Land Reform for the Nature Emergency
The climate and nature emergencies are intertwined – one cannot be tackled without the other. Restoring nature will improve Scotland’s ability to address, and adapt to, climate breakdown. To give nature the best chance of bouncing back, we need to rewild, at scale, at speed. Rewilding– large-scale restoration of ecosystems and natural processes – offers hope for tackling the nature and climate emergencies, and creates a cascade of benefits for people.
Natural processes are the interactions that shape our planet and support life, such as the free movement of a river, a bee pollinating a flower or a predator preying on other animals. A healthy ecosystem is one where natural processes are working properly. Across Scotland, natural processes have been interrupted, damaged or broken. If humans can restore these natural processes, nature can begin to restore itself.
The management and ownership of large landholdings is a critical issue in our journey towards a restored, properly functioning natural environment. In the midst of the nature and climate emergencies, the restoration of Scotland’s natural environment for the benefit of the nation should be central to any legislation we put in place today. We want a Scotland where land is owned, managed and used in ways that are fit for the future.
We support…
Public interest in land reform and transfer of large landholdings
Amendment 310 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance strongly supports this proposed addition to the Land Reform Bill establishing a clear duty for Scottish Ministers and public bodies to act in the public interest in relation to land reform. This amendment gives formal weight to nature restoration, in the form of natural processes, as a legitimate public interest goal.
Amendment 342 in the name of Rhoda Grant MSP
As above, we support the introduction of a public interest test, in this case in relation to which land holdings are required to produce land management plans. This provides a clear statement of intent and ensures that natural processes are defined as part of the public interest.
Amendment 174 (as amended) in the name of Mercedes Villalba MSP
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance supports the proposed public interest test for transfers of large landholdings. This is a vital tool to ensure that land in Scotland is managed in ways that benefit nature and people.
Scotland faces urgent ecological challenges, with one in nine species at risk of extinction and natural processes across much of the country disrupted by centuries of intensive land use. This proposal gives Scottish Ministers the power to consider whether a change in ownership will support the public interest, including natural processes.
This change is particularly important given the scale at which land is owned in Scotland. Decisions made on large estates can affect entire catchments, ecosystems, and wildlife populations. The new test allows Ministers to scrutinise the intentions and management proposals of prospective buyers, It could also help prevent land from being sold to those who may undertake practices that degrade the environment or lock up landscapes in ways that harm both biodiversity and rural livelihoods.
We support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 29 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance supports the amendment proposed to remove the phrase “or sustaining” from the wording of the Land Reform Bill in relation to land management plans. This change shifts the focus of land management from simply maintaining the status quo to actively improving the condition of the land. In the context of a nature and climate emergency, “sustaining” degraded ecosystems on large landholdings is not enough — what is needed is meaningful restoration that brings back natural processes and ecological function.
Across much of Scotland, land is locked in a degraded or simplified state, often stripped of native vegetation, drained, overgrazed, or heavily managed in ways that suppress biodiversity and hinder the return of natural processes.
Removing “or sustaining” helps ensure that land management plans are forward- looking and ambitious, encouraging landowners and managers to think about how their actions can improve soil health, restore habitats, bring back native species, and support the dynamic, self-willed processes that make ecosystems resilient and productive. It also aligns with Scotland’s broader commitments to a just transition, biodiversity targets, and nature-based solutions to climate change.
We support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 2 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
In a country like Scotland, where land ownership is relatively concentrated, a relatively small number of landholdings hold huge potential to contribute to the repair of Scotland’s ecosystems. In the Bill as drafted, the Scottish Government can create secondary legislation that imposes obligations on the owners of large landholdings to publish land management plans.
Scotland’s largest landholdings have a pivotal role to play in repairing Scotland’s biodiversity, mitigating against the effects of climate breakdown and enabling Scotland to adapt to a changing climate. It is therefore essential that this is underlined in the requirements for land management plans. There are 623 landholdings in Scotland over 3,000 hectares, comprising 40% of Scotland’s land area. We have identified just 19 landholdings over 3,000 hectares restoring natural processes at scale. While there are likely to be more large estates who are restoring nature, the lack of land management plans laying this out makes data collection difficult.
