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Rewilding isn’t about removing communities; it’s about restoring nature to their heart. This joint position statement by the SRA and Community Land Scotland calls for the land reform and rewilding movements to explore their “extensive common ground”.

Scotland has a rich history of understanding how deeply people, the land, nature, and culture are intertwined. In Gaelic, this understanding is captured in a word: Dùthchas. Dùthchas also speaks to respect and responsibility. Of people who can have a real say in their future, and who consider the interests of future generations.

But has our nation lost its way here? Perhaps. Today Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. And it has one of the world’s most concentrated land ownership patterns, with some 400 people controlling half of its privately owned land. These issues are entwined, and there is an urgency to address both.

With many once-rich habitats wrecked and one-in-nine species facing extinction, and with the control of so much land vested in so few hands, business as usual is not an option in the face of the nature and climate emergencies.

Yet meanwhile, growing numbers of communities are re-embracing those deep-rooted bonds encapsulated by Dùthchas.

And rewilding – large-scale nature restoration – has been surging, with the most exciting and successful initiatives empowering, inspiring and supporting individuals and communities, just as much as they restore nature and address climate breakdown.

Communities are restoring habitats, from native woodlands to peatland to rivers. They are saving wildlife, creating sustainable jobs, and forging nature-based solutions to tackle increased floods, heatwaves and crop failures in a warming world.

With this growing groundswell of hope, there is a growing imperative for Scotland’s land reform and rewilding movements to explore their extensive common ground, and coalesce around upscaled action to achieve shared goals of thriving and empowered communities, healthy ecosystems, and climate action.

That common ground includes an understanding that nature is our life support system, and that people and land are vital national assets. That community-led nature restoration is essential, and should be supported and increased – ideally on land communities themselves own or manage.

It includes an understanding that rewilding should support nature and people together. Rewilding should enrich lives, and is most successful and resilient when community-led or when there meaningful and significant community involvement from the start – ensuring communities have more of a say and stake in their environmental future, with benefits including health and wellbeing, nature-based jobs and re-peopling.

In the Highlands, for example, re-peopling and job creation are central to Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, and to the charity’s work with others in the community and with Rewilding Europe in the Affric Highlands landscape.

With just 3% of its rural land community owned, Scotland also needs to shift the dial to enable more community buyouts. Through our own direct and separate involvement with two major examples – Isle of Eigg, and Langholm Moor in Dumfries and Galloway – we have both seen first-hand how inspiring, transformative and positive such buyouts can be.

Since its buyout in 1997, Eigg – managed on behalf of the community by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust – has become acclaimed as a model for sustainable, forward-thinking approaches, benefiting local people together with the island’s rich habitats and wildlife.

At Langholm, south Scotland’s largest community buyout – led by the Langholm Initiative charity, and completed in 2022 – has led to the creation of the 10,500-acre Tarras Valley Nature Reserve for community regeneration, nature recovery, and climate action.

Community buyouts can increase community wealth, resilience of land, and investment into local businesses. This contrasts with widespread decline of communities and nature under Scotland’s history of concentrated private land ownership and extractive economic practices.

Ultimately, that concentrated land ownership model isn’t just unfair – it’s unfit for purpose for tackling the nature and climate crises. It has contributed to biodiversity loss historically, and is a barrier to the re-peopling that rural communities so badly need.

Local communities are invested in, and usually best-placed for, ensuring the places they live are ecologically diverse, and in working for the creation and local retention of community wealth. Distant landowners and shareholders are often not well-placed or attuned to ecological or social needs ‘on the ground’.

The Northwoods Rewilding Network, led by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, is another example of communities contributing to nature restoration, with 25% of the network’s land partners being community owned.

There is a place for large-scale rewilding projects which are not community-led too. This is essential for restoring 30% of nature at land and sea by 2030. Some are doing superb work for biodiversity. But they should have genuine community consent, agency, and benefits.

Importantly – while large-scale nature recovery provides the greatest impacts for biodiversity – we should turn the page on outdated, inaccurate narratives suggesting landscape-scale restoration means landscape-scale land-ownership.

Scotland’s almost unique model of huge monopoly landholdings has historically degraded our ecology, communities and rural economy. There is no impartial evidence this model delivers a wide range of public or ecological benefits. Instead, we need collaboration and shared understanding, recognising that more people connected to the land means better outcomes for people and nature.

Meanwhile, nature restoration in smaller and urban settings is important too, and brings nature-rich connectivity to landscapes.

Our movements also share concerns over soaring rural land prices, with estates and hill farms purchased by wealthy corporations, as an investment or for commercial forestry. A few corporations, pursuing carbon credits or subsidies and grants, have sought to associate themselves with rewilding, even though activities such as planting the wrong trees in the wrong places are categorically not rewilding, and are sometimes greenwashing.

This threatens social justice and actual rewilding alike. It risks more inequality and concentrated rural land ownership, with communities, younger farmers, local businesses, and charities priced out.

Going forwards, we need transformational, fundamental shifts in land use and ownership, with communities involved at the heart of decisions about land use change. Our political leaders need to be bold and ambitious.

Forthcoming legislation – including the Land Reform Act, Agriculture and Rural Communities Act, and Community Wealth Building Act – provides opportunities for joined-up thinking to benefit nature, climate and food security, and ensure equity for local communities.

So, can we re-embrace Dùthchas as we rewild and repeople? To revitalise and regenerate our communities? To help Scotland be a world leader in restoring land and seas to health – a more just, greener country where empowered communities and nature thrive together?

We believe we can. The land reform and rewilding movements need to work together closely, with mutual understanding and respect. Engaging with Dùthchas now – embedding rewilding and land reform in legislation, strengthening the social capital of our communities, and working across sectors through diversified land-ownership – will be a gift to ourselves and future generations.

ENDS

Ailsa Raeburn is Chairperson of Community Land Scotland, and Chair of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust.

Kevin Cumming is a member of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance steering group, Rewilding Director of Rewilding Britain, and Vice Chair of the Langholm Initiative.

