230310CNPAPerfCtteePaper4Annex1HighlightReport_Q2_2022-2_CapercaillieProject

Taing dhan A’ Mhaoin- Dualchais

Made pos­sible with Her­it­age Fund

Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject Pro­gress Report: 1 July — 30 Septem­ber 2022

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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

1

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 Car­rbridge com­munity – Stage 3 com­munit­ies to help The Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group pro­duced a cos­ted Action Plan for ensure the sur­viv­al deliv­er­ing fur­ther aspects of the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion of caper­cail­lie Strategy by July 2023. The Pro­ject Board approved the Action Plan and through com­munity- asso­ci­ated costs and it was shared with Car­rbridge res­id­ents via a new led con­ser­va­tion, by edi­tion of Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie News. imple­ment­ing the The fol­low­ing actions from the plan have now been delivered: Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Safe­guard the lek sites and sens­it­ive caper­cail­lie areas around Con­ser­va­tion Car­rbridge dur­ing the 2022 breed­ing sea­son, work­ing with the Strategy and Com­munity Ranger and CNPA Ranger Team. devel­op­ing, Install sea­son­al sig­nage around Car­rbridge (developed and tested as agree­ing and part of the 2021 Action Plan) to pro­mote respons­ible access and dog imple­ment­ing action walk­ing in caper­cail­lie areas dur­ing the 2022 breed­ing sea­son, work­ing plans with addi­tion­al with the Com­munity Ranger and land­man­agers. com­munit­ies. Com­mis­sion a brood count around Car­rbridge to provide new data on loc­al pro­ductiv­ity. (Brood count con­duc­ted in August) Pub­lish the Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie News­let­ter online to help keep the com­munity informed about the work tak­ing place to help caper­cail­lie around Car­rbridge and across the Nation­al Park. Com­mis­sion the pro­duc­tion of Hapi Capis for Car­rbridge res­id­ents to adopt.

2

Approved pur­pose Sum­mary of pro­gress Status

Moun­tain bik­ing com­munity – Stage 3

• The MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan for Badenoch and Strath­spey, developed as part of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject, is now part way through a Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal.
• 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 met for a facil­it­ated ses­sion to pri­or­it­ise the actions that they would like to deliv­er by the end of the pro­ject in addi­tion to final­ising the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan. The pri­or­ity actions are lis­ted below and all stand to help achieve the inten­ded out­comes of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject. Those out­comes are a cred­ible, vis­ible and sus­tain­able Trail Asso­ci­ation; con­sist­ent, co-ordin­ated and rel­ev­ant sig­nage and trail inform­a­tion across the strath; and loc­al and vis­it­ing riders aware of the plight of caper­cail­lie and tak­ing action to help.

Pri­or­ity actions for 2022 — 2023:

Youth trail camps to inspire and enable more respons­ible rid­ing and trail devel­op­ment amongst young riders.

Trail devel­op­ment in areas iden­ti­fied as Com­munity Trail Areas in the MTB Recre­ation Man­age­ment Plan to meet a year-round need from res­id­ents to eas­ily access out­door recre­ation and reduce the need to use sens­it­ive areas.

Path repairs to improve exist­ing pro­moted routes and reduce hab­it­at loss and frag­ment­a­tion around areas in need of repair.

Hab­it­at improve­ment in moun­tain bik­ing areas, for example screen­ing and plant­ing to reduce disturbance.

Con­sumer facing mes­sages to help raise aware­ness spe­cific­ally amongst vis­it­ing riders and pro­mote beha­viours that will bene­fit caper­cail­lie and oth­er wildlife.

The devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of the pri­or­ity actions above will con­tin­ue to be sup­por­ted by the Badenoch and Strath­spey Trail Devel­op­ment Coordin­at­or, fun­ded by CNPA, and the High­land Devel­op­ment Coordin­at­or, employed by Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing Scot­land and part fun­ded by the project.

