220513PerformanceCtteePaper4Annex1Highlight-ReportQ42021-22CCP

Taing dhan A’ Mhaoin- Dualchais

Made pos­sible with Her­it­age Fund

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 4 Annex I 13/05/2022

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject Pro­gress Report: 1 Jan — 31 March 2022

The inform­a­tion in this doc­u­ment is sub­mit­ted and dis­cussed as part of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project’s quarterly report­ing to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund.

Pro­ject summary

The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject is work­ing to secure the long-term sur­viv­al of caper­cail­lie in the UK. Fun­ded by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund until July 2023, the project’s actions for caper­cail­lie are being delivered across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The project’s key actions are:

• to enable com­munit­ies to devel­op and deliv­er their own com­munity-led actions for capercaillie;

• raise aware­ness of the plight of caper­cail­lie and how people can help;

• research the genet­ic diversity of caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to help inform action;

• improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie and under­take pred­at­or con­trol in key areas;

• strengthen cur­rent caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing to enable more informed decisions

The pro­ject is led by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and delivered in part­ner­ship with the Badenoch & Strath­spey Trail Asso­ci­ation, Bal­mor­al Estate, Brook Forestry, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group, Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scot­land, Forestry and Land Scot­land, Groves Forestry, Rothiemurchus Estate, RSPB, Scot­tish Forestry, NatureScot and Seafield and Strath­spey Estates.

Pro­ject start date	22 July 2020
Grant expiry date	30 July 2023

Pro­gress towards the project’s approved purposes

Green	Deliv­ery is on track
Amber	Minor issues are impact­ing delivery
Red	Major issues are impact­ing delivery

The project’s three-step mod­el for enabling com­munity-led action for capercaillie

Stage 1: Why?	This stage is about defin­ing the cause. Why does (or might) caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion mat­ter to the com­munity? This is about identi­fy­ing the key interest groups and lead­ers in the com­munity and listen­ing to them to identi­fy the issues and themes at play related to caper­cail­lie conservation.
Stage 2: How?	This stage is about identi­fy­ing how the com­munity feels about the cause by identi­fy­ing the views held in the wider com­munity, how wide­spread those views are and where the com­mon ground is.
Stage 3: What?	This stage is about enabling the com­munity to take action for the cause using the data and ana­lys­is from Stage 2 and help­ing the com­munity plan how to mon­it­or and eval­u­ate the actions they deliv­er in response.

Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of pro­gress	Status
Empower com­munit­ies to help ensure the sur­viv­al of caper­cail­lie through com­munity-led con­ser­va­tion, by imple­ment­ing the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy and devel­op­ing, agree­ing and imple­ment­ing action plans with addi­tion­al communities.	Car­rbridge com­munity – Stage 3 ☐ All landown­ers in caper­cail­lie sens­it­ive areas around Car­rbridge con­firmed that they wish to re-install the sig­nage trialed in 2021 to pro­mote respons­ible access from April to August, dur­ing lekking and breed­ing sea­son, as part of the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy. An addi­tion­al landown­er, who was not part of the 2021 tri­al, con­firmed that they also wish to install the sig­nage this year. Plans were developed to safe­guard lek sites around Car­rbridge this April. Safe­guard­ing loc­al lek sites is an annu­al activ­ity as part of the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy. Res­id­ents were invited, via Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie News, to share their thoughts on the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy: Action Plan for 2022⁄23. The Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group pro­duced a draft Action Plan for the Pro­ject Board to review. Res­id­ents were informed (via Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie News) of the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group’s decision not to pro­ceed with the path improve­ment pro­pos­als due to the com­munity con­sulta­tion res­ults not provid­ing a suf­fi­cient man­date to do so. Issue: The Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy: Action Plan for 2022⁄23 is still being finalised.
	Moun­tain bik­ing com­munity – Stage 3 A second online con­sulta­tion regard­ing the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan was held with Forestry and Land Scot­land, Seafield and Strath­spey Estates, RSPB, Rothiemurchus Estate, CNPA, NatureScot and mem­bers of the Trail Feath­ers group includ­ing the Badenoch & Strath­spey Trail Asso­ci­ation. The MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan is designed to:
	1. Enable data driv­en decisions about trail devel­op­ment, main­ten­ance and pro­mo­tion in Badenoch and Strath­spey to ensure moun­tain bik­ing recre­ation devel­ops sus­tain­ably and sens­it­ive hab­it­ats and spe­cies are safe­guarded. 2. Enable great­er levels of respons­ible access by the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity in Badenoch and Strath­spey includ­ing res­id­ent and vis­it­ing riders. 3. Enable the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity, land man­agers and agen­cies to com­mu­nic­ate more effectively.
	Mem­bers of the Trail Feath­ers group presen­ted and dis­cussed the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan with the Aber­nethy Vis­it­or and Access Group and the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um (LOAF). LOAF mem­bers were invited to con­sider the plan in the con­text of oth­er access takers, and what oppor­tun­it­ies exist to use the plan as an example to inspire and enable com­munity-led action by oth­er recre­ation­al user groups.
	Busi­ness com­munity – Stage 3 A work­shop was held by the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship for mem­bers of the busi­ness com­munity to learn about the vis­it­or research, spe­cific­ally the seg­ment­a­tion mod­el and its poten­tial to enable busi­nesses to help more of their cus­tom­ers to enjoy the Nation­al Park respons­ibly. An over­view of the draft action plan developed in response to the res­ults of the online sur­vey for busi­nesses was also shared and dis­cussed at the work­shop and mem­bers were invited to feed­back on the draft plan.
	Vis­it­or com­munity – Stage 3 The research regard­ing vis­it­ors to Glen­more Forest Park, Aber­nethy and Rothiemurchus was pub­lished on the pro­ject web­site at cairngormscapercaillie.scot/communities/visitors Work is now under­way with Forestry and Land Scot­land, Rothiemurchus and RSPB to identi­fy actions informed by the research that will enable high qual­ity sus­tain­able vis­it­or exper­i­ences and thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas in Glen­more, Rothiemurchus and Abernethy.

Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of pro­gress	Status
Raise aware­ness and increase under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges facing caper­cail­lie through a vari­ety of means includ­ing social media activ­it­ies and events, a new online engage­ment plat­form, volun­teer work, a pub­lic app, new resources for schools and genet­ics analysis.	Deeside com­munit­ies – Stage 3 ☐ The second stage of research in Deeside was com­pleted. The first stage involved listen­ing ses­sions (con­duc­ted by an object­ive third party) with 30 key people con­nec­ted to the area, includ­ing landown­ers and land man­agers, busi­nesses related to tour­ism and recre­ation, and rep­res­ent­at­ives from interest groups includ­ing field sports and moun­tain bik­ing. The views shared in the listen­ing ses­sions are sum­mar­ised on the pro­ject web­site: cairngormscapercaillie.scot/communities/Deeside The views shared by the major­ity through the listen­ing ses­sions were used to cre­ate an online sur­vey for Deeside res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to com­plete to identi­fy how wide­spread the major­ity views are. 768 Deeside res­id­ents and vis­it­ors com­pleted the sur­vey. The high num­ber of respond­ents secured a 95% con­fid­ence level in the res­ults. Almost all respond­ents (98%) feel that we should pro­tect caper­cail­lie in Deeside for future gen­er­a­tions to enjoy; that even if they nev­er see a caper­cail­lie in Deeside, it is import­ant to them that they exist in the area (97%); and they feel for­tu­nate to have caper­cail­lie in Deeside (97%). In response to this man­date a draft action plan has been developed. This quarter the pro­ject web­site attrac­ted 326 return­ing vis­it­ors; up 37% on the last quarter, and 1,819 new vis­it­ors; up 52%. The pro­ject Face­book page has over 1,392 fol­low­ers; up 39% on the last quarter. The fol­low­ing media have fea­tured the pro­ject this quarter: BBC High­land Radio BBC Scot­land Deeside Piper North­ern Times Press & Journ­al Scot­tish Daily Mail Scot­tish Field Scots­man Strath­spey Her­ald STV A present­a­tion about the pro­ject and caper­cail­lie was giv­en to the Aber­deen & Aber­deen­shire Scot­tish Wild­life Trust Loc­al Group. Volun­teer ses­sions were delivered with Forestry and Land Scot­land, Seafield, Rothiemurchus and Bal­mor­al Estate. The ses­sions involved volun­teers improv­ing caper­cail­lie hab­it­at by mark­ing fences, restor­ing forest bogs and remov­ing non-nat­ive sap­lings from areas of regen­er­at­ing Scots pine. To date volun­teers have donated 2,345 hours to the pro­ject. A team of Fence Mon­it­or­ing Volun­teers were recruited to help check fences across the Nation­al Park to ensure they don’t pose a col­li­sion risk to caper­cail­lie. A tender was pub­lished on Pub­lic Con­tracts Scot­land for devel­op­ing and pro­du­cing learn­ing resources to help more primary school pupils (and their teach­ers) to learn about capercaillie.
Work with landown­ers to imple­ment plans to improve and man­age around 9,000 hec­tares of hab­it­at across six estates for the bene­fit of caper­cail­lie; enable landown­ers to play their part in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion via a third-party grant scheme tar­get­ing land­hold­ings in caper­cail­lie areas.	Con­tact was made with wild­life guid­ing com­pan­ies oper­at­ing in the Nation­al Park that pose a high risk to caper­cail­lie, e.g. they are act­ively pro­mot­ing caper­cail­lie as a tar­get spe­cies April to August. One com­pany has changed their prac­tices in response. Guid­ing com­pan­ies that have adop­ted and are pub­licly cham­pi­on­ing best prac­tice regard­ing caper­cail­lie watch­ing were also con­tac­ted to thank them for their pro­act­ive approach. The first phase of work to pilot a genet­ic lek sur­vey was com­pleted. The second phase begins in April when drop­pings will be col­lec­ted as part of exist­ing lek sur­vey work. The aim of the genet­ic lek sur­vey is to estab­lish wheth­er the use of genet­ic mater­i­al provides a feas­ible altern­at­ive to cur­rent sur­vey meth­ods used to estim­ate pop­u­la­tion size which are reli­ant on caper­cail­lie sight­ings. If suc­cess­ful, genet­ic lek sur­veys also stand to reduce the resid­ual dis­turb­ance caused by exist­ing lek sur­vey meth­ods as genet­ic mater­i­al can be col­lec­ted once birds have dis­persed. Work is ongo­ing by RZSS to identi­fy the genet­ic diversity of the Cairngorms caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion using feath­ers col­lec­ted by the pro­ject from across the Nation­al Park. Com­par­is­on samples from Sweden, Poland, Ger­many, Aus­tria, Nor­way, France, Belarus and Slov­akia have now been secured, in addi­tion to UK samples thought to be pre- extinc­tion. The final report on the genet­ic diversity of the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion in the Cairngorms will be pub­lished in August and an action plan­ning work­shop in response to the report will take place in Septem­ber. The fol­low­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work was delivered this quarter, improv­ing over 8,900 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie: Aber­nethy: Cut­ting the field lay­er in the forest using a rob­ocut­ter to enable blae­berry to grow and caper­cail­lie to move around more freely. Bal­mor­al Estate: Remov­ing non-nat­ive trees to allow Scots pine to regen­er­ate and block­ing man-made ditches to re-wet and restore forest bogs; an essen­tial hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie. Rothiemurchus Estate: Cut­ting the field lay­er in the forest using a rob­ocut­ter. Foxes and crows have been con­trolled to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al. Grit piles have been cre­ated in the forest to reduce the need for caper­cail­lie to vis­it tracks to pick up grit. Spruce sap­lings have been removed from an area of regen­er­at­ing Scots pine and a track in a caper­cail­lie area has been screened to reduce dis­turb­ance. Seafield Estate: Foxes and crows have been con­trolled. Mark­ing has been replaced on stra­tegic fences to avoid col­li­sions. Hab­it­at has been expan­ded by replant­ing an area with Scots pine and nat­ive broadleaves and an area of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion has also been estab­lished. The pro­ject grant scheme to enable land­man­agers of all sizes to improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie opened for applic­a­tions in Feb­ru­ary. Grants are avail­able for actions that are not cur­rently fun­ded through exist­ing schemes includ­ing pred­at­or con­trol over 1.5km from an act­ive lek and mark­ing fen­cing over 1km from an act­ive caper­cail­lie lek. Issue: Deer con­trol to improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Tom an Uird Forest is under review as a whole forest approach to deer man­age­ment in Tom an Uird Forest is no longer viable through FGS funding.