This article was first published in The National on 25 February 2024.

This opinion piece calls for the Scottish Government to remain resolute and ambitious on its nature and biodiversity targets.

When it comes to stunning landscapes and seascapes, Scotland is of course blessed with a world-class great outdoors.

But for all the picture postcard views, things are not well. Our natural world is in big trouble. So much so that we are living in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Biodiversity and bio-abundance – the web of life of which we are a part, and on which we depend for pretty much everything, including our survival – are being shredded by our intensive mis-management, over-exploitation and pollution of land and sea. Leaving natural processes broken, habitats wrecked, and plant and animal species in freefall.

The recent publication of the authoritative ‘State of Nature Report 2023’ highlighted in no uncertain terms the sheer scale of our loss of nature, and the dire condition of so much of Scotland’s wildlife. The report is a thoroughly depressing read. The fact that one in nine species are threatened with extinction was just one of its shocking conclusions.

“Importantly though, it’s not too late to fix the nature crisis. With urgent and bold action, including through rewilding – large-scale nature recovery – we can still turn this around.”

Across Scotland, rewilding is surging – offering a major solution for tackling the nature and climate emergencies, while offering a cascade of other benefits for people too. Big wins can include jobs and community wealth-building; better health and wellbeing; repeopling of rural areas; flood reduction; urban cooling; and ensuring pollination of our food crops.

Through an inspiring array of rewilding projects – some well-established, some just emerging – charities, farmers, crofters, communities, landowners and others are creating a growing groundswell of hope all over.

Yet the scale and pace of biodiversity loss and climate breakdown mean we need to do much, much more at a national level, with the full involvement and support of our political leaders.

And a major development this autumn offers us the chance to ensure just that. The Scottish Government has launched a consultation about its plans to tackle the nature emergency by halting biodiversity loss by 2030 – setting Scotland on a ‘nature positive’ pathway so that nature is restored by 2045.

Will the proposals make a difference? It’s easy to be cynical. Generations of politicians have downgraded or sidelined nature, or been complicit in its destruction. Until recently too, the Scottish Government has been largely missing from the rewilding story, although fortunately that now looks to be changing.

There is no doubt that the Government’s proposals are ambitious, and appear to be a genuine attempt to tackle a growing threat that the world has been aware of since the 1960s. The plan is certainly in stark contrast with the appalling row-back on nature protection being inflicted on England by the UK Government. 

“If delivered and used as a springboard for further action, Scotland could even become recognised as a global leader in nature restoration – a ‘rewilding nation’ which works with nature rather than against it.”

The proposals include a commitment to protecting 30% of Scotland’s land and sea for nature by 2030. We have protected land and sea already and much of it is in poor condition, but the good news is there is a commitment to managing – in other words restoring – this land and sea for nature too.

The government also intends to hold itself to account by developing legally binding nature restoration targets. This should pile on the pressure to ensure the proposals are delivered in full.

So, taking a glass half full attitude, what could Scotland be like by 2030 if the plan is fully delivered?

There will certainly be at least one new national park, with nature restoration as its primary purpose. 

There will be six other areas where nature restoration is taking place at pace – such as the vast Affric Highlands landscape, from Loch Ness to the west coast, that Trees for Life, Rewilding Europe and a coalition of communities and local landowners are rewilding.

And there will be ‘nature networks’ – enabling wildlife to move and spread though the landscape, instead of being isolated in islands of nature among a sea of intensive agriculture. 

Not only that, but with related agricultural subsidy reform we could see widespread nature-positive farming, fishing and forestry. This is vital, because these activities are currently the main drivers of nature loss.

If the Scottish government delivers on its commitments to reducing deer numbers to levels that finally allow trees to grow, and to tackling outdated grouse moor management practices such as muirburn and crimes such as raptor persecution, we could really turn a corner.

Importantly, the Government’s plan acknowledges that its stated ambition requires investment from the private sector as well as government support. 

Here, the proposals need a clearer, robust commitment that such financial support will genuinely help to restore nature in a verifiable way. It must not be allowed to be ‘greenwashing’, in which corporations – chasing the green gold of subsidies and carbon credits – wrongly claim to be rewilding while doing nothing of the sort. Such schemes often involve planting the wrong trees in the wrong place, and force up land prices in ways that threaten communities, social justice and rewilding alike.

People are key to rewilding, and the Government plan encourages communities to consider taking on publicly owned national nature reserves and other areas. Here locally led partnerships between communities and non-governmental organisations should be fostered – so that community engagement, enthusiasm and knowledge is combined with the skills and experience of NGOs.

Beyond all this, the Government must be resolute and robust in its defense of its proposals, and ensure that statutory targets are ambitious as well as achievable. 

This matters, because there is growing pushback on rewilding from vested interests with an anti-nature agenda, often with the support of ambitious politicians. These voices are becoming louder, motivated perhaps by a growing realisation that the demand for positive change by wider society is becoming overwhelming.

The Government must not buckle when so much is at stake – not just for nature, but for our own future too.

By Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance and Chief Executive of Trees for Life.

This piece originally appeared in The Sunday National on 12 November 2023.

Photo by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture

The Scottish Government is seeking views on a range of topics and proposals related to biodiversity and tackling the nature emergency in Scotland. We’ve told them we want to see Scotland declared a Rewilding Nation, with 30% of land and seas committed to rewilding by 2030.

How you can help

A consultation is open for views until 14th December 2023. Use the consultation to tell the Scottish Government you’re backing the dream of a Rewilding Nation.

To help you get started with submitting your answers online, we’ve created a guide response for you to use below.

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is submitting a response to the consultation, and we’re encouraging you to do the same, with the support of our guidance below. 

Your consultation response

To help you get started with submitting your answers online here, we’ve created a guide response for you to use below – but adding your own thoughts will send a more powerful message to the Scottish Government. 

Part A – Section One: Scottish Biodiversity Strategy

No questions.