3

Approved pur­pose Sum­mary of pro­gress Status

Busi­ness com­munity – Stage 3

• A part time Busi­ness Engage­ment Officer is now in post as part of the Busi­ness Com­munity Action Plan. The Busi­ness Engage­ment Officer is employed by the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and fun­ded by the pro­ject to provide ded­ic­ated and tailored sup­port to busi­nesses to help them meet their aspir­a­tions to pro­mote respons­ible enjoy­ment of the Nation­al Park.
• As part of the Busi­ness Com­munity Action Plan, Gen­oa Black were awar­ded the con­tract to devel­op, test and pro­duce tar­geted, pos­it­ive and enga­ging online con­sumer facing con­tent that pro­motes beha­viours that will be of bene­fit to the area’s nat­ur­al her­it­age, includ­ing caper­cail­lie. Work also began to devel­op a web-based solu­tion that will enable busi­nesses to eas­ily access and share the online con­tent with their customers.

Vis­it­or com­munity – Stage 3 As part of the Vis­it­or Com­munity Action Plan Colin Mul­berg Con­sult­ing have been con­trac­ted to under­take a vis­it­or exper­i­ence audit to identi­fy where and how Aber­nethy, Rothiemurchus and Glen­more ​‘speak’ to the dif­fer­ent vis­it­or seg­ments iden­ti­fied through the vis­it­or research com­pleted earli­er this year. The audit is the next step towards the devel­op­ment and main­ten­ance of high qual­ity, sus­tain­able vis­it­or exper­i­ences and thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas in Aber­nethy Nation­al Nature Reserve, Glen­more Forest Park and Rothiemurchus. The out­puts from the audit will be avail­able in December.

Deeside com­munit­ies – Stage 3 A meet­ing has been held with mem­bers of the ​‘loc­al team’ in Deeside who volun­teered to sup­port the deliv­ery of the Deeside Action Plan. Meet­ings to pro­gress actions in the plan are also sched­uled to take place on 28 Septem­ber with busi­nesses and organ­isa­tions involved with man­aging for vis­it­ors in Deeside and on 10 Octo­ber with land­man­agers in and around caper­cail­lie areas in Deeside. The meet­ings will be hos­ted by the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and Bal­mor­al Estate respectively.

As part of the Deeside Action Plan a CaperMap has been developed over­lay­ing caper­cail­lie data with form­al and inform­al paths to identi­fy areas in Deeside where dis­turb­ance is (or could become) an issue for caper­cail­lie dur­ing breed­ing season.

Dog walk­ing com­munity – Stage 1

• Wild Think­ing have now held listen­ing ses­sions on behalf of the pro­ject with 12 can­ine pro­fes­sion­als includ­ing dog walk­ers, train­ers, breed­ers, vets, groomers, people who work dogs pro­fes­sion­ally and use assist­ance dogs. The aim of the listen­ing ses­sions has been to let these key play­ers and influ­en­cers share their views about out­door exper­i­ences with dogs in Badenoch and Strath­spey. The major­ity views shared through the listen­ing ses­sions will be used to devel­op an online sur­vey that will be pro­moted this autumn to identi­fy the views held in the wider res­id­ent dog walk­ing com­munity in Badenoch and Strath­spey and the com­mon ground around which actions could be delivered.

4

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.

• This quarter the pro­ject web­site attrac­ted 408 return­ing vis­it­ors; up 8% on the last quarter and 2,160 new vis­it­ors; up 12%. The pro­ject Face­book page has 1,980 fol­low­ers; up 8% on the last quarter.
• The fol­low­ing media have fea­tured the pro­ject this quarter:

