CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

CON­FID­EN­TIAL — FOR DECISION

Title: NATION­AL PARK PART­NER­SHIP PLAN 2022 ΤΟ 2027 — DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION

Pre­pared by: GRANT MOIR, CEO GAV­IN MILES, HEAD OF STRA­TEGIC PLAN­NING OLIV­ER DAV­IES, HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

Pur­pose This paper presents the draft Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) for con­sulta­tion. The NPPP has been dis­cussed with a range of stake­hold­ers and an inform­al con­sulta­tion has also been taken for­ward on the big themes for the Nation­al Park.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Board is asked to: a) Agree to con­sult on the draft Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 (Annex 3). b) Agree that the con­sulta­tion lasts from 23^rd Septem­ber to 17^th Decem­ber 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

NATION­AL PARK PART­NER­SHIP PLAN – DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION

Over­view

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Park will co-ordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues.
2. Scot­tish Nation­al Parks share four aims set out by Parliament:
   • to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area;
   • to pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area;
   • to pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public;
   • to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.
3. These aims are to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers then great­er weight must be giv­en to the first aim (sec­tion 9.6 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act). This is a sus­tain­able devel­op­ment approach in which con­ser­va­tion of the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age under­pins the eco­nom­ic, social and recre­ation value of the Nation­al Park.
4. The Part­ner­ship Plan embeds this prin­ciple in the strategy for the Park that is approved by Min­is­ters and sets the frame­work for all pub­lic bod­ies deliv­er­ing rel­ev­ant functions.

Nation­al Policy Context

1. There have been sig­ni­fic­ant changes in the policy con­text for the NPPP since 2017 when the Plan was last pre­pared. A cli­mate emer­gency and nature crisis has been declared, we have left the European Uni­on, the Cov­id-19 pan­dem­ic and our col­lect­ive need to recov­er from its impacts is at the fore­front of policy devel­op­ment, and there is a desire to move to a well-being eco­nomy that works for all citizens.
2. There will also be changes to policy over the com­ing year that will be taken account of as the plan is developed. This includes the out­puts from COP26 & COP15, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, Stra­tegic Trans­port Pro­jects Review 2 and oth­er nation­al policy devel­op­ments such as the Pro­gramme for Government.
3. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park also has a sig­ni­fic­ant role to play in deliv­er­ing the policy ambi­tion of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. This is around being a place to innov­ate, tri­al and show ambi­tion on deliv­er­ing solu­tions to the key chal­lenges of our time.

Stake­hold­er Involvement

1. The devel­op­ment of the draft NPPP has been taken for­ward with sig­ni­fic­ant stake­hold­er involve­ment. The work has been guided by input from the NPPP

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

1. The CNPA Board have also had sig­ni­fic­ant dis­cus­sions on the draft plan on 7 occa­sions since Novem­ber 2020. These were on 27^th Nov 2020, 12^th March 2021, 26^th March 2021, 23^rd April 2021, 14^th May 2021, 12^th June 2021 & 27^th August 2021.
2. These dis­cus­sions have been sup­ple­men­ted with bi-lat­er­al meet­ings and cor­res­pond­ence with a wide range of organ­isa­tions. A draft of the plan was also cir­cu­lated for dis­cus­sion at meet­ings of the fol­low­ing groups in August 2021. The mem­ber­ship of these groups is at Annex 1. a) Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group b) Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group c) Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship d) Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um e) Cairngorms Nature Steer­ing Group f) Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Panel
3. The feed­back giv­en by stake­hold­ers has been tre­mend­ously help­ful in for­mu­lat­ing this draft Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The draft plan provides a great oppor­tun­ity to enable the big dis­cus­sions about the future dir­ec­tion of the Park.