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 1

No questions.

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 2

2a. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: accelerate restoration and regeneration?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

I am calling on the Scottish Government to declare Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation, with 30% of land and seas rewilding.

We desperately need some areas where the balance shifts in favour of nature. We also need areas where people and nature coexist, with a mosaic of nature-friendly land and marine uses allowing nature to bounce back while communities thrive. When it comes to marine restoration, additional actions are needed, including active regeneration (seagrass planting, oyster reintroduction, etc).

Rewilding is a global movement that has inspired people across Scotland to take action to restore nature. Scotland has the experience, the space, the resources and the responsibility to rewild. Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself. It can only be achieved by recognising that we must encourage a balance between people and nature so that we can thrive together. In Scotland, rewilding and repeopling go hand in hand. 

2b. Are the key actions, to support the objective: accelerate restoration and regeneration, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Ideas like rewilding, the large-scale restoration of nature to the point where it can take care of itself, could turbocharge efforts to restore and regenerate Scotland’s biodiversity. The actions proposed on marine restoration and regeneration need to be bolder and more urgent.

I call on the Scottish Government to consider rewilding interventions in support of its objective to accelerate restoration and regeneration in order to end biodiversity loss by 2030. 

2c. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer:

Actions that embrace scale, like creating landscape restoration partnerships and restoring precious habitats like Scotland’s rainforests and Caledonian pinewoods, will have the most impact. In our seas, only “delivering additional protection for spawning and congregation areas” will deliver any impact.

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 3

2d. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: protect nature on land and at sea across and beyond protected areas?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Despite decades of effort, Scottish wildlife continues to decline. Layers of legislation, intricate classification schemes and an army of volunteers have not halted, let alone reversed, biodiversity loss. Rewilding offers a new, complementary and affordable approach to traditional conservation and nature restoration methods. On land and at sea, we need to regenerate nature at sacle – not focus on protecting small site designations.

I call on the Scottish Government to support rewilding and embed its principles throughout its actions, frameworks and policies. 

2e. Are the key actions, to support the objective: protect nature on land and at sea across and beyond protected areas, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Protecting nature through traditional conservation alone puts nature in a holding pattern. Our existing landscape designations have not prevented nature loss. The lack of management measures for marine sites has held back the recovery of Scotland’s seas. In order to stop the decline of nature, we have to think about not only protecting nature but also restoring the dynamic natural processes that make up a healthy ecosystem. In contrast to a species-focused, fine-tuning approach, rewilding takes a looser, systems-based approach. Rewilding focuses on the large-scale restoration of ecosystems. It aims to give nature the space and freedom to recover, grow and adapt on its own terms. Natural processes drive change, leading to more resilient ecosystems. 

That is how nature ‘protects’ itself. I call on the Scottish Government to lead nature lead.

2f. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer:

A refreshed approach to how we manage National Parks, National Nature Reserves and protected areas will have a great deal of impact on the space we leave for nature and our relationship with nature. 

Getting Nature Networks right could have a considerable impact on Scotland’s ambition to halt biodiversity loss. Nature Networks should be connected; at sufficient scale; and focused on the restoration of natural processes. Local authorities should be given the resources they need to make a success of Nature Networks. 32 Nature Networks consisting of connected sites managed for nature recovery, managed by skilled people, working along rewilding principles, could be transformative. 

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 4

2g. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: embed nature positive farming, fishing and forestry?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

In order for human activities like agriculture, forestry and fishing to survive climate breakdown, we need drastic ecosystem restoration on a huge scale. Across these land uses, we need policy frameworks focused on the goal of nature recovery. Achieving a balance between nature and people will be all but impossible without drastic action to restore nature – now. I call on the Scottish Government to urgently support rewilding across 30% of land and seas.

2h. Are the key actions, to support the objective: embed nature positive farming, fishing and forestry, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

There are many bold decisions that need to be made over the coming years. Between now and 2030, the steps we take will decide how ready we are as a nation to take on the challenges of an abruptly changing climate. Assuming that these actions are fully delivered, it might be possible for Scotland to slow the decline of biodiversity. In order to halt that decline – let alone reverse it – these actions must be part of a bolder vision for Scotland’s nature and people. I support the vision of a Rewilding Nation where 30% of land and seas are committed to rewilding.

2i. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer: 

The implementation of riparian buffers, fisheries management measures and encouraging the natural regeneration of woodlands are key actions that could help nature recover at scale.

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 5

2j. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: protect and support the recovery of vulnerable and important species and habitats?

 Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Ecosystems cannot function properly where certain ‘keystone’ species are missing. Failure to reintroduce key species will diminish our ability to end the decline of nature.  I call on the Scottish Government to embrace rewilding principles and look at what is missing from Scotland’s ecosystems. 

2k. Are the key actions, to support the objective: protect and support the recovery of vulnerable and important species and habitats, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Conservation is a vitally important activity and has preserved precious species in Scotland. It is incredible to see red squirrels, pine martens, water voles and other species flourishing. But it doesn’t always have to be down to humans. By targeting efforts at keystone species, we can turbocharge our efforts to halt biodiversity loss – and then reverse it. I call on the Scottish Government to embrace rewilding principles. 

2l. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer:

Actions focused on recovering, reintroducing and reinforcing key species will have the most impact. 

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 6

2m. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: invest in nature?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

The government must establish a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital. Community benefits are a crucial element of this. The government also needs to ensure that rewilding is supported by public spending and investment, particularly for smaller projects or community-led groups who struggle to access funds.

2n. Are the key actions, to support the objective: invest in nature, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

While I welcome the government’s planned actions on investing in nature, we believe that this needs to be ramped up again. Vital rewilding projects have achieved funding through the Nature Restoration Fund – more could be done. The government should also review how it supports rewilding projects through the rural subsidy framework. Funding for marine rewilding is also urgently needed.

2o. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer:

Investment in the rewilding workforce in general would significantly boost Scotland’s ability to meet its biodiversity targets. 