Aber­deen Live Largs & Mill­port News Ayr Advert­iser Mid­week Her­ald (Devon) Basing­s­toke Gaz­ette Mil­ford Mer­cury BBC North Wales Pion­eer Bicester Advert­iser North­ern Echo Canada Today Pow­ys County Times CBBC Rare Bird Alert Cent­ral Fife Times Read­ing Chron­icle Chard & Ilmin­ster News Red­ditch Advert­iser Cots­wold Journ­al Rich­mond & Twick­en­ham Times Coun­tryside Jobs Ross-shire Journ­al Cre­at­ive Media News Run­corn & Widnes World Cum­ber­land News & Star Scots­man Daily Mail Shrop­shire Star Daily Record South Wales Argus Den­bigh­shire Press Strath­spey Her­ald Eal­ing Times STV East Lothi­an Cour­i­er Swan­age & Ware­ham Voice Echo News (Basil­don & Can­vey) The Inde­pend­ent Enfield Inde­pend­ent The Nation­al Epping Forest Guard­i­an The Nation­al Wales Europe Break­ing News (USA) The Tele­graph Eve­sham Journ­al The Times Gaz­ette Her­ald (North Yorks) This is Lon­don Loc­al Guern­sey Press Times & Star (Cum­bria) Her­ald Scot­land Wales Online Hull Daily Mail Wandsworth Times Inverness Cour­i­er West­ern Tele­graph (Pem­broke­shire) ITV news Wilts and Gloucester­shire Stand­ard John o Groats Journ­al Wimble­don Guardian

The first in a new series of blogs has been pub­lished for people to learn more about mem­bers of the Pro­ject Board and the Oper­a­tion­al Man­age­ment Team. The autumn edi­tions of Refor­est­ing Scotland’s journ­al and Scot­tish Land & Estate’s Land­Busi­ness magazine include fea­ture art­icles about the pro­ject and capercaillie.

5

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.

• To date volun­teers have donated 2,760 hours to the project.

A new autumn / winter pro­gramme of hab­it­at improve­ment ses­sions for volun­teers has begun start­ing with ses­sions on Bal­mor­al and Seafield Estate.

A team of trained Fence Mon­it­or­ing Volun­teers have now walked over 90kms of fen­cing that could pose a risk to caper­cail­lie to check and record the status of the fen­cing. This work is enabling volun­teers to help busy land­man­agers and caper­cail­lie by main­tain­ing an up-to-date digit­al record of the status of all fen­cing in caper­cail­lie areas across the Nation­al Park.

A sum­mary lek sur­vey report for 2022 has been pub­lished on the pro­ject web­site enabling the pub­lic to eas­ily access this information.

The second phase of the pilot genet­ic lek sur­vey is due to start in Novem­ber when 182 drop­pings col­lec­ted at 2 lek sites this spring will be ana­lysed to identi­fy the num­ber of indi­vidu­al birds that atten­ded the lek sites and their sex. The res­ults of the ana­lys­is will then be com­pared to the num­ber of birds seen. A short video about the work was pub­lished on the pro­ject Face­book page and has been viewed over 500 times.

Work is ongo­ing by RZSS to identi­fy the genet­ic diversity of the Scot­tish caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion using feath­ers col­lec­ted by the pro­ject from across the Nation­al Park. In Octo­ber, ini­tial insights from this work will be avail­able. These will include insights into the genet­ic diversity levels in the Scot­tish caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion and how they com­pare to European pop­u­la­tions. Insights into evol­u­tion­ary rela­tion­ships and poten­tially the ori­gin of the Scot­tish caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion will also be avail­able using samples from caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tions across 21 countries.

A tender pub­lished for devel­op­ing and pro­du­cing learn­ing resources to help more primary school pupils (and their teach­ers) to learn about caper­cail­lie will be re-issued this autumn on Pub­lic Con­tracts Scot­land fol­low­ing the tender receiv­ing a lack of bids earli­er in the year.

Due to caper­cail­lie breed­ing sea­son, hab­it­at improve­ment work has largely been paused for this quarter to avoid dis­turb­ance. Fox and crow con­trol on Rothiemurchus Estate and Seafield Estate has continued.

The pro­ject grant scheme to enable land­man­agers to improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie received 4 suc­cess­ful applic­a­tions to under­take the fol­low­ing actions:

Fence mark­ing on Inver­cauld Estate and Seafield Estate to avoid col­li­sions. Equip­ment for heath­er cut­ting on Dor­back Estate to enable more blae­berry to grow and caper­cail­lie to move around more freely. Chain­saw oper­at­ors to remove non-nat­ive trees on Bal­mor­al Estate to allow Scots pine to regenerate.

