220211PerformanceCtteePaper4AACapercaillie

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 4 11/02/22

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY PER­FORM­ANCE COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: CAIRNGORMS CAPER­CAIL­LIE PROJECT

Pre­pared by: ANDY FORD, DIR­ECT­OR OF NATURE & CLI­MATE CHANGE

Pur­pose

This paper presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie project

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee is asked to review deliv­ery updates and con­sider: a) pro­gress towards the project’s agreed pur­poses; b) any stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on deliv­ery of the CNPA’s Cor­por­ate Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan; c) any mater­i­al impacts on the CNPA’s stra­tegic risk management.

Pro­ject Overview

1. Caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tions are neg­at­ively affected primar­ily by a com­bin­a­tion of hab­it­at loss and frag­ment­a­tion, dis­turb­ance, col­li­sions with unmarked fences, pred­a­tion, cli­mate change and pos­sibly genet­ic diversity. Each of these factors plays an import­ant role, and activ­ity in each has a sig­ni­fic­ant and com­ple­ment­ary effect.

2. In 2015 CNPA pro­duced the Caper­cail­lie Frame­work, bring­ing togeth­er know­ledge on pop­u­la­tion status, pres­sures on the pop­u­la­tion, and the suite of meas­ures cur­rently being deployed to inform co-ordin­a­tion of man­age­ment meas­ures and identi­fy where fur­ther invest­ment and activ­ity would be most beneficial.

3. In March 2018 CNPA and part­ners were awar­ded Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund devel­op­ment phase fund­ing to take for­wards recom­mend­a­tions in the Caper­cail­lie Frame­work relat­ing to pop­u­la­tion mon­it­or­ing, hab­it­at cre­ation, sus­tain­able recre­ation plan­ning and enabling com­munit­ies to play a part in caper­cail­lie conservation.

In 2020 a fur­ther c£2.3 mil­lion was awar­ded for the deliv­ery phase of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject (CCP), with the approved pur­poses to: a) enable com­munit­ies to devel­op and deliv­er their own com­munity-led actions for caper­cail­lie; b) raise aware­ness of the plight of caper­cail­lie and how people can help;

c) research the genet­ic diversity of caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to help inform action; d) improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie and under­take pred­at­or con­trol in key areas; e) strengthen cur­rent caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing to enable more informed decisions

1. The pro­ject does not include action for all factors affect­ing caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tions. It centres on a more people focussed approach in the hybrid spaces where people and nature coex­ist. Hab­it­at man­age­ment, fence remov­al, leg­al pred­at­or con­trol and many oth­er aspects of caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion have been going on for dec­ades by land man­agers and agen­cies. The pro­ject works closely with, but does not look to duplic­ate, this already exist­ing good work.

2. In 2021, in addi­tion to the work of the CCP and the ongo­ing work of many part­ners, CNPA ini­ti­ated dis­cus­sions with key stake­hold­ers at a seni­or level to invest­ig­ate the desirab­il­ity and feas­ib­il­ity of new approaches not already under con­sid­er­a­tion or being imple­men­ted, primar­ily around the man­age­ment of pro­tec­ted spe­cies, translocation/​rein­tro­duc­tion and cre­at­ing areas of min­im­um disturbance.

Stra­tegic Background

1. The most recent update to the Board on deliv­ery of the Authority’s stra­tegic object­ives as set out in the agreed Cor­por­ate Plan for 2018 to 2022 was presen­ted at the June 2021 meet­ing. The Cor­por­ate Plan deliv­ery report may be accessed at: Meet­ing — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

2. Deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie pro­ject dir­ectly impacts on the Cor­por­ate Plan key work area ​‘Deliv­er Caper­cail­lie Frame­work’ and Key Per­form­ance Indic­at­or ​‘num­ber of caper­cail­lie’. The KPI is cur­rently rated red, based on an assess­ment that the pop­u­la­tion tar­get of 1,200 by 2022 tar­get will not be met.

3. Action Id of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) pri­or­ity Id is to ​‘Co-ordin­ate hab­it­at, recre­ation and devel­op­ment man­age­ment to secure the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion through deliv­ery of the Caper­cail­lie Frame­work’. The most recent over­view of deliv­ery of the NPPP hav­ing been presen­ted to the Board at its meet­ing in Septem­ber 2021: Meet­ing — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

The latest review of the Stra­tegic Risk Register was con­sidered by the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee in Septem­ber 2021 and may be accessed at: 210910AuCtteePaper5AnnexIStrategicRiskRegisterV8.1.pdf (cairngorms​.co​.uk). Stra­tegic risks of rel­ev­ance to con­sid­er­a­tion of per­form­ance of the pro­grammes of work con­sidered by this paper are: a) A9.3 Staff­ing: addi­tion­al extern­ally fun­ded pro­jects strains staff work­load capa­city with increased risks of stress and reduced mor­ale. b) A11.2 Stra­tegic Risk Resourcing: the end of major pro­gramme invest­ments (Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et, LEAD­ER) requires sig­ni­fic­ant ongo­ing staff­ing to man­age audit and leg­acy which the Author­ity finds dif­fi­cult to resource.

c) A14.1 Repu­ta­tion: One-off, high pro­file incid­ents and / or voci­fer­ous social media cor­res­pond­ents have an undue influ­ence on the Authority’s pos­it­ive repu­ta­tion. d) A27 Tech­nic­al: approaches to con­ser­va­tion and pro­tec­tion of endangered spe­cies may be insuf­fi­cient to achieve asso­ci­ated stra­tegic outcomes

Per­form­ance Over­view: Deliv­ery of Approved Pur­poses against Stra­tegic Outcomes

1. Pos­it­ive pro­gress has been made against all of the project’s approved pur­poses. The quarterly report to Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (Annex 1) high­lights oper­a­tion­al activ­ity and that the pro­gramme is on track to deliv­er pro­ject outcomes.