Inform­al Con­sulta­tion Feedback

1. The inform­al con­sulta­tion launched on 15 June, includ­ing the rol­lout of a ded­ic­ated micros­ite using the Com­mon­place plat­form. Media and web­site activ­ity was fol­lowed by a large-scale social media push, with paid-for pro­mo­tion­al activ­ity start­ing a month later on 15 July across Face­book, Twit­ter, Ins­tagram and Linked­In. Over 50 posts have gone out so far across our social chan­nels, reach­ing 220,000 account users. Ins­tagram in par­tic­u­lar has been a rev­el­a­tion in terms of user response, par­tic­u­larly amongst young­er demographics.
2. We had ori­gin­ally hoped to do more face to face activ­ity, but a com­bin­a­tion of school hol­i­days, ongo­ing reti­cence of participant’s post-lock­down and oth­er sur­veys tak­ing place in the Nation­al Park have seen us delay much of this activ­ity to the form­al phase. How­ever, we have recor­ded inter­views with mem­bers of the Cairngorms Youth Action Team to share via social, and plan to plug oth­er gaps in key audi­ences with a series of eight inter­views with game­keep­ers, for­est­ers, loc­al busi­nesses, loc­al com­munity organ­isa­tions, eth­nic minor­ity groups, care home work­ers etc. A prin­ted copy of the sur­vey has also been made avail­able for those who need it.
3. In total, we’ve had 279 detailed responses so far to all 15 ques­tions, plus a fur­ther 185 com­ments gathered through our social media activ­ity, and a smal­ler num­ber (c. 20) of face to face qual­it­at­ive inter­views. A sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber (40 – 50%) have chosen to remain anonym­ous – some­thing we’re explor­ing with the developers of Com­mon­place how­ever, of those who have giv­en us more detail, 41% are loc­al res­id­ents, 22% vis­it­ors to the Park, 7% loc­al busi­nesses, 7% land man­agers, 4% part­ners and 4% com­munity groups. These fig­ures should be treated with cau­tion though giv­en the rel­at­ively small sample size.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

1. Just over half of respond­ents are male (52%), 43% female and 4% prefer not to say. Around 5% of those who have giv­en us data are from minor­ity eth­nic back­grounds, and 5% of respond­ents identi­fy as hav­ing a dis­ab­il­ity. There has been a fairly good spread of response by dif­fer­ent age groups, more details of which can be found in the accom­pa­ny­ing annex.
2. We asked par­ti­cipants a total of 15 ques­tions across six major themes: people and nature, eco­nom­ic recov­ery post-Cov­id, achiev­ing net zero, loc­al com­munit­ies, vis­it­ors to the Park and a Park for every­one. Just over half of respond­ents (55%) sug­ges­ted that people and nature was the most import­ant theme, with around a quarter (23%) agree­ing that there is a good bal­ance between people and nature in the Park at present, and 38% disagreeing.
3. In terms of key emer­ging themes from the qual­it­at­ive responses received so far, these include: more des­ig­nated areas and / or facil­it­ies to keep vis­it­ors away from sens­it­ive sites; large-scale wood­land expan­sion and peat­land res­tor­a­tion; pro­tect­ing the interests and jobs of the rur­al work­force along­side tak­ing action on cli­mate change / biod­iversity loss; more afford­able homes for loc­al work­ers and restric­tions on short- term lets; improved pub­lic trans­port options plus expan­ded cycle and walk­ing routes; upgraded vis­it­ors infra­struc­ture; great­er power for loc­al com­munit­ies in the form of cit­izens’ assem­blies / great­er sup­port for com­munity coun­cils; train­ing and edu­ca­tion oppor­tun­it­ies con­nec­ted to new green jobs; and CNPA need­ing to prac­tice what it preaches on car­bon emis­sions reduc­tion. A full break­down of responses can be found in Annex 2.

Form­al Con­sulta­tion Process

1. The form­al con­sulta­tion pro­cess will start on 23 Septem­ber and run for 12 weeks to 17 Decem­ber. The form­al con­sulta­tion will be primar­ily web-based with meet­ings of groups online; how­ever, pro­vi­sion will be made for those who do not have access to a com­puter or struggle to use them). Con­sul­tees and organ­isa­tions will be informed dir­ectly in writ­ing as usu­al and the con­sulta­tion will be shared by the nor­mal CNPA dis­tri­bu­tion lists. The wider pro­mo­tion will build on what we have learnt from the inform­al con­sulta­tion, tar­get­ing par­tic­u­lar groups and sec­tors through key events and drop-in oppor­tun­it­ies, social media and also giv­ing poten­tial respond­ents the oppor­tun­ity to respond quickly and eas­ily or in as much depth as they want.
2. There will be meet­ings of the NP For­ums and Groups, bi-lat­er­al meet­ings with organ­isa­tions and inter­ac­tion with Loc­al Author­ity committees.