Part A – Section Two: Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan – Chapter 7

2p. Have we captured the key actions needed to deliver the objective: take action on the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

Strengthening the connection between people and nature is key. The global rewilding movement inspires hope and catalyses change. It is a straightforward, popular message. 

Rewilding is supported across Scotland. In a poll conducted for the Scottish Rewilding Alliance in 2020 by an independent polling company, Survation, they found that 76 percent supported the idea, with only 7 percent outright opposed. 

By declaring Scotland to be a Rewilding Nation, with 30% of its land and sea committed to rewilding, the Scottish Government will be inviting everyone to be part of the effort to restore nature. 

2q. Are the key actions, to support the objective: take action on the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, sufficient to put Scotland on track to ending the loss of biodiversity by 2030?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

The climate crisis has been mainstreamed across policy making in Scotland. When it comes to the nature crisis, we are still early on in that journey – and time is running out. 

In order to meet Scotland’s nature targets, we need to think bigger – and wilder. By tying all of the threads together into a cohesive vision – the world’s first Rewilding Nation – the government can inspire people to act. 

2r. Which actions do you think will have most impact?

Suggested answer: I welcome the proposed actions but call on the government to embrace rewilding as the thread that ties all the actions, policies, frameworks and systems together. 

Part A – Section Three: Nature Networks Policy Framework

3a. Do you have any comments on the Nature Networks Framework?

Suggested answer:

I welcome the establishment of Nature Networks. I encourage the government to work with councils to ensure that rewilding principles are embedded across these networks. With time to halt biodiversity loss running out, it’s imperative that we move from conserving nature to restoring and connecting nature.

Part A – Section Four: 30 by 30 Policy Framework

4a. Do you have any comments on the 30 by 30 Framework?

Suggested answer:

The selection and management of 30 by 30 sites should focus on nature recovery – and particularly on rewilding. 

Part A – Section Five: Impact Assessments

Skip section if needed.

Part B – Section Six: Statutory Targets for Nature Restoration

Suggested answer: Yes.

Suggested explanation:

I agree that statutory targets should provide clear focus, be ambitious and updateable. 

6b. The Targets Framework: Question: Do you agree with the criteria set out for the selection of targets?

Suggested answer: Yes.

Suggested explanation:

I agree with the criteria set out for the selection of targets. However, we would ask the government to prioritise ambition over alignment. Scotland could be a world leader in nature recovery. The targets set through this process should reflect that hope. 

6c. The Form of Targets: Do you agree statutory targets should include a combination of outcome targets and output targets?

Suggested answer: Yes.

6d. Examples of Potential Target Topics: Is the list of potential target topics sufficiently comprehensive in terms of the focus of proposed target areas and overall scope?

Suggested answer: No.

Suggested explanation:

In a nature emergency, we must use every tool in the box to address it. Rewilding is a potentially transformative land management tool that can be used to complement existing approaches. It is a growing global movement that inspires hope, catalyses change and provides significant opportunities for connecting people and nature. It should be a target topic.

6e. Do you have any other comments on the list of potential target topics?

Suggested answer: Yes.

Suggested explanation:

I would like to see these targets achieve real, lasting and widespread nature recovery in Scotland.

It is therefore our hope that in striving to achieve these targets, the government makes best use of every tool available to it. For example, in seeking to achieve targets around ecosystem integrity, it would be sensible to consider how the reintroduction of key missing species like lynx would help the government achieve that target. 

6f. Number of Targets Question: Do you agree with the proposal to have the smallest feasible number of targets which reflects the complexity of nature restoration?

Suggested answer: Yes.

Suggested explanation:

I agree that the number of targets should be as small as possible. It is therefore important to set targets that will have the maximum impact on a wide range of connected topics. 

Rewilding is a systems approach. It aims to give nature the space and freedom to recover, grow and adapt on its terms. The simplest possible target would be to ensure that 30% of Scotland is set on the path to rewilding. I call on the Scottish Government to declare Scotland a rewilding nation and set a target for 30% of land and sea to be committed to rewilding by 2030.

Part B – Section Seven: National Parks

7a. Purpose of National Park Authorities: Do you agree that the purpose of National Park authorities should be amended in order to emphasise the important leadership role that National Park authorities need to play in restoring nature and in mitigating and adapting to climate change?

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

We need a fresh approach to national parks in Scotland that is fit to meet the challenges facing us. I believe that the overarching purpose of a national park should be the restoration of nature, in order to halt biodiversity loss and mitigate the effects of climate breakdown. 

7b. Aims of National Parks – First National Park aim: Do you agree with these suggested changes to the first National Park aim?

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

I agree that it is appropriate to separate these aims and I support the mention of ecosystems within the first aim. 

7c. Second National Park aim: Do you agree with the suggested change to the second National Park aim?

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance supports the rewording of the existing aims to better reflect other changes to the vision, mission and overarching purpose of our national parks.

7d. Third National Park aim: Do you agree with the suggested change to the third National Park aim?

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

I support the rewording of the existing aims to better reflect other changes to the vision, mission and overarching purpose of our national parks.

7e. Fourth National Park aim: Do you agree with the suggested change to the fourth National Park aim?

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

I support the rewording of the existing aims to better reflect other changes to the vision, mission and overarching purpose of our national parks.

7f. The National Park ‘principle’ Do you agree that the National Park ‘principle’ set out in section 9(6) of the 2000 Act should be retained? 

Suggested answer: Agree.

7g. Relevance of the National Park aims and the National Park principle to other public bodies operating within National Parks: Do you agree that public bodies operating within the National Park should have regard to the proposed National Park aims?

Suggested answer: Agree.

7h. Do you agree that public bodies operating within the National Park should have regard to the National Park principle?

Suggested answer: Agree.

I support the idea that other public bodies within a national park should have regard to the National Park principle. National park authorities need the support of other public bodies within the park area in order to solve the many challenges ahead of them. 

7i. Duty on public bodies to support implementation of National Park Plans

Suggested answer: Agree.