While other policy, legislation and funding levers exist to encourage large landowners to restore nature at scale, having this requirement on the face of the Land Reform Bill would underline the importance of restoring natural processes in responding to the climate and nature emergencies.
We support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 320 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
We strongly support this amendment to explicitly include “nature recovery” for public landowners when preparing land management plans. Publicly owned land should lead by example in tackling the climate and nature emergencies, and this amendment helps ensure that nature recovery is a core stated responsibility.
Scotland’s public land represents a major opportunity to restore natural processes at scale. These areas can act as demonstration sites for rewilding and ecological restoration, allowing rivers to flow naturally, native woodland to regenerate, peatlands to rewet, and wildlife to return. Including “nature recovery” in land management plans ensures that these public lands actively support the return of functioning ecosystems.
This amendment also reinforces the public interest in using land to deliver environmental benefits. Nature recovery is not just good for wildlife: it helps store carbon, reduce flood risks, clean water, and improve our mental health and wellbeing. When it comes to land in public ownership, there is a particular responsibility to ensure that management decisions deliver the greatest possible benefit for the people of Scotland, both now and in the long term.
We support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 322 in the name of Rhoda Grant MSP
We support the intent behind this amendment to include “protecting and enhancing natural capital” in the Land Reform Bill. Natural capital refers to the stock of natural assets like soils, water, forests, and biodiversity that provide vital benefits to people. Recognising the value of these assets can help make the case for better stewardship of the land — where it is rooted in ecological integrity and the long-term recovery of natural processes.
Framing land management around natural capital has the potential to shift decision- making towards more sustainable and restorative practices. By including it in land management plans, landowners would be encouraged to consider how their actions affect the overall health of ecosystems. Enhancing natural capital should go hand in hand with rewilding principles: allowing rivers to re-naturalise, woodlands to regenerate, and ecological functions like carbon storage, water filtration, and pollination to recover and flourish.
Amendment 324 in the name of Douglas Lumsden MSP
We support this amendment requiring landowners to set out how they will ensure access to environmental information and enable meaningful participation in decisions affecting the land. For nature recovery to succeed, it must be rooted in transparency and public engagement. Local communities and wider society have a clear stake in how land is managed—particularly when it comes to restoring ecosystems, improving biodiversity, and tackling climate change.
Providing open access to environmental data and involving people in land management decisions helps build trust and accountability, and leads to better outcomes for both nature and communities.
We support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 327 in the name of Rhoda Grant MSP
We support this amendment to include any applicable deer management plans within land management plans. Overgrazing by deer is one of the major barriers to nature recovery in Scotland, preventing woodland regeneration, damaging peatlands, and suppressing biodiversity. Requiring transparency about deer management is a practical step that ensures landowners take responsibility for controlling deer impacts and supporting the restoration of natural processes.
Amendment 395 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
We support this amendment, which would require landowners to explain how they will align with the Scottish Ministers’ principles for responsible investment in natural capital. As interest grows in carbon credits, biodiversity offsets, and other nature-based markets, it’s vital that these investments support genuine ecological restoration. This amendment will help ensure that natural capital projects are transparent, fair, and contribute meaningfully to the recovery of ecosystems and natural processes across Scotland.
We cannot support…
Land management plans: content
Amendment 27 in the name of Tim Eagle MSP
We oppose this amendment seeking to remove the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and the Deer Management Code from the regulations covering land management plans. The Outdoor Access Code ensures that people can enjoy Scotland’s natural landscapes while respecting habitats and landowners, and the Deer Management Code is critical for controlling deer populations to prevent overgrazing, which severely damages ecosystems. Removing these references risks undermining both public engagement with the land and effective nature recovery, weakening protections that are vital for restoring Scotland’s natural processes.
Amendment 28 in the name of Tim Eagle MSP
This amendment would strip away essential references to tackling the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change — both of which are deeply interconnected and require urgent action through land management. For Scotland to meet its environmental goals and secure a healthy future for people and wildlife, climate and nature recovery must remain central to land management plans.