Ques­tions for Form­al Consultation

1. The fol­low­ing are pro­posed as the ques­tions for the form­al consultation:

Nature, People & Place Objectives a) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree that these are the right object­ives for nature/​people/​place in the Nation­al Park?

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

b) Is there any­thing miss­ing from the above list that you think we should pri­or­it­ise? If so, why? c) Are there any spe­cif­ic policies or actions we should take to help deliv­er these object­ives? Click through to either;

Nature, People and Place Polices a) Have you got any com­ments on the policies we have pro­posed? (include ref­er­ence) b) Are there any policies you think should be added?

Nature, People and Place Actions a) Have you got any com­ments on the actions we have pro­posed? (include ref­er­ence) b) Are there any actions you think should be added?

Spe­cif­ic questions a) Cap­it­al invest­ment: Do you think these are the right prin­ciples for invest­ment in the Nation­al Park and what key infra­struc­ture pro­jects should the Nation­al Park focus on over the next 5 years? b) RLUP/RLUF: What are the key issues that you want the Region­al Land Use Frame­work to focus on in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park? c) RLUP/RLUF: What level of detail is needed for a RLUF to be of use to fun­ders, com­munit­ies and to land man­agers? d) Region­al Spa­tial Strategy: In the con­text of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and as the Region­al Spa­tial Strategy, are there oth­er stra­tegic devel­op­ments that you con­sider should be identified?

Evid­ence Papers

1. The con­sulta­tion will be sup­por­ted by a range of evid­ence papers that sum­mar­ise the rel­ev­ant data trends, policy and changes that have influ­enced the draft Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The evid­ence papers have been pro­duced to sum­mar­ise and con­dense the most rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion in infograph­ic forms to make them as access­ible and quick to digest as possible.

Stat­utory Assessments

1. The draft NPPP has been pre­pared with a num­ber of stat­utory assess­ments. Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (SEA) and Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) pro­cesses identi­fy if there are any sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the envir­on­ment or on European des­ig­nated sites. The SEA and HRA pro­cesses con­clude there are no sig­ni­fic­ant neg­at­ive envir­on­ment­al effects or effects on the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites.
2. The Equal­it­ies Impact Assess­ment iden­ti­fies poten­tial impacts on equal­it­ies groups. The draft NPPP includes spe­cif­ic object­ives, policy and actions tar­get­ing equal­it­ies and spe­cif­ic equal­it­ies groups, includ­ing young people and minor­ity eth­nic groups. How­ever, the stra­tegic nature of the NPPP means that fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of the detail of indi­vidu­al pro­jects and pro­grammes will be required to ensure they address the needs of these groups in meas­ur­able ways and that equal­it­ies issues addressed col­lect­ively in all part­ners activities.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Con­fid­en­tial Form­al Board Paper 5 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Next Steps

1. As part of our com­mu­nic­a­tions activ­ity launch­ing the form­al con­sulta­tion on 23 Septem­ber, we will high­light the key pri­or­it­ies raised by mem­bers of the pub­lic so far, and map these onto object­ives con­tained with­in the draft Part­ner­ship Plan. Many of the com­mu­nic­a­tions tech­niques iden­ti­fied ahead of the inform­al con­sulta­tion – from drop-in meet­ings to online influ­en­cer activ­ity, part­ner toolkits and face to face inform­a­tion ses­sions — will be rolled out over the course of the next few months to ensure we receive a breadth of responses from all our key audi­ence types.
2. We are also work­ing with an inde­pend­ent mar­ket research agency – Scot­in­form – who have extens­ive exper­i­ence of pub­lic con­sulta­tions and have been advising on how we reach audi­ences that are hard­est to engage with this type of activ­ity. Our plan is to use the data from Com­mon­place and oth­er engage­ment tools to high­light those audi­ences that are least engaged, and tar­get these groups accord­ingly with more tailored activ­ity. We are doing some­thing sim­il­ar to this with­in the inform­al con­sulta­tion, where eight in-depth inter­views will help shed light on key issues for these groups and hope­fully open doors to con­trib­ut­ors’ net­works (eg oth­er farm­ers and land man­agers, young people in the Park) for the form­al consultation.
3. We want to get mem­bers involved in the form­al con­sulta­tion to hear people’s views and we will be pulling togeth­er a pro­gramme of the groups, for­ums and events that mem­bers can attend over the course of the Autumn.
4. In Janu­ary a con­sulta­tion report will be pro­duced that sets out all the key feed­back to con­sulta­tion. This feed­back will be used to look at poten­tial changes to the Plan with the Board in Feb­ru­ary and March 2022. The final­ised Plan will go to the Board in April 2022 and Scot­tish Min­is­ters is June 2022 for final sign-off.