Suggested explanation:

I support the strengthening of the effect of the duty on other public bodies. National park authorities need the support of other public bodies within the park area in order to solve the many challenges ahead of them. 

7j. General powers of National Park Authorities: Do you agree with the proposal that National Park Authorities should be able to enforce byelaw breaches within National Parks by issuing fixed penalty notices rather than referring them to local Procurators Fiscal?

Suggested answer: Agree.

7k. Do you think that any other changes should be made to the general powers of National Park authorities?

Skip if needed.

7l. Governance of National Parks: Do you agree with the proposed changes to the governance of National Parks? 

Skip if needed.

7m. Do you have any other comments that you would like to make about the aims, powers and governance of National Parks?

Skip if needed.

Part B – Section Eight: Impact Assessments

Skip if needed.

Photo: scotlandbigpicture.com

This opinion piece calls on our government and politicians to step up and ensure that Scotland’s commitments to nature and climate are delivered.

Over recent years, something remarkable has been unfolding across Scotland. Just a decade or so ago, few people were talking about rewilding. But the sea change since then has been dramatic.

Today, rewilding is everywhere – from dairy farms in Dumfriesshire finding new ways to live alongside nature, to community groups replanting seagrass in Argyll; from Sutherland crofters embracing wilder crofts, to estates in the Cairngorms National Park moving away from intensive field sports towards a wilder, richer future.

Few movements for positive social and environmental change have grown at this sort of pace. The reasons are varied, but a major one is that this is a groundswell of hope. Rewilding – large-scale nature recovery – offers one solution for tackling the overlapping nature and climate emergencies, together with a cascade of other benefits for people and communities.

These benefits include community wealth-building through jobs and economic opportunities, re-peopling rural areas, improved health and wellbeing, and multiple wins such as reduced flooding, urban cooling in our towns and cities, and ensuring pollination of our food crops.

Rewilding inspires people – individuals, communities, farmers, smallholders, charities, large estates and public bodies – to act. Some rewilding projects have been decades in the making, their landscapes now well on the road to recovery, while others are just emerging.

The rapidly expanding Northwoods Rewilding Network launched in 2021 by charity Scotland: The Big Picture, for example, already consists of 58 partners, including community sites, small farms, crofts and small landholdings. Rewilding Britain’s Rewilding Network, also launched in 2021, now brings together almost 100 Scottish rewilding projects, which are inspiring in their ambition, scope and diversity.

In the Highlands, Trees for Life has this year opened the world’s first rewilding centre at our Dundreggan estate in Glenmoriston. Re-peopling and engaging people with wild nature are key aims here, as they are in our work with the local community and landowners in the Affric Highlands initiative – Britain’s largest rewilding landscape, stretching from Loch Ness to the west coast.

Because of all this activity and action, Scotland is often seen internationally as a rewilding trailblazer. Thanks to rewilding, for example, National Geographic named the Highlands as one of its Best of the World destinations for 2023.

Bizarrely, however, a key player has been largely and notably missing from this unfolding story of possibility and renewal. This rewilding absentee is the Scottish Government, which has so far rarely acknowledged rewilding’s existence, let alone provided active support.

But change may be in the air. In July, the Scottish Government’s chief scientific adviser endorsed a definition of rewilding for use by the Government and wider public sector.

This definition, accompanied by a report from the James Hutton Institute, was a significant step forward for a government that had previously avoided using the word “rewilding”. Could this be a watershed moment in the story of rewilding in this country? Let’s hope so.

Let’s hope so because the Scottish Government’s rewilding blindspot has had real impacts on the country’s ability to address the nature and climate crises – including playing our role in putting into action the commitment to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030, agreed by the world’s governments at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference last December.

It’s true of course that the Government’s disinterest, caution or torpidity to date has not entirely held rewilding back. Rewilding inspires and empowers because we can all play a part, individually, in our communities, or by supporting rewilding charities, and without waiting for the gears of government to grind into action.

So yes, everywhere you look, Scotland is becoming wilder. Rewilders, often rooted in their communities, are helping to restore our peatlands, moorlands, wetlands, woodlands, rivers, lochs and seas.

But given the challenges that we face, this progress is not enough. Despite the growing praise around the world for Scotland’s rewilding ambitions, we still languish as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. For a long time now, we have not even been holding the line when it comes to halting the loss of our habitats and species, many of which are globally rare or even unique.

As a nation, we have fallen behind other countries where vast rewilding landscapes are repairing nature’s dynamic processes while creating a diverse range of jobs for local people.

It’s clear that we need our government and politicians to step up and ensure that Scotland’s commitments to nature and climate are delivered.

If we want to turn the biodiversity crisis around – if we want truly bold and ambitious nationwide action to restore our damaged landscapes and seascapes back to health – then we need the Government to be fully in the game, working with and supporting local communities, restoring habitats on public land and delivering legislation to ensure and reward nature restoration.

To underscore the potential here, let’s remember that between them, our government bodies manage 10% of Scotland’s land. Imagine the positive impact, for example, if Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) – which alone manages 640,000 hectares of Scotland – was properly resourced and politically backed to restore nature on a vast scale.

Here there is huge potential, from increasing native forest cover to welcoming back vital native species such as beavers to FLS’s extensive landholdings.

Let’s hope that the Scottish Government is catching up with what rewilding practitioners have known for a long time – in Scotland, we are well-placed to seize and showcase the benefits of working with nature rather than against it, and for restoring nature on a big scale.

Scotland has the choice and the opportunity to lead the way internationally, with 30% of the country’s land and seas enjoying nature recovery by 2030, and with everyone sharing in the ensuing benefits.

By stewarding Scotland’s land and seas back to fully functioning health, we can create a country where our communities and nature thrive together. The Government’s new-found willingness to talk about rewilding is extremely welcome, but it needs to be a key step on our journey to becoming the world’s first rewilding nation.