We support…
Community right to buy: reviews, modifications and new rights
Amendment 357 in the name of Rhoda Grant MSP
We support this amendment introducing the ability for Scottish Ministers to modify community right to buy laws. Following the review of the community right to buy process and available routes, we hope to see more provision made for communities wishing to buy land for the purposes of nature recovery.
Amendment 472 in the name of Monica Lennon MSP
We support this amendment to introduce a right to buy common good land. Common good land is a vital resource that can be used to support nature recovery, community- led conservation projects, affordable housing, and local food production. By giving communities the right to buy and manage such land, this amendment helps ensure that decisions about land use are driven by local needs and ecological priorities.
We support…
Duty to manage land for nature
Amendment 366 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
We support introducing a duty on public bodies to ensure that they are contributing to nature recovery on publicly owned land over a certain size.
Under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, public bodies have a duty to further the conservation of biodiversity when carrying out their responsibilities. In 2011, mandatory reporting on the biodiversity duty was introduced. A 2016 report on compliance with the biodiversity duty found that less than half of public bodies had published a biodiversity duty report as required by the legislation. During the most recent reporting cycle (2021-23), just over half of public bodies could demonstrate that they were compliant with the duty. Introducing a duty that specifically relates to land management practices is a vital step.
Additionally, the conservation of biodiversity is no longer an adequate response to the nature emergency unfolding across Scotland and the world. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework has 23 action-oriented global targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030. This includes integrating biodiversity into decision-making at every level, as well as working to enhance biodiversity across at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water and marine and coastal ecosystems. Updating the biodiversity duty to better align with international targets is a crucial step. This amendment ensures that the enhancement of biodiversity is explicitly mentioned.
There are 78 land parcels in public ownership over 3,000 hectares, and 165 between 1,000 and 2,999 hectares. In total, there are 243 land parcels in public ownership over 1,000 hectares. These landholdings have huge potential to contribute to the ecological recovery, and we therefore support the introduction of the restoration of natural processes within a duty to manage land for nature.
The existing biodiversity duty is not sufficiently understood or complied with. We support the introduction of a new duty for public bodies to manage land for nature.
We support…
Licensing: land on which certain birds may be killed
Amendment 374 in the name of Mark Ruskell MSP
The Scottish Rewilding Alliance supports this amendment because it ensures that licences for killing or taking certain birds cover not only the specific sites where such activities occur but also the surrounding contiguous land under the same ownership or occupation. This broader definition of licensed land is crucial for effective oversight and enforcement, as it helps prevent the displacement of harmful practices to nearby areas and closes loopholes that could allow offences to go unchecked.
Information about land
Amendment 470 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
Amendment 475 in the name of Monica Lennon MSP
We support measures to make information about land use and ownership more publicly available. In particular, we support the biodiversity status of land being included in the information provided through the proposed digital land and property information service.
Model leases
Amendment 380 in the name of Ariane Burgess MSP
Informal buildings, or huts, are important for a number of reasons. They provide a base for outdoor activity; they enable the development of a better understanding of the carrying capacity of the environment; they encourage the development of new skills; they provide a platform for the creation of cohesive communities, and they contribute to sustainable rural development.
Currently, no government-endorsed model lease exists for public bodies seeking to create plots of land for hutting. A lease has been trialled at Carnock, in South-West Fife, to enable a group of hutters to build 12 huts on the national forest estate. This could form the basis of a model lease agreement to be used by other public bodies.
We cannot support…
Amendment 183 in the name of Tim Eagle MSP
This amendment removes ‘increasing or sustaining biodiversity’ from the list of purposes which can be considered an environmental purpose for land. Biodiversity is the foundation of healthy ecosystems, supporting natural processes such as pollination, water purification, soil regeneration, and carbon storage. We would like to see biodiversity covered by the model environmental lease and ask MSPs to vote against this amendment.
Amendment 487 in the name of Tim Eagle MSP
Allowing the creation of a lease for land that contributes towards adaptation to climate change or increasing or sustaining biodiversity is a positive step for nature recovery, and should not be removed from the Bill. We ask MSPs to vote against this amendment.rsion here