Grant Moir, Gav­in Miles, Oliv­er Dav­ies Ist Septem­ber 2021 grantmoir@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex | 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Annex I – Stake­hold­er Groups (non CNPA members)

NPPP Stake­hold­ers Group

Name	Organ­isa­tion
Mark Tate	Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership
Chris Don­ald	Nature Scot
John Risby	Scot­tish Forestry
Graeme Prest	Forestry and Land Scotland
James Gibbs	High­land and Islands Enterprise
Ham­ish Trench	Scot­tish Land Commission
Alis­on Carrington	Skills Devel­op­ment Scotland
John Laud­er	Sus­trans
Jan­elle Clark	Aber­deen­shire Council
Liz Cow­ie / Kate Lackie	High­land Council
Sarah Jane Laing	Scot­tish Land and Estates
Debora Long	Scot­tish Envir­on­ment LINK
Kar­en Derrick	Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strathspey

Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group

Name	Organ­isa­tion
John Gri­er­son	AOCC
Alis­on Hester	James Hut­ton Institute
John Risby	Scot­tish Forestry
Chris Don­ald	Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage
Richard Cooke	Asso­ci­ation of Deer Man­age­ment Groups
Colin Shed­den	Brit­ish Asso­ci­ation for Shoot­ing and Conservation
Adam Smith	Game & Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust
Alex Jen­kins	Game­keep­ing
Anne Rae MacDonald	Farm­ing
Claire Smith	Roy­al Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds
Dav­id Frew	Nation­al Trust for Scotland
Thomas Mac­Don­ell	Cairngorms Con­nect
Andrew Heald	Forestry
Richard Gled­son	Landown­er­ship
Katy Dick­son	Scot­tish Land & Estates
Sandy Dav­id­son	Uni­ver­sity of the High­lands & Islands student
Dav­id Windle	North East Moun­tain Trust

Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group

Name	Organ­isa­tion
Allis­on Carrington	Skills Devel­op­ment Scotland
Aman­da Frazer	New­ton­more Busi­ness Association
Andy McCann	The High­land Council
Math­ew Lockley	Aber­deen­shire Council
Dav­id Richardson	Fed­er­a­tion of Small Businesses
Duncan Macaskill	Bal­later Busi­ness Association
Fiona Van Aardt	Scot­tish Land and Estates
Gail Cleav­er	Scot­tish Coun­cil for Devel­op­ment and Industry (SCDI)
Gra­ham Prentice	Kin­gussie Busi­ness Association
James Gibbs	High­lands and Islands Enterprise

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex | 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Name	Organ­isa­tion
Jam­ie Bell	Scot­tish Enterprise
Kar­en Martin	Growbiz/​Grantown Busi­ness Association
Kirsty Bruce	Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust
Mark Tate	Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership
Michelle Har­die	The High­land Council
Paul Macari	Aber­deen­shire Council
Rhona Met­calfe	Blair Atholl Busi­ness Association
Sarah Hub­bard	Brae­mar Busi­ness Association

Cairngorms Tour­ism Partnership

Name	Organ­isa­tion
Mat­thew Lockley	Aber­deen­shire Council
Rhona Fraser	High­lands and Islands Enterprise
Colin Simpson	High­land Council
Chris Taylor	Vis­itScot­land
Mark Tate	Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership
Laurie Piper	Vis­it Moray Speyside
Chris Foy	Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire
Kar­en Derrick	Com­munity Rep­res­ent­at­ive (VABS)
Ross Coulter	Land­mark Forest Adven­ture Park
Jess Tomes	RSPB

Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access Forum

Name	Role
John Gri­er­son	Chair
Tre­vor Thornley	Com­munity
Anne-Mar­ie Nuttall	Recre­ation
Eilidh Scob­bie	Recre­ation
Ailsa Niven	Pub­lic Health
Peter Wright	Com­munity
Sally Devlin	Recre­ation
Neil Wilson	Recre­ation

Cairngorms Nature Steer­ing Group

Name	Organ­isa­tion
Jeremy Roberts	Cairngorms Con­nect
Andy Wells	Crown Estates
Richard Cooke	Dal­housie Estates
Joan Cum­ming	Forest and Land Scotland
Iain Wilson	Nation­al Farm­ers Uni­on Scotland
Shaila Rao	Nation­al Trust for Scotland
Anne Elli­ot	NatureScot
Kate Red­path	Marr Area Partnership
Claire Smith	Roy­al Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds
Mar­ie Donald	Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency
Kar­en Ramoo	Scot­tish Land and Estates
Thomas Mac­don­ell	Wild land Limited

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex | 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Panel

• Heath­er Earnshaw
• Patrycja Kupiek
• Gemma Hendry
• Kev­in Hutchens
• Linda Bam­ford
• Pammy Johal
• Wil­low May
• Vanessa Alt­weck
• Stu­art Hall
• Bo Hickey

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Annex 2 — Inform­al Con­sulta­tion Feedback

Sum­mary of our over­all approach plus respond­ent demographics

• The inform­al con­sulta­tion launched on 15 June, includ­ing the rol­lout of a ded­ic­ated micros­ite using the Com­mon­place plat­form. Media and web­site activ­ity was fol­lowed by a large-scale social media push, with paid-for pro­mo­tion­al activ­ity start­ing a month later on 15 July across Face­book, Twit­ter, Ins­tagram and LinkedIn.
• We have pos­ted 54 unique posts across our social chan­nels, reach­ing 220,000 account users; they engaged 24,443 times with con­tent, shared our posts 165 times, left 185 com­ments and clicked through to the con­sulta­tion plat­form 583 times. Ins­tagram in par­tic­u­lar has been a rev­el­a­tion in terms of user response, par­tic­u­larly amongst young­er demographics.
• We had ori­gin­ally hoped to do more face to face activ­ity, but a com­bin­a­tion of school hol­i­days, ongo­ing reti­cence of participant’s post-lock­down and oth­er sur­veys tak­ing place in the Park have seen us delay much of this activ­ity to the form­al phase. How­ever, we have recor­ded inter­views with mem­bers of the Cairngorms Youth Action Team to share via social, and plan to plug oth­er gaps in key audi­ences with a series of eight inter­views with game­keep­ers, for­est­ers, loc­al busi­nesses, loc­al com­munity organ­isa­tions, eth­nic minor­ity groups, care home work­ers etc. A prin­ted copy of the sur­vey has also been made available.
• We dis­sem­in­ated a toolkit of cam­paign mater­i­als to a wide vari­ety of part­ners in late June cov­er­ing all our tar­get audi­ences, and have held Park Plan-spe­cif­ic ses­sions with Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group, Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group, East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship, Loc­al Access For­um, Cairngorms Nature Steer­ing Group, Equal­it­ies For­um etc.
• We plan to launch a new map­ping based response mech­an­ism early next week via the Com­mon­place plat­form to give people a quick way of leav­ing com­ments on spe­cif­ic areas of the Park.
• In total, we’ve had 279 con­tri­bu­tions so far, plus a fur­ther 185 com­ments gathered through our social media activ­ity, and a smal­ler num­ber (c. 20) of face to face qual­it­at­ive interviews.
• A sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of con­trib­ut­ors (40 – 50%) have chosen to remain anonym­ous so far — some­thing we’re explor­ing with the developers of Com­mon­place – how­ever, of those who have giv­en us more detail, 41% are loc­al res­id­ents, 22% vis­it­ors to the Park, 7% loc­al busi­nesses, 7% land man­agers, 4% part­ners and 4% com­munity groups. These fig­ures should be treated with cau­tion though.
• 52% of respond­ents are male, 43% female and 4% prefer not to say. Around 5% of those who have giv­en us data are from minor­ity eth­nic back­grounds, and 5% of respond­ents identi­fy as hav­ing a disability.
• 12% of Com­mon­place respond­ents were aged 25 – 34, 15% 35 – 44, 8% 45 – 54, 38% 55 – 64, and 27% over 65. These fig­ures do not include our qual­it­at­ive inter­views with CYAT mem­bers or any social media responses, par­tic­u­larly those from Ins­tagram (which skews younger).

