducing key pressures and safeguard space for coastal habitat change. Actions that provide naturally functioning coastal habitats and landforms will reduce key pressures on the coast and allow for natural change and adaptation to sea level rise and coastal erosion. Tackling marine litter and plastics, noise, other marine contaminants and seabed disturbance will provide healthier marine ecosystems that can maximise support for biodiversity.
• Some Local Authorities are developing Coastal Change Adaptation Plans (CCAPs), and where these are produced these should promote national, regional, and local partnerships which deliver adaptive coastal management with benefits for flood and coastal change management and wider benefits to biodiversity. Where conditions are appropriate, CCAPs should also include naturally functioning coastal landforms and habitats to reduce pressures, allow recovery and improve their health and resilience to enable natural functioning and associated biodiversity benefits.
• Substantially reduce deer densities across our landscapes in parallel with ensuring sustainable management of grazing by sheep to improve overall ecosystem health. Reducing herbivore impacts is one of the biggest levers we have in Scotland for reducing terrestrial biodiversity loss and enabling regeneration at scale. It is a prerequisite for many of our nature restoration activities including peatland and woodland restoration.
• We will work with:
  • the deer management sector, to secure average densities of 2 deer per km² in priority woodland, 5-8 deer per km² in each of the Deer Management Groups (DMGs) in the Cairngorms National Park, and more widely a maximum of 10 deer per km² nationally by 2030. This will require a minimum increase of 25-30% on current cull levels sustained over several years. Careful alignment of incentives and regulatory levers will be needed to achieve optimal herbivore densities and reduced grazing and browsing impacts to support biodiversity outcomes.
  • the agriculture sector, under the Agriculture Reform Programme, to co-design rural support schemes to support optimal herbivore densities and reduced grazing and browsing impacts (deer and sheep) to enhance biodiversity outcomes in the uplands whilst sustaining income streams for farmers.
• Enhance water and air quality and undertake water management measures to enhance biodiversity and reduce negative impacts. We will address pollution, water and air quality, and extremes of water availability, through a range of mechanisms to support the restoration of ecosystems and provide wider societal benefits. There are many current practices that farmers are undertaking to manage water quality including: establishing cover crops, maintaining water margins, sustainable drainage systems. Key actions include: protecting soils and enhancing soil health; reducing and targeting the use of inputs; and protecting water courses from run off. Building soil organic carbon helps retain moisture in the soils, maintaining a good diversity of living roots in the soil improves soil structure and water infiltration. Peatland restoration also makes a significant contribution.
• Ensure grouse moor management sustains healthy biodiversity. We will implement the remaining provisions in the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 which includes provisions to address raptor persecution and ensure that the management of grouse moors and related activities are undertaken in an environmentally sustainable and welfare conscious manner, by trained individuals.