Issue: A whole forest approach to deer man­age­ment in Tom an Uird Forest remains unvi­able through FGS fund­ing. Deer con­trol to improve over 300 hec­tares of hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie in the forest has not been delivered as a result.

6

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.

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.

• Her­it­age Pathfind­er ran a work­shop to dis­cuss and refine the project’s Eval­u­ation Frame­work with mem­bers of the pro­ject team and part­ners who have the greatest over­sight of the dif­fer­ent aspects of the pro­ject and or spe­cif­ic areas of work. Qual­it­at­ive data has been col­lec­ted to eval­u­ate the caper­cail­lie sight­ings and signs app developed as part of the pro­ject. Inter­views have also been con­duc­ted to begin eval­u­at­ing the impact of the vis­it­or com­munity work on those dir­ectly involved. Brood counts have been con­duc­ted on Seafield Estate, Rothiemurchus and around Car­rbridge to provide new data on pro­ductiv­ity in areas where hab­it­at improve­ment work has been delivered as part of the project.

The 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 the James Hut­ton Insti­tute (JHI) is ongo­ing to doc­u­ment on film the pro­cess and out­comes of the Trail Feath­ers pro­ject (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.

Insights and learn­ing from the project’s mod­el for com­munity-led spe­cies con­ser­va­tion and work with com­munit­ies was shared with mem­bers of CNPA’s Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 team to help the team’s think­ing as they devel­op their deliv­ery phase application.

7

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

8

	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

9

Risks and Issues

Risk / Issue	Like­li­hood	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Pri­or­ity
1. 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).	High No change
2. 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
3. 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.	Medi­um Was High
4. 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.	Medi­um Was High

10

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 is in place A cul­ture of reflec­tion is embed­ded in the pro­ject and pro­fes­sion­ally facil­it­ated where possible.	Medi­um No change
6. Reduced capa­city in the last 12 months of the pro­ject due to staff leav­ing fixed-term posts early to secure future employment.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tions with pro­ject staff to ensure early notice of inten­tions / plans to leave their posts. Scope to change exist­ing part-time con­tracts to full time if required. * Exist­ing ways of work­ing lend them­selves to pro­ject staff being able to pick up work rel­at­ively eas­ily from col­leagues if required.	Medi­um
7. Reduced abil­ity to deliv­er actions in the last 12 months due to time con­straints and con­tract­or availability.	Medi­um	Medi­um	* Request sub­mit­ted for a 6‑month pro­ject extension.	Medi­um
8. The pro­ject increases caper­cail­lie dis­turb­ance or is per­ceived to do so.	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff work closely with landown­ers, land­man­agers and com­munity mem­bers to stay informed and respond to any 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
9. 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 MoA.	Low No change
10. 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 No change
11. 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 No change

11

Budget | Income | Expec­ted | Received to date | | — | — | — | | Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund | 2,036,100 | 664,725 | | CNPA | 60,280 | 50,280 | | NatureScot | 50,000 | 50,000 | | Scot­tish Forestry | 28,000 | 16,000 | | Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP | 127,473 | 27,789 | | RSPB | 40,000 | 30,000 | | RSPB Aber­nethy | 10,000 | 3,080 | | Seafield and Strath­spey Estates | 224,144 | 107,036 | | Rothiemurchus Estate | 41,669 | 26,982 | | 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 | 55,496 | | RSPB in-kind (tech­nic­al sup­port for the app and online hub) | 27,800 | 3,593 | | Total | 2,900,206 | 1,038,921 |

Break­down of income / con­tri­bu­tions received

Part­ner / Fun­der	Nature of con­tri­bu­tion	Total to date
Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund	Grant	664,725
CNPA	Dona­tion	50,280
NatureScot	Dona­tion	50,000
Scot­tish Forestry	Dona­tion	16,000
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Pred­at­or con­trol on Rothiemurchus Estate	16,176
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Wood­land regen­er­a­tion on Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	11,613
Rothiemurchus Estate	Estate con­tri­bu­tion to pred­at­or con­trol work	26,982
RSPB	Dona­tion	30,000
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		979,832