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 10^th Septem­ber 2021

Key emer­ging themes by sub­ject area

• We asked par­ti­cipants a total of 15 ques­tions across six major themes: people and nature, eco­nom­ic recov­ery post-Cov­id, achiev­ing net zero, loc­al com­munit­ies, vis­it­ors to the Park and a Park for everyone.
• Of these, people and nature was deemed the most import­ant theme by 55% of respond­ents, net zero 13%, loc­al com­munity 12% and a park for every­one 6%.
• On people and nature:
  • 23% agreed or strongly agreed that there is a good bal­ance of people and nature in the Park at present. 38% dis­agreed, 39% neither agreed nor disagreed.
  • When asked ​‘how should land be man­aged to bene­fit both people and nature’, the most com­mon responses were…
    • More des­ig­nated areas / facil­it­ies to keep tour­ists away from sens­it­ive areas (includ­ing poten­tial ​‘no go’ areas).
    • Great­er man­age­ment con­trols on grouse moors and deer estates.
    • Large-scale wood­land expan­sion and peat­land restoration.
    • Pro­tect­ing the interests and jobs of farm­ers, crofters, game­keep­ers etc. as well as look­ing after nature.
    • Rewild / ren­at­ur­al­ise areas of CNP, includ­ing rein­tro­du­cing ​‘miss­ing’ species
    • Leg­al action / great­er pen­al­ties for those who break the law eg on rap­tor persecution.
• On eco­nom­ic recovery:
  • 56% agreed or strongly agreed that the eco­nomy in CNP will recov­er quickly post-Cov­id-19. 15% dis­agreed, 29% neither agreed nor disagreed.
  • When asked ​‘what should our pri­or­it­ies be to help busi­nesses and com­munit­ies recov­er’, the most com­mon responses were…
    • A green recov­ery, sup­port­ing busi­nesses and com­munit­ies to embed sus­tain­ab­il­ity into their prac­tices (incl. emphas­is on ecotourism).
    • More afford­able homes to sup­port the loc­al workforce.
    • Diver­si­fy­ing the eco­nomy away from a reli­ance on tour­ism, with poten­tial for train­ing, advice and guid­ance. Sug­ges­tion of a rur­al skills col­lege from a couple of contributors.
    • Restric­tions on short-term lets and second homes, again to sup­port the loc­al workforce.
    • Improve vis­it­or facil­it­ies to accom­mod­ate increased num­bers of ​‘stayc­a­tion­ers’ e.g. camp­sites, toi­lets, car parks etc.
    • Devel­op green jobs asso­ci­ated with ren­at­ur­al­ising / rewild­ing initiatives.
    • Tack­ling the short­age of qual­i­fied staff due to Cov­id, Brexit etc. Fair employ­ment came up in this dis­cus­sion too.
• On achiev­ing net zero:
  • 92% of respond­ents said it was either import­ant or very import­ant that indi­vidu­als, com­munit­ies, busi­nesses and oth­ers took action to tackle cli­mate change. Just 4% said it was unimportant.
  • When asked ​‘what steps to indi­vidu­als, com­munit­ies, busi­nesses etc. need to take to reach net zero’, the most com­mon responses were…