Steve Micklewright is convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance (www.rewild.scot) and chief executive of rewilding charity Trees for Life (treesforlife.org.uk). The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is a collaboration of more than 20 organisations which share a mission to enable rewilding at a scale new to Scotland.

This piece originally appeared in the Sunday National on 17th September and can be found online at http://www.thenational.scot/politics/23794255.change-may-air-governments-support-rewilding/

Photo from https://www.rawpixel.com/

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance welcomes the publication of the consultation on Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity. 

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance welcomes the publication of the consultation on Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity. This monumental document paves the way for Scotland to bring nature back from the brink. 

The newly published consultation document provides a plan that will benefit every part of Scotland – every person, every habitat, every animal, every plant. The Scottish Rewilding Alliance shares the view of the Scottish Government that our economy, jobs, health and wellbeing depend on our ability to tackle the extinction crisis. 

The Alliance is a collaboration between more than 20 organisations which share a mission to enable rewilding at a scale new to Scotland. The Scottish Rewilding Alliance will submit a response to the consultation on Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity that will focus on how rewilding can support this vision, look for ways to strengthen the connection between people and nature – and champion the urgent need for action. 

Rewilding challenges us to see that humans are one species among many, bound together in an intricate web. It’s time for all of us to play our part and help halt the decline of nature. 

With the Scottish Government’s plans for the restoration of nature revealed, Scotland is closer than ever to becoming a Rewilding Nation. 

Image © Trees for Life

In response to the Programme for Government announced by the Scottish Government today, Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, reaffirmed our call for Scotland to become the world’s first Rewilding Nation.

In response to the Programme for Government announced by the Scottish Government today, Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, said:

“The Scottish Government’s commitment to woodland creation and peatland restoration, its promise to protect 30% of Scotland’s land and sea for nature by 2030, and its financial support for nature restoration are all welcome.

“We now need the Scottish Government to step up for nature in a big way. That will give us a route-map to tackle the overlapping nature and climate emergencies, address Scotland’s sad ranking as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, and ensure Scotland’s progress including through empowered communities and nature-based economies.

“Scotland has the opportunity to be a world leader in restoring nature. Our message to the Scottish Government is simple – harness rewilding to unleash Scotland’s potential. This is why we’re calling for Scotland to become the world’s first Rewilding Nation.”

In a milestone for rewilding, the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor has endorsed a definition of rewilding that can be used by the Scottish Government and wider public sector.

The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor has today (4th July 2023) endorsed a definition of rewilding that can be used by the Scottish Government and wider public sector. 

This marks a significant step forwards for a government that has previously avoided using the word ‘rewilding’, despite the increased number of rewilding projects across Scotland. 

Steve Micklewright, Scottish Rewilding Alliance Convenor and CEO of Trees for Life said, ‘After many years of rejecting ‘rewilding’, regarding it as too controversial and challenging, it is good to see that the Government have finally caught up with something rewilding practitioners have known for a long time – rewilding addresses the dual nature and climate emergencies and can help create a nature-based economy that means communities can thrive in changing times.’ 

Work by the John Hutton Institute that included input from civil servants, green investors, academics and two environmental organisations, but lacked involvement from many of Scotland’s rewilders, helped to create the definition. Steve added, ‘The Government definition is to be welcomed. It focuses on what is different about rewilding for land managers and how it seeks to ensure it can benefit local communities. It is therefore an essential step in creating a #RewildingNation.’

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance has called on the Government to declare Scotland the world’s first Rewilding Nation, and commit to start the process of rewilding 30% of Scotland’s land and sea by 2030. Steve said, ‘There is now a groundswell of rewilding happening across Scotland and we are hopeful that the next few years will take us closer to being a #RewildingNation. Growing Government support and endorsement is essential in achieving this.’

Some who participated in developing the definition voiced concern over what they perceived as the divisive nature of the term rewilding. Steve said, ‘Scotland is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. Our attempts to protect nature over the last 60 years have failed. Language changes. Rewilding signals change and bold action and it is something that inspires people to take action – and we need to challenge those that do not.’

Photo by Gabriela Palai via Pexels

When we talk about what sort of Scotland we want to live in, we need to be having louder, clearer, more thoughtful conversations about the country’s land.

By Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance (www.rewild.scot) and Chief
Executive of rewilding charity Trees for Life (treesforlife.org.uk)

When we talk about what sort of Scotland we want to live in, we need to be having louder, clearer, more thoughtful conversations about the country’s land.

Questions about who owns our land, who benefits from it, and how it is managed, have profound implications for tackling the overlapping nature and climate emergencies, including through rewilding – in empowering, fair ways for local communities.

Scotland has one of the world’s most concentrated land ownership patterns, with fewer than 500 people controlling half its land. It is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries too. This double whammy means having open conversations about how land is owned, and the purpose it’s put to, is doubly important.

Two new reports throw this into sharp relief. The Scottish Land Commission’s latest assessment of Scotland’s rural land market makes for sobering reading. It highlights record land prices, with estates and hill farms purchased by wealthy corporations – often as an investment, or for commercial forestry.

For social justice and rewilding, this overheating market is worrying. It risks more inequality and concentrated rural land ownership, as less wealthy prospective buyers – be they charities, local communities, or younger farmers – get priced out.

Meanwhile, a Community Land Scotland report by academic, ecologist, writer and land reform advocate Alastair McIntosh looks at green finance and its implications, and at rewilding. There is much I agree with, and some things I don’t, in Alastair’s thoughtful paper. Rewilding may be the new kid on the block, but we need to be clear about what rewilding is and isn’t. There are community groups and charities as well as large landowners exploring different rewilding models, while some corporations and businesses are seeking to appropriate the word.

Rewilding – large-scale nature restoration – can create a cascade of benefits for people. It works best when it has people and communities at its heart. Whether by community groups, charities or companies, rewilding is surging across Scotland.

But corporations pursuing carbon credits or the green gold of subsidies and grants are a different beast. Such activities are mostly not rewilding. At worst, they can be greenwashing. When they involve planting the wrong trees in the wrong place, and when they force up land prices local people’s reach, they can threaten both rewilding and communities.