2. Work with the 6^th, and final, com­munity of place or interest is one of the key remain­ing stra­tegic out­comes and points of activ­ity on the pro­ject timeline. CNPA and part­ners recog­nise the need to identi­fy a com­munity that involves a wider range of people in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion, adds value and strengthens exist­ing work with­in the project’s scope, com­ple­ments deliv­ery across CNPAs and part­ners’ work pro­grammes. Dis­cus­sions are cur­rently under­way with CCP Pro­ject Board and Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team and CNPA Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Group on options to deliv­er the stra­tegic out­comes and com­ple­tion with­in the fund­ing window.

3. Cor­por­ate Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan actions and indic­at­ors pos­i­tion the activ­it­ies of the NLHF fun­ded pro­ject with­in the con­text of wider CNPA and part­ner work on land man­age­ment, vis­it­or exper­i­ence and rur­al devel­op­ment. The pro­ject main­tains strong links with ongo­ing and devel­op­ing wider activ­it­ies to strengthen inform­a­tion flow and sup­port adapt­ive pro­ject and leg­acy plan­ning: a) Research into vis­it­or types, both loc­als and vis­it­ors to the area, and work with the busi­ness com­munity is help­ing to inform plan­ning related to man­aging for vis­it­ors across CNPAs work on infra­struc­ture plan­ning and devel­op­ing a ​‘sus­tain­able tour­ism des­tin­a­tion’; b) Hab­it­at improve­ment plan­ning and land own­er liais­on is routinely feed­ing into stake­hold­er dis­cus­sions on a range of land man­age­ment issues.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Risk Management

1. All pro­ject risks and issues, as iden­ti­fied in the quarterly pro­gress report, have mit­ig­a­tion plans in place.

2. Staff­ing: the pro­ject is oper­at­ing with a full com­ple­ment of staff.

3. Resourcing audit and leg­acy: Ongo­ing review of work plans enables re-alloc­a­tions of staff time and respons­ib­il­it­ies as the pro­ject work con­tin­ues to develop.

4. Repu­ta­tion: a) The car­rbridge caper­cail­lie group decided not to con­tin­ue with the path improve­ments designed to encour­age recre­ation in areas away from capercaillie

hab­it­at. The decision was pre­dic­ated primar­ily on responses to pub­lic con­sulta­tion which, whilst not con­clus­ive, the group did not feel gave them suf­fi­cient man­date to con­tin­ue. Car­rbridge and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil coun­cil­lors have voted unan­im­ously to seek sup­port else­where to pro­gress the works. The car­rbridge caper­cail­lie group are sub­mit­ting a revised pro­gramme of activ­ity to the CCP Pro­ject Board for approval.

b) Engage­ment with stake­hold­ers in Deeside has com­menced, rais­ing the pro­file of the pro­ject and the CNPA’s involve­ment in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion. CCP part­ners, Pro­ject Board and CNPA Board mem­bers with close affil­i­ations to the res­id­ent and land man­age­ment com­munit­ies in Deeside are act­ing as pro­ject cham­pi­ons to provide a sound basis for future work.

c) A sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of responses high­light a desire to see con­ser­va­tion activ­ity that is out­with the scope of the pro­ject eg man­age­ment of pine marten. The scope of the pro­ject and its role in the wider pic­ture will be a focus for pro­ject com­mu­nic­a­tions as dis­cus­sions con­tin­ue with stakeholders.

d) Mis­un­der­stand­ing about the scope of the CCP can lead to the CCP, and by exten­sion the CNPA, being asso­ci­ated with inactiv­ity. Pro­ject staff are devel­op­ing a brief­ing note, increas­ing com­mu­nic­a­tions via social media chan­nels and sup­port­ing key influ­en­cers. Effort will be fur­ther emphas­ised as the NatureScot SAC report is due for pub­lic­a­tion and this remains a high pri­or­ity in the project’s risk register and communications.

1. Tech­nic­al: The NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee con­vened to review sci­entif­ic evid­ence on factors affect­ing caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion, includ­ing those out­with the approved pur­poses of the pro­ject. A mem­ber of CNPA Board sits as an observ­er on the sub group. The report is due for pub­lic­a­tion on 3^rd March 2022. CNPA Board and key stake­hold­ers will be briefed on the report’s con­tents and find­ings on 24^th Feb­ru­ary 2022.

Evid­ence from the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project’s genet­ic research will become avail­able in 2022. The find­ings will under­pin any future decisions on the feas­ib­il­ity and desirab­il­ity of spe­cies translocation.

Con­clu­sions: Per­form­ance Over­view and Mat­ters Mer­it­ing Stra­tegic Review

1. There are no mat­ters of stra­tegic sig­ni­fic­ance which mer­it escal­a­tion at this time in the opin­ion of seni­or man­agers lead­ing the Cairngorms NPA’s link­age to the areas of activ­ity covered by this paper and asso­ci­ated reports.

Andy Ford Ist Feb­ru­ary 2022 andyford@​cairngorms.​co.​uk