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 10^th Septem­ber 2021

• Bet­ter, green­er pub­lic trans­port options plus wide­spread pro­mo­tion of car shar­ing and/​or trav­el­ling less.
• Pro­mot­ing elec­tric­al vehicle usage and devel­op­ment EV infra­struc­ture across the Park (some even argued for a fossil fuel ban across CNP).
• Expand­ing our net­work of safe cycle paths, foot­paths and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture, includ­ing e‑bikes.
• Expand­ing wood­land and using more land for car­bon cap­ture / stor­age across the Park, espe­cially through peat­land restoration.
• Ret­ro­fit­ting exist­ing build­ings e.g. with bet­ter insu­la­tion, green­er energy options etc., plus tak­ing a stricter approach to new development.
• Ban­ning or restrict­ing muirburn.
• On loc­al communities:
  • 89% of respond­ents agreed or strongly agreed that loc­al com­munit­ies have an import­ant part to play in shap­ing the future of CNP.
  • When asked ​‘what sup­port do people need to have a great­er say in their loc­al area’, the most com­mon responses were…
    • More engage­ment in the form of events, work­shops and sur­veys. This included a big emphas­is on door to door activity.
    • A need for genu­ine two-way dia­logue; to see their opin­ions actu­ally shap­ing activ­ity on the ground.
    • Train­ing and edu­ca­tion oppor­tun­it­ies so com­munit­ies know what to do and how they can get involved.
    • Cre­at­ing plat­forms (both on and off­line) for people to have their say eas­ily and report any issues.
    • More inform­a­tion about who owns land in their area and how it’s managed.
    • Great­er power and sup­port for Com­munity Coun­cils, and the cre­ation of Cit­izens’ Assem­blies / explor­ing par­ti­cip­at­ive budgeting.
• On vis­it­ors to the Park:
  • 41% said the cur­rent level of 2m vis­it­ors per annum was too many, 33% said it was about right, 6% said it was too few, and 22% weren’t sure.
  • When asked ​‘how can we wel­come vis­it­ors while pro­tect­ing loc­al com­munit­ies, land­scapes and wild­life’, the most com­mon responses were…
    • Bet­ter edu­ca­tion of vis­it­ors both before they travel and when they arrive on how to behave in the coun­tryside, includ­ing sig­nage, inter­pret­a­tion, edu­ca­tion resources etc.
    • Improved vis­it­or infra­struc­ture – camp­sites, bins, recyc­ling facil­it­ies etc.
    • Restrict­ing vis­it­or access to sens­it­ive areas, coupled with clear­er way­marked routes to encour­age people to explore less sens­it­ive areas.
    • The poten­tial for a small sur­charge to vis­it­ors, with pro­ceeds inves­ted in loc­al communities.
    • Bet­ter pub­lic trans­port options and cycle / walk­ing routes, plus incent­ives for people to use them.
    • More sea­son­al rangers plus ranger bases across the Park.
    • Great­er enforce­ment meas­ures e.g. spot fines for lit­ter­ing, dog waste etc.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 10^th Septem­ber 2021

• On a Park for everyone:
  • 77% felt that CNP was access­ible to people like them, 9% dis­agreed, 14% neither agreed nor dis­agreed. Many respond­ents poin­ted out that – whilst the Park was access­ible to them – the same may not be true for oth­er audiences.
  • When asked ​‘what prac­tic­al meas­ures would help you and oth­ers explore and enjoy the Park more eas­ily’, the most com­mon responses were…
    • Improved pub­lic trans­port and cyc­ling / walk­ing routes, includ­ing options for a hop on hop off bus ser­vice, park and ride scheme, plus all-abil­it­ies path net­work etc.
    • It’s easy enough as it is.
    • Improve vis­it­or infra­struc­ture around the Park e.g. dis­abled park­ing, toi­lets, camp­sites, benches etc.
    • Edu­ca­tion, guid­ance and sup­port for those new to the countryside.
    • More way­marked paths / moun­tain bike trails to pro­tect sens­it­ive areas.
    • More rangers and trained guides, includ­ing guided walk opportunities.
    • Clear­er inform­a­tion avail­able through CNP com­mu­nic­a­tion chan­nels, includ­ing web­site, leaf­lets, social media etc.
• And finally, we asked how optim­ist­ic or pess­im­ist­ic people were feel­ing about the future of CNP. 48% were either optim­ist­ic or very optim­ist­ic, 25% neither optim­ist­ic nor pess­im­ist­ic, 18% pess­im­ist­ic and 9% very pessimistic.