Approved pur­pose	Sum­mary of pro­gress	Status
Mon­it­or, test and eval­u­ate ideas through­out deliv­ery, apply­ing learn­ing from the pro­ject to refine activ­it­ies includ­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work, sur­vey tech­niques, pro­mo­tion­al activ­it­ies and the com­munity action plan­ning model.	A draft Eval­u­ation Frame­work was pro­duced and eval­u­ation ses­sions held with mem­bers of the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity, pro­ject staff and part­ners to reflect on the project’s com­munity action plan­ning mod­el, cap­ture learn­ing and update the mod­el in response. Phase 1 of the pilot genet­ic lek sur­vey was com­pleted. This involved estab­lish­ing the most effect­ive stor­age meth­od for drop­pings. This learn­ing will now be applied to Phase 2 which will see drop­pings gathered and stored accord­ingly dur­ing the com­ing lek season.
Devel­op an innov­at­ive and rep­lic­able mod­el for com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion that enables com­munit­ies to suc­cess­fully coex­ist with their nat­ur­al her­it­age, shar­ing the project’s find­ings intern­ally and extern­ally with UK organ­isa­tions, and fur­ther afield, to cre­ate a leg­acy of learning.	The afore­men­tioned Eval­u­ation Frame­work includes a num­ber of tools to help eval­u­ate and refine the mod­el which has been developed to enable com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion. Work by James Hut­ton Lim­ited is ongo­ing to doc­u­ment on film the pro­cess and out­comes of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject, i.e. the project’s work with the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity, to provide inspir­a­tion, learn­ing and evid­ence in a way that can stim­u­late fur­ther debate and learning.

Mile­stones
Green	Deliv­ery is on track
Amber	Minor issues are impact­ing delivery
Red	Major issues are impact­ing delivery
	2020	2021	2022	2023
Recruit­ment
Recruit Pro­ject Officer, Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer, Pro­ject Admin­is­trat­or, Com­munity Ranger and Caper­cail­lie Advis­ory Assistant
Rais­ing awareness
Devel­op a Comms Plan
Launch a new pro­ject website
Com­mis­sion the design of caper­cail­lie related resources for primary schools
Devel­op an online caper­cail­lie hub
Genet­ic research
Ana­lyse DNA from caper­cail­lie feath­ers col­lec­ted from across the Nation­al Park
Deliv­er an action plan­ning work­shop in response to find­ings from the DNA analysis
Tri­al a genet­ic lek survey
Hab­it­at improvement
Improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Aber­nethy Forest
Improve over 30 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Bad­den­gorm Woods
Improve over 400 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Bal­mor­al Estate
Improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in Tom an Uird Forest
Improve over 4,500 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Rothiemurchus Estate (includes pred­at­or control)
Improve over 3,000 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie on Seafield and Strath­spey Estates (includes pred­at­or control)
Launch a grant scheme to enable fur­ther hab­it­at improve­ment for capercaillie

	2020	2021	2022	2023
Caper­cail­lie monitoring
Launch a pub­lic caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing app
Con­duct brood, lek and occu­pancy surveys
Pro­ject mon­it­or­ing and evaluation
Devel­op a Mon­it­or­ing and Eval­u­ation Framework
Com­munity-led action — Car­rbridge com­munity (research­ing com­munity views was com­pleted in the pre­vi­ous phase)
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – moun­tain bik­ing community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – vis­it­or community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action – busi­ness community
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions
Com­munity-led action — Deeside communities
Research com­munity views
Plan actions
Deliv­er actions

