221125PerformanceCtteePaper3AACaperChair

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 3 25^th Novem­ber 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY PER­FORM­ANCE COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: CAIRNGORMS CAPER­CAIL­LIE PROJECT

Pre­pared by: ANDY FORD, DIR­ECT­OR FOR 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.

Per­form­ance Dashboard

Per­form­ance Meas­ure: Pro­gress towards the project’s agreed pur­poses	Rat­ing	Com­ment­ary
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.	Green	The latest Action Plan for the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Strategy has been approved by the Pro­ject Board and deliv­ery is under­way. Action plans with the busi­ness, vis­it­or and moun­tain bik­ing com­munit­ies are also in the imple­ment­a­tion phase. A Deeside action plan is now in place fol­low­ing pos­it­ive engage­ment with stake­hold­ers. Mem­bers of the dog walk­ing com­munity have engaged pos­it­ively with the project’s ini­tial research to identi­fy areas of con­sensus with­in the dog walk­ing com­munity around which actions can be developed.
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.	Green	Social media engage­ment and web­site traffic con­tin­ues to increase. Volun­teers have donated over 2,760 hours to the pro­ject. Genet­ics work has exper­i­enced some delays but remains on track to effect­ively inform con­ver­sa­tions out­with the pro­ject related to the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee Report.
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.	Green	Hab­it­at improve­ments have been tak­ing place on Bal­mor­al, Seafield, Rothiemurchus and Aber­nethy. Pred­at­or man­age­ment con­tin­ues on Seafield and Rothiemurchus. The pro­ject grant scheme to enable land­man­agers to improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie received 4 suc­cess­ful applic­a­tions includ­ing from Dor­back and Invercauld.
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.	Green	An Eval­u­ation Frame­work is in place and qual­it­at­ive and quant­it­at­ive data is in the pro­cess of being gathered and ana­lysed to begin identi­fy­ing the project’s impact.
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.	Green	The mod­el developed through ini­tial work with Car­rbridge and sub­sequently mod­i­fied through adapt­ive learn­ing is used effect­ively across the pro­ject. Insights and learn­ing from the mod­el have been shared with mem­bers of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 team. Work by the James Hut­ton Insti­tute is ongo­ing to doc­u­ment on film the pro­cess and out­comes of 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.

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 The Authority’s stra­tegic object­ives of rel­ev­ance to con­sid­er­a­tion of the deliv­ery of the pro­gramme report­ing presen­ted with this paper are: a) 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.
2. The latest review of the Stra­tegic Risk Register was con­sidered by the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee in May 2022. 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
3. The pro­grammes of activ­ity under con­sid­er­a­tion here also fit with the pri­or­it­ies of the cur­rent Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP), 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 rel­ev­ant ele­ments of the NPPP deliv­ery relat­ing to these pro­grammes are: a) 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.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Deliv­ery Against Stra­tegic Expectations

1. Pos­it­ive pro­gress has been made against all of the project’s approved pur­poses. The quarterly report to Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund high­lights the pro­gramme is well advanced and on track to deliv­er pro­ject outcomes.
2. 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) The CNPA vis­it­or man­age­ment and access teams are act­ively con­trib­ut­ing to the work now under­way to devel­op detailed pro­pos­als in response to the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee Report on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment. Trans­ition­al plan­ning is in place to man­age the project’s leg­acy regard­ing access man­age­ment as part of core CNPA busi­ness b) Mem­bers of the CNPA Access and Recre­ation Team are act­ively involved in the project’s work with the dog walk­ing com­munity which will see the devel­op­ment of a 5‑year pro­gramme of actions, rep­res­ent­at­ive of the dog walk­ing community’s views, for deliv­ery post-pro­ject led by CNPA. c) Learn­ing from the tri­al sig­nage to encour­age respons­ible access around Car­rbridge is con­tinu­ing to inform CNPA access team stra­tegic plan­ning. d) The vis­it­or seg­ment­a­tion mod­el developed as part of the research to under­stand vis­it­ors’ per­cep­tions and val­ues relat­ing to access and caper­cail­lie in Rothiemurchus, Aber­nethy and Glen­more is con­tinu­ing to help inform CNPA’s wider work related to man­aging for vis­it­ors, audi­ence pro­fil­ing and Her­it­age Hori­zons. e) Insights and learn­ing from the project’s mod­el for com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion and work with com­munit­ies has been shared with mem­bers of CNPA’s Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 team to help the team’s think­ing as they devel­op their deliv­ery phase application.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Risks Under Management

1. All pro­ject risks and issues, as iden­ti­fied in the quarterly pro­gress report, are either in a favour­able status or being man­aged closely at Pro­ject Board level with mit­ig­a­tion plans in place.
2. Staff­ing: the pro­ject is oper­at­ing with suf­fi­cient staff capa­city to achieve its object­ives. Addi­tion­al capa­city has been secured in a part time Trail Devel­op­ment Co-ordin­at­or who will sup­port the project’s work with the moun­tain bik­ing com­munity until July 2023. The post is fully fun­ded by the pro­ject (NLHF).

The project’s Com­munity Ranger assigned to Car­rbridge has moved from the pro­ject to become a full time Coun­tryside Ranger in the CNPA Ranger Team where they will con­tin­ue to sup­port the pro­ject as part of the CNPA Ranger Team. The Coun­tryside Ranger post is core fun­ded by CNPA.

The Pro­ject Coordin­at­or has left the pro­ject for a per­man­ent extern­al post. Pro­ject staff and CNPA core staff will cov­er the Pro­ject Coordinator’s work for the remain­ing 12 months of the project.

Two post hold­ers with­in the pro­ject (Pro­ject Man­ager and Pro­ject Officer) have now been in post for 4 years (+). CNPA policy requires that these post hold­ers are offered new roles com­men­sur­ate with grade when their cur­rent fixed term con­tracts end at the end of the project.

1. Resourcing audit and leg­acy: The Pro­ject Board agreed in June that the pro­ject should seek an exten­sion to the cur­rent grant expiry (30 July 2023) in order to secure a firm leg­acy across all areas of work with­in the pro­ject. NLHF have approved the exten­sion in prin­ciple, which will see the project’s activ­it­ies end in Decem­ber 2023 and the pro­ject form­ally end in Janu­ary 2024. No addi­tion­al fund­ing is required. The exten­sion will be fin­anced by the project’s cur­rent under­spend. To enable the Board and NLHF’s decision regard­ing an exten­sion, a full assess­ment was made of the pro­ject activ­it­ies which are cur­rently anti­cip­ated to be com­pleted by 30 July 2023 and those which need or would bene­fit from more time to secure a firmer legacy.
2. Repu­ta­tion: a) An Eval­u­ation Frame­work is in place for the pro­ject to mon­it­or ongo­ing work, to under­stand the suc­cesses and chal­lenges involved in deliv­er­ing the pro­ject and to report on the extent to which the pro­ject has achieved its goals. With effect­ive ongo­ing mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­ation, it will be pos­sible to learn from achieve­ments and issues, adapt ways of work­ing in the light of exper­i­ence, and share learn­ing with­in and bey­ond the pro­ject. It will also provide the basis for report­ing the out­comes and impacts of the work to oth­ers, intern­ally and extern­ally. An inter­im eval­u­ation report will be dis­cussed with NLHF, Pro­ject Board and the project’s Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team in Janu­ary. b) The wider con­text of caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion remains a highly con­ten­tious and high-pro­file arena, attract­ing much com­ment and polar­ised opin­ion. Cur­rent dis­course is focused primar­ily on the out­comes of the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Committee’s recent report and the recom­mend­a­tion therein regard­ing pred­at­or man­age­ment. Pro­ject staff, with sup­port from Pro­ject Board mem­bers where rel­ev­ant, are con­tinu­ing to ensure the pro­ject scope and leg­acy is clearly com­mu­nic­ated in this context.
3. Tech­nic­al: Pro­ject staff will con­tin­ue, where required, to help co-ordin­ate the work out­with the pro­ject which is now under­way in response to the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee Report. CNPA and NatureScot are con­tinu­ing to pro­gress work on a Spa­tial Strategy in response to the report, con­sulta­tion with stake­hold­ers and CNPA and NatureScot Board dis­cus­sions about the report earli­er this year. The recent nation­al sur­vey res­ult strengthens the need for this work to con­tin­ue and at pace. The Spa­tial Strategy will include the cre­ation of refu­gia and safe spaces for caper­cail­lie to min­im­ise human dis­turb­ance. There is a risk that the CCP’s bot­tom-up, col­lab­or­at­ive approach that has proven very suc­cess­ful with groups to date (eg moun­tain bik­ing com­munity, busi­nesses and vis­it­ors) is con­fused with, and there­fore under­mined by, a more top-down, instruct­ive approach to defin­ing and man­aging refuges.

Ini­tial evid­ence from the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project’s genet­ic research will become avail­able this autumn. 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 3 Novem­ber 2022 andyford@​cairngorms.​co.​uk