12

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 / SRDP	Fence mark­ing on Seafield Estate	22,752
Forestry Grant Scheme / SRDP	Scar­i­fy­ing to pro­mote nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion on Seafield Estate	5,672
RSPB	Pilot genet­ic lek survey	5,000
Total		40,186

Volun­teer time (in-kind con­tri­bu­tion)	Total to date
Car­rbridge Caper­cail­lie Group	16,205
Moun­tain bik­ing (Trail Feath­ers) group	13,706
Volun­teers deliv­er­ing hab­it­at improve­ment work	3,150
Fence Mon­it­or­ing Volunteers	7,071
Caper­cail­lie monitoring	5,989
Digit­al volun­teer (pro­ject web­site design and development)	9,375
Total	55,496

RSPB (in-kind con­tri­bu­tion)	Total to date
Caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing app development	3,593
Total	3,593

Break­down of expendit­ure / investment

Com­munity	Com­munity-led action	Total
	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
	Print­ing and pro­duc­tion of tri­al signs to encour­age respons­ible access in caper­cail­lie areas around Car­rbridge and stakes to install the signs	453
Car­rbridge	Path sur­veys and feas­ib­il­ity work to enable thriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas around Car­rbridge and paths and out­door spaces for all res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to enjoy	5,730
	Car­rbridge Vil­lage Hall hire for com­munity events and con­sulta­tions to build stronger com­munity involved and participation	144
	Hapi Capi pro­duc­tion (small wooden caper­cail­lies) to build stronger com­munity involved and participation	1,014
Total		17,001

13

Com­munity	Com­munity-led action	Total
	Equip­ment to repair trails to reduce hab­it­at loss and fragmentation	6,041
	Print­ing and pro­duc­tion of tri­al signs to encour­age respons­ible rid­ing in caper­cail­lie areas	160
Moun­tain biking	Trail Asso­ci­ation web­site to increase vis­ib­il­ity, build aware­ness and support	785
	Trail Asso­ci­ation insur­ance to deliv­er com­munity-led action	683
	Con­tri­bu­tion towards the Lag­gan Forest Trust’s Pilot Cyc­ling Programme	1,000
Total		8,669

Con­tract­or	Work	Total
Gen­oa Black	Devel­op­ing and pro­du­cing digit­al col­lat­er­al for busi­nesses to use to pro­mote respons­ible enjoy­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park	35,821
Colin Mul­berg Consulting	An audit of where and how Aber­nethy Nation­al Nature Reserve, Glen­more Forest Park and Rothiemurchus ​‘speak’ to vis­it­or segments	15,800
High­land Field & Forest / Instinct	Brood sur­veys to help meas­ure impact of hab­it­at improve­ment work, pred­at­or con­trol and com­munity-led action to reduce disturbance	8,852
Game & Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust (GWCT)	Brood sur­veys to help meas­ure impact of hab­it­at improve­ment work, pred­at­or con­trol and com­munity-led action to reduce disturbance	4,650
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 sharelearning	9,100
The Eval­u­at­or	Research­ing pub­lic atti­tudes and beliefs about the Deeside area and­ca­per­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion to inform com­munity-led action plan­ning in Deeside	7,443
Her­it­age Pathfind­er Ltd.	Research­ing vis­it­or atti­tudes and beliefs to inform action to enab­lethriv­ing caper­cail­lie areas and high qual­ity, sus­tain­able vis­it­or experiences	33,160
Her­it­age Pathfind­er Ltd.	Mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­at­ing the pro­ject to meas­ure impact and share learning	27,510
Total		232,957

14

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
Bal­mor­al Estate	Restruc­tur­ing wood­lands (remov­ing non-nat­ive trees) to expand habitat	4,770
Cran­nach Nature Reserve	Heath­er cut­ting to improve habitat	1,290
Dor­back Estate	Heath­er cut­ting equip­ment to improve habitat	5,000
Inver­cauld Estate	Mark­ing fences to avoid collisions	4,640
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
Seafield and Strath­spey Estates	Mark­ing fences to avoid collisions	4,987
Tombain Plant­a­tion	Mark­ing fen­cing with wooden mark­ers to avoid collisions	4,944
Total		274,559

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,