Risk / Issue	Like­li­hood	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Pri­or­ity
1. The diverse range of interests, organ­isa­tions and groups involved in the pro­ject presents chal­lenges to effect­ive part­ner­ship working.	Medi­um	Medi­um	All part­ners and areas of work are rep­res­en­ted on the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team. The Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team oper­ates under a Part­ner­ship Agree­ment. Mem­bers of the CNPA Board and Seni­or Man­age­ment Team are mem­bers of the Pro­ject Board. The Pro­ject Board oper­ate under a Memor­andum of Agreement.	High No change
2. Com­munity-led ele­ments are not con­duc­ted in an effect­ive, trans­par­ent and defens­ible way lim­it­ing bene­fits and caus­ing dis­en­gage­ment and mis­trust in communities.	Medi­um	Medi­um	All learn­ing cap­tured from the devel­op­ment phase (and ongo­ing learn­ing in the deliv­ery phase) is being applied. The Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team (respons­ible for help­ing to strengthen the project’s com­munity-led work) com­prises of rep­res­ent­at­ives from all the com­munity groups and organ­isa­tions involved. A three-stage mod­el is in place to ensure work with oth­er com­munit­ies is only car­ried out if it’s con­sidered with­in the scope of the pro­ject and the com­munity is con­sidered viable to work with with the pro­ject resource available.	High No change
3. Pro­ject inform­a­tion is used to under­mine pub­lic sup­port for the project.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Pro­ject Board have stra­tegic respons­ib­il­ity for pro­ject com­mu­nic­a­tions. A Comms Plan is in place. All pro­ject doc­u­ments are writ­ten for a pub­lic audi­ence and pub­lished on the pro­ject web­site (as far as appro­pri­ate). A pro­ject Face­book page provides oppor­tun­it­ies to dis­pel myths and cor­rect misunderstandings.	High No change
4. Hab­it­at improve­ment work delayed or unvi­able due to changes onsite, delays in the pro­cess of apply­ing for FGS fund­ing and or con­flict­ing advice.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Part­ners apply­ing for FGS fund­ing are exper­i­enced in the pro­cess and have a good track record of secur­ing fund­ing. Addi­tion­al resource is provided by the pro­ject to help strengthen applic­a­tions. Scot­tish Forestry and NatureScot are pro­ject part­ners and mem­bers of the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team.	High No change

Risk / Issue	Like­li­hood	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Pri­or­ity
5. Mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­ation inform­a­tion and pro­cesses are not used effect­ively to strengthen the pro­ject; inform leg­acy plan­ning; and help safe­guard the pro­ject from inher­ent risks.	Low	High	An Eval­u­ation Frame­work has been developed. A cul­ture of reflec­tion is embed­ded in the pro­ject and pro­fes­sion­ally facil­it­ated where possible.	Medi­um Was High
6. Cov­id related restric­tions lim­it pro­ject activ­it­ies and pace.	Low	High	Pro­act­ive approach taken to ensure activ­it­ies con­tin­ue with­in cur­rent guidelines and meet­ings take place in per­son where pos­sible to improve pro­ductiv­ity and help build relationships.	Medi­um Was High
7. The pro­ject increases caper­cail­lie dis­turb­ance or is per­ceived to do so.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff are work­ing closely with landown­ers, land­man­agers and com­munity mem­bers to stay informed and respond to any issues or per­cep­tions related to dis­turb­ance. The Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team is in place and able to identi­fy ways for­ward when neces­sary to address issues or per­cep­tions related to dis­turb­ance. Comms assets are act­ively shared with part­ners and third parties to reduce the need for caper­cail­lie film­ing and pho­to­graphy. All sur­vey work is com­pleted under licence and all hab­it­at improve­ment and mon­it­or­ing work is car­ried out in accord­ance with rel­ev­ant legis­la­tion. The pro­ject oper­ates with­in the Caper­cail­lie Data Shar­ing Policy.	Medi­um No change
8. Pro­ject activ­it­ies con­flict with oth­er ini­ti­at­ives, e.g. wader conservation.	Low	Medi­um	Organ­isa­tions involved in poten­tially con­flict­ing activ­it­ies are pro­ject part­ners rep­res­en­ted on the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team and Pro­ject Board, oper­at­ing respect­ively under a Part­ner­ship Agree­ment and Memor­andum of Agreement.	Low Was Medium
9. Con­tin­ued cold and wet weath­er dur­ing caper­cail­lie nest­ing and breed­ing sea­son could over­whelm the bene­fits of the project.	Low	Medi­um	Con­tin­ue deliv­ery — the project’s work is vital to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al, even in dif­fi­cult years; main­tain pro­act­ive comms intern­ally and extern­ally; review the issue at Pro­ject Board to identi­fy a way forward.	Low Was Medium
10. Genet­ic ana­lys­is reveals caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion in the UK is at risk of becom­ing func­tion­ally extinct.	Low	Medi­um	Con­tin­ue deliv­ery and fast track the action plan­ning work sched­uled in response to the genet­ic ana­lys­is; review the issue at Pro­ject Board to identi­fy a way forward.	Low Was Medium