So the efforts of a few corporate non-rewilders to associate themselves with rewilding and its popularity should be resisted.

But Alastair’s report offers hope. There is much common ground between Scotland’s rewilding charities, community landowners and land reformers – including the goals of thriving, resilient and empowered communities, restored ecosystems, and concerted action on climate breakdown.

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance wants Scotland to become a rewilding nation, with 30% of land and seas enjoying nature recovery by 2030, where everyone can share in the benefits – from health to community wealth building to flood protection.

This includes more communities being involved in rewilding, including on land they own. It includes re-peopling, including through nature-based economic opportunities.

In the Highlands, re-peopling is central to Trees for Life’s new Dundreggan Rewilding Centre near Loch Ness, and to our work with the community and landowners in the Affric Highlands initiative – Britain’s largest rewilding landscape, stretching from Loch Ness to the west coast. In Dumfries and Galloway, the 10,500-acre Tarras Valley Nature Reserve on Langholm Moor – created after south Scotland’s largest community buyout so far – is carrying out inspiring work for community regeneration, nature recovery, and climate action.

Across Scotland, Northwoods Rewilding Network, launched by charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, now consists of over 50 partners, including community sites, small farms, crofts, and small landholdings.

My hope is that rewilders and organisations such as Community Land Scotland, the Scottish Land Commission and others can explore how we can all work together – and with the Scottish Government – for ambitious and just land-based solutions that benefit people, nature and climate.

By ensuring a rich and diverse pattern of different kinds of landowners – community, private, public, third sector – that stewards Scotland’s land and seas back to health, we can create a country where our communities and nature thrive together.

Ends

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is a collaboration of more than 20 organisations which share a
mission to enable rewilding at a scale new to Scotland. See www.rewild.scot

This opinion piece originally appeared in the Press and Journal on 27/06/2023 and can be found online at https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/opinion/5884636/rewilding-land-reform-scotland-misunderstood-key-opinion/ 

Scottish Rewilding Alliance calls on Government to fulfil wishes of Scottish people and implement recommendations to combat nature and climate emergencies.

Three-quarters of Scots want wilder national parks, poll finds

Three quarters of Scots want to see wilder national parks, with areas devoted to rewilding, according to research carried out for the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.

In an opinion poll for the Alliance carried out by market research agency Survation, 74% of Scots agreed with the call to make national parks wilder, with just 6% of people opposed.

The polling supports recommendations by the Scottish Government’s nature agency NatureScot, which in February advised ministers to create wilder national parks. This followed an extensive consultation as part of plans to designate a third national park in Scotland.

Scotland’s existing national parks were declared more than 20 years ago. The move to a greater focus on rewilding to help tackle the overlapping nature and climate emergencies is urgently required, says the Alliance.

“We’re urging the Government to listen to its nature agency and the Scottish people, and make nature recovery a primary purpose of our national parks,” said Steve Micklewright, Convenor of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance and Chief Executive of rewilding charity Trees for Life.

“This would ensure these important areas can make a greater contribution to Scotland becoming the world’s first rewilding nation – a place where nature and people can thrive – and in achieving the Government’s commitment to protect 30% of Scotland for nature by 2030.”

If the Government follows NatureScot’s advice, ministers would introduce legislation to make restoring nature and combating climate breakdown the overarching purpose of Scotland’s national parks.

“Our national parks have the potential to be at the forefront of restoring functioning, thriving ecosystems in Scotland, a country that is currently one of the most nature-depleted in the whole world,” added Steve Micklewright.

“Wilder national parks would provide more opportunities for people to live and work in them, including through more sustainable livelihoods, while visitors would be able to enjoy seeing more of Scotland’s remarkable wildlife and habitats as species and landscapes begin to recover.”

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is a collaboration of more than 20 organisations which share a mission to enable rewilding at a scale new to Scotland. See www.rewild.scot.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. NatureScot advice on creating wilder national parks:

www.nature.scot/doc/national-parks-advice-ministers-february-2023

2. Polling: 1,033 people were asked for their views in the opinion poll conducted by market research agency Survation (survation.com) on behalf of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance. See www.rewild.scot/uploads/Scottish%20Rewilding%20Alliance%20Survation%20Summary.pdf

The decision to designate a new national park is a golden opportunity to rethink our approach to restoring nature and supporting thriving communities

Scotland has just two national parks, created 20 years ago. Now the Scottish Government is on the verge of designating a third, and is seeking public input on the role of national parks and how it should go about selecting a new one. A consultation is open for input until 30 November 2022. 

We are living through climate and nature breakdown. Every step we take has to be in the name of nature. Every piece of legislation passing through our parliament over the next few years should be contributing to halting the continued decline in Scotland’s wildlife and natural habitats. 

National parks should be a cornerstone of our approach to restoring nature and supporting thriving communities, as we’ve called for in our Wilder National Parks campaign. If we cannot achieve this within our parks, where can we?

How you can help

This is an important moment for the public and interested organisations to encourage the Scottish Government to revisit legislation around national parks in Scotland and check that it’s fit for purpose. 

The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is submitting a response to the consultation, and we’re encouraging you to do the same, with the support of our guidance below. 

Your consultation response

To help you get started with submitting your answers online*, we’ve created a guide response for you to use below – but adding your own thoughts will send a more powerful message to the Scottish Government. 

*On the NatureScot webage scroll down to the blue box where there is scene setting information and also a link to the actual consultation itself, referred to as the ​‘online survey’.

This guide provides some suggested text to help you respond to section 1 (questions 1-18) of the consultation: the role of Scotland’s national parks. We feel this is where we can focus on prioritising nature.

Section 2 focuses on the selection process for national parks. We encourage you to also share your thoughts with the government on this if you are able to.

Question 1. Do you support “leadership of nature recovery and a just transition to net zero” becoming the overarching purpose of Scotland’s National Parks? If not, what else would you propose?