Income	Expec­ted	Received to date
Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund	2,036,100	360,239
CNPA	60,280	50,280
NatureScot	50,000	35,000
Scot­tish Forestry	28,000	16,000
Forestry Grant Scheme	127,473	0
RSPB	40,000	25,000
RSPB Aber­nethy	10,000	3,080
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	224,144	107,036
Rothiemurchus Estate	41,669	23,512
Bal­mor­al Estate	11,500	2,500
Bad­den­gorm Woods	48,240	0
Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scotland	75,000	1,440
Volun­teer time (in-kind)	120,000	40,925
RSPB in-kind (tech­nic­al sup­port for the app and online hub)	27,800	3,500
Total	2,900,206	668,512

Break­down of income / con­tri­bu­tions received
Part­ner / Funder	Nature of contribution	Total to date
Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund	Grant	360,239
CNPA	Dona­tion	50,280
Nature Scot	Dona­tion	35,000
Scot­tish Forestry	Dona­tion	16,000
Rothiemurchus Estate	Estate con­tri­bu­tion to pred­at­or con­trol work	23,512
RSPB	Dona­tion	25,000
RSPB Aber­nethy	Con­tract­or pay­ment — field lay­er sur­vey pri­or to heath­er cutting	3,080
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — replanting	38,184
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — fence remov­al & repair pri­or to replanting	36,092
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — ground­work pri­or to felling and replanting	17,460
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Con­tract­or pay­ment — fence remov­al, replace­ment and marking	15,300
Bal­mor­al Estate	Con­tract­or pay­ment — remov­al of 1,100m of deer fence	2,500
Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scotland	Con­tract­or pay­ment — trail main­ten­ance and inspec­tion training	1,440
Total		624,087

Part­ner / Fun­der	Nature of con­tri­bu­tion (Added value — not in the ori­gin­al budget)	Total to date
CNPA	6 month intern­ship to sup­port MTB com­munity work	6,762
Forestry Grant Scheme	Fence mark­ing on Seafield Estate	22,752
Forestry Grant Scheme	Scar­i­fy­ing to pro­mote nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion on Seafield Estate	5,672
Total		35,186

Volun­teer time (in-kind con­tri­bu­tion)	Total to date
Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group	15,362
Moun­tain bik­ing (Trail Feath­ers) group	11,906
Volun­teers deliv­er­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work	3,036
Caper­cail­lie monitoring	1,746
Digit­al volun­teer (pro­ject web­site design and development)	8,875
Total	40,925

RSPB (in-kind con­tri­bu­tion)	Total to date
Caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing app development	3,500
Total	3,500

Break­down of expendit­ure / investment
Com­munity	Com­munity-led action
	Revised nation­al caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion estim­ate to help inform action	2,400
	Study of pred­at­or activ­ity in caper­cail­lie areas in Kin­veachy Forest to help inform action	7,260
Car­rbridge	Print­ing and pro­duc­tion of tri­al signs to encour­age respons­ible access in caper­cail­lie areas around Carrbridge	453
	Path sur­veys and feas­ib­il­ity work to enable thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas around Car­rbridge and paths and out­door spaces for all res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to enjoy	4,965
Total		15,078

Com­munity	Com­munity-led action	Total
	Equip­ment to repair trails to reduce hab­it­at loss and fragmentation	2,366
Moun­tain biking	Print­ing and pro­duc­tion of tri­al signs to encour­age respons­ible rid­ing in caper­cail­lie areas	160
	Trail Asso­ci­ation web­site to increase vis­ib­il­ity, build aware­ness and support	785
	Trail Asso­ci­ation insur­ance to deliv­er com­munity-led action	683
Total		3,994

Con­tract­or	Work	Total
High­land Field & Forest / Instinct	Brood sur­veys to help meas­ure impact of hab­it­at improve­ment work, pred­at­or con­trol and com­munity-led action to reduce disturbance	5,172
RZSS	Research­ing the genet­ic diversity of caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to inform action	62,768
RZSS	Devel­op­ing a new approach to estim­at­ing the size of the UK caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion using genet­ic material	9,853
James Hut­ton Institute	Eval­u­ation film to share the learn­ing and achieve­ments of the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity; work­ing to deliv­er con­ser­va­tion solu­tions in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park	18,000
The Eval­u­at­or	Mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­at­ing the pro­ject to meas­ure impact and share learning	9,100
The Eval­u­at­or	Research­ing pub­lic atti­tudes and beliefs about the Deeside area and caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion to inform com­munity-led action plan­ning in Deeside	7,443
Her­it­age Pathfind­er Ltd.	Research­ing vis­it­or atti­tudes and beliefs to inform action to enable thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas and high qual­ity, sus­tain­able vis­it­or experiences	25,000
Her­it­age Pathfind­er Ltd.	Mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­at­ing the pro­ject to meas­ure impact and share learning	27,510
Total		164,846

Land­hold­ing	Hab­it­at improve­ment work	Total
Aber­nethy	Heath­er cut­ting (with a rob­ocut­ter) to improve c300 ha of habitat	50,000
Bad­den­gorm	Replant­ing wood­land with nat­ive spe­cies to expand habitat	6,800
Bad­den­gorm	Mark­ing fen­cing with wooden mark­ers to avoid collisions	5,000
Bal­mor­al Estate	Heath­er cut­ting, fence remov­al and mark­ing fences with wooden mark­ers to improve c400 ha of hab­it­at and avoid collisions	18,900
Cran­nach Nature Reserve	Heath­er cut­ting to improve habitat	1,290
Lynamer, Nethy Bridge	Restruc­tur­ing wood­lands (remov­ing non-nat­ive trees) to expand habitat	2,673
Rothiemurchus Estate	Screen­ing track­side edges to reduce human disturbance	1,600
Rothiemurchus Estate	Heath­er cut­ting and cre­at­ing grit beds to improve habitat	5,450
Rothiemurchus Estate	Mark­ing fences to avoid collisions	1,600
Rothiemurchus Estate	Pred­at­or con­trol to enhance caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al in key areas	83,315
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Plant­ing nat­ive trees to expand hab­it­at by c90ha	58,290
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Remov­ing, repla­cing and mark­ing stra­tegic fences to avoid collisions	15,300
Tombain Plant­a­tion	Mark­ing fen­cing with wooden mark­ers to avoid collisions	4,944
Total		255,162

Pro­ject staff	Work	Total *
Caper­cail­lie Advis­ory Assist­ant (P/T)	Caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing to inform work and meas­ure impact	44,700
Caper­cail­lie Advis­ory Officer (P/T)	Stra­tegic sup­port for caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing & hab­it­at improvement	59,350
Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer (P/T)	Rais­ing aware­ness and under­stand­ing about caper­cail­lie & the project	91,350
Com­munity Ranger	Sup­port­ing Car­rbridge com­munity-led action	103,150
Game­keep­er	Pred­at­or con­trol on Seafield Estate	168,014
High­land Devel­op­ment Co-Ordinator	Stra­tegic sup­port for com­munity-led action	40,000
Pro­ject Coordin­at­or (P/T)	Sup­port­ing pro­ject deliv­ery and provid­ing admin­is­tra­tion support	77,200
Pro­ject Manager	Man­aging the pro­ject as a whole, includ­ing staff and contractors	170,700
Pro­ject Officer (P/T)	Sup­port­ing pro­ject delivery	105,900
Total		860,364

• Total salary, equip­ment and over­head costs for the deliv­ery phase, i.e. 3 years (2020 — 2023)