Nature recovery should be the priority of our national parks. We need a fresh approach to national parks in Scotland that is fit to meet the challenges facing us. The overarching purpose of Scotland’s national parks should be ‘Leadership of nature recovery and a just transition to a nature-based economy’.

Question 2. Which of the proposed elements of leadership and action set out in the list above do you support? What others – if any – would you propose?

I agree with the proposed elements of leadership and action set out above.

Question 3. What opportunities are there for National Parks to generate private investment in natural capital?

National parks are well placed to navigate private investment opportunities – but should do so with communities in mind. There should be community benefits from the millions of pounds in funding flowing through our landscapes beyond the restoration of nature. Where land generates value in the form of ecosystem services, money should also flow back into local communities. In the long term, this creates thriving communities whose lives are interwoven with nature. Rewilding and repeopling should go hand in hand, especially in our national parks.

Question 4. What role should local communities play in the National Park and how should National Park authorities work with and for them to secure a just transition?

A just transition towards a nature-based economy should be a guiding principle of our national parks. If our national parks can rise to the challenge of enabling communities to flourish as nature is restored, they will be securing the future of the parks.

In order to achieve this vision, our national parks need to be welcoming places for people to live. In order for this to be true, our parks need affordable, secure, warm housing; jobs that provide a reliable living; thriving local services; good transport connections, including active travel and public transport. Communities should also have a real and lasting say in the evolution of the places around them – through the medium of co-design, rather than consultation.

All this has to take place alongside the large-scale restoration of nature and rewilding of our parks.

Question 5. Do you support a “vision and mission” for all of Scotland’s National Parks being clearly set out in a national statement? If not why not?

I support a vision and mission for all of Scotland’s national parks being clearly set out in a national statement. The creation of an overarching purpose for our national parks means this has to be set in context against the original aims contained in the National Parks Act. The creation of a vision and mission will also aid new parks as they develop organisational cultures and future plans.

Question 6. If you favour a national statement for Scotland’s National Parks being developed, what else should it cover?

Scotland needs an overall statement covering all of its parks, including both national and regional parks. All land is precious and must play its part in tackling nature and climate breakdown. Regional parks are important landscapes too, albeit not the focus of this consultation. A national statement could cover all of Scotland’s parks, national and regional.

Question 7. To what extent should new National Parks be about the future potential of an area for nature restoration as well as what’s currently in place?

Landscapes in Scotland are human landscapes, co-created over thousands of years of human usage. If the primary purpose of our national parks is nature restoration, all our national parks should be aiming to rewild the park areas. Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature is allowed to take care of itself. Rewilding aims to reinstate natural processes and, where appropriate, missing species – allowing them to engineer and restore habitats. Effective rewilding encourages a balance between people and nature. This approach is perfectly suited to our national parks, where large areas still require significant regeneration.

Our national parks should therefore place nature restoration, not the protection of an existing aesthetic, at their heart.

Question 8. Are any specific changes to the existing four Aims required? If so why, and what are they?

The overarching priority of our parks should be ‘Leadership of nature recovery and a just transition to a nature-based economy’. The delivery of the aims must not undermine nature recovery.

I therefore support rewording the current aims to better reflect this new purpose, as well as the vision and mission in the proposed national statement. The new aims could be:

• restore the natural habitats and safeguard the cultural heritage of the area;
• promote the sustainable and fair use of the natural resources of the area;
• increase the accessibility of the area in order to promote understanding and enjoyment for all; and
• promote the sustainable social and economic development of the area’s communities.

Question 9. Which of these possible options, or mix of possible options, do you think would help strengthen the focus and contribution of National Parks, and why?

I support the rewording of the existing aims to better reflect other changes to the vision, mission and overarching purpose of our national parks. There should also be a clear caveat that the pursuit of those aims should not undermine nature recovery.

Question 10. Are there other options that could be considered? If so, what are they?

N/A

Question 11. Do you think there should be any changes to the wording in the Act to require public bodies to support delivery of National Park Plans? If so, what would you propose?

I support the strengthening of the effect of the duty on other public bodies. National park authorities need the support of other public bodies within the park area in order to solve the many challenges ahead of them.

Question 12. Do you have any other suggestions for improving partnership working to support the implementation of the National Park Plan by all?

N/A

Question 13. Could any of the existing powers and functions be used more effectively? If so, which ones and how?

Our national parks should feel empowered to utilise their full range of existing powers and functions. From protecting ancient woodland to fast-tracking ecosystem infrastructure to providing affordable housing – with nature and a just transition to a nature-based economy as overarching aims, our national park authorities should be confident in exercising their powers.

Question 14. Are any of the existing powers or functions redundant or unnecessary? If so, which ones and why?

N/A

Question 15. What, if any, changes to the powers and functions in these areas should be considered and why?

The priority of national parks should be to restore nature in a way that provides benefits for communities and the nation. Any powers and functions that support this priority should be considered. This could include:

• Simplifying the ownership and management of public land within park boundaries by transferring land to the national park authorities
• Incentivising land owners and managers within the park area to manage their land for nature
• Enforcing minimum standards for land management
• Managing land-based funding within park boundaries
• Simplifying landscape designations within park boundaries
• Streamlined rules around species reintroduction
• For coastal and marine parks, banning of destructive practices within their waters

Question 16. Are there any other areas where strengthened or new powers and functions will be needed by the National Park Authority? If so, what are they?

N/A

Question 17. Should the powers and functions of National Park Authorities be decided on a Park by Park basis? Should any apply to all National Park Authorities? If so, which ones and why?

I believe all national parks should have the same range of powers and functions, and that all national parks should have nature as their priority.

Question 18. Are there any changes you would want to see to the governance and management arrangements of all National Park Authorities?

I want to see more national parks in Scotland, restoring nature and championing nature-based economies. As the number of parks in Scotland grows, it may be necessary to establish an overarching national body to promote the national vision or mission and share best practice between Scottish parks.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash