Annex 1

NPPP Mon­it­or­ing Frame­work Update August 2023

Nature

Name	A1 Net Zero
Object­ive	Ensure the Cairngorms Nation­al Park reaches net zero as soon as pos­sible and con­trib­utes all it can to help­ing Scot­land meet its net zero commitments.
Tar­get / Indicator	By 2023, estab­lish the time­frame with­in which the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will be net zero and set a tar­get for becom­ing car­bon neg­at­ive. Annu­al inde­pend­ent pro­gress report on net zero for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.
Baseline 2022	Small World Con­sultancy report 2022: Annu­al emis­sions from res­id­ents: 277,145 tCO2e (14.4 tCO2e per per­son per year) Annu­al emis­sions from vis­it­ors while in the Nation­al Park: 89,788 tCO2e (20.8 kgCO2e per vis­it­or-day) Annu­al emis­sions from vis­it­ors trav­el­ling to/​from the Nation­al Park: 232,591 tCO2e (112.5 kgCO2e per vis­it) Annu­al industry emis­sions: 64,853 tCO2e
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Small World Con­sultancy annu­al pro­gress report, com­mis­sioned by Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	The primary drivers towards achiev­ing net zero by 2025 are peat­land res­tor­a­tion and wood­land tar­gets. Wood­land expan­sion has been lower than expec­ted but is not thought to be of sig­ni­fic­ant impact at this stage. As part of the UK Nation­al Parks part­ner­ship, the Park Author­ity has signed up to the race to zero chal­lenge, a com­mit­ment to deliv­er­ing tar­get for Green­house Gas Com­mit­ments in line with the Par­is Agreement.
Name	A2 Wood­land expansion
Object­ive	Increase the amount of wood­land in the Nation­al Park to sup­port lar­ger, more nat­ur­al wood­lands, expand­ing in places up to a nat­ur­al treeline, provid­ing con­nec­tions across river catch­ments and around the cent­ral core of the mountains.
Tar­get / Indicator	A min­im­um of 35,000 ha of new wood­land cov­er cre­ated by 2045, which: a) Includes a min­im­um of 80% nat­ive wood­land. b) Includes a min­im­um of 10,000 ha of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion without plant­ing. c) Res­ults in no whole­sale con­ver­sion of enclosed, in-bye agri­cul­tur­al land to forestry. d) Min­im­ises the amount of fen­cing in the Nation­al Park by favour­ing estab­lish­ment through herb­i­vore man­age­ment and remov­ing redund­ant fences.
Baseline 2022	35,000 ha to be cre­ated by 2045.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Hec­tares (Ha) of new wood­land Forest Grant Scheme approvals includ­ing the Ha of nat­ive wood­land, Ha of nat­ur­al regen and Ha of schemes approved without fen­cing. Col­lec­ted annu­ally by Scot­tish Forestry in March.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Dis­cus­sion with Scot­tish Forestry and with mangers of non-grant fun­ded proposals.
Pro­gress 2022- 2023	April 2022 – Mar 2023: • 402.98 ha of wood­land cre­ation was approved • 105.48 (26%) of which was nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion • All schemes are fenced Pro­gress against tar­gets has been lower than expec­ted. This reflects the Nation­al trend. It is thought to be because of sev­er­al factors includ­ing COV­ID impacts on mar­kets, hes­it­a­tion around a revised Forest Grant Scheme and poten­tial car­bon markets.
Name	A3 Peat­land restoration
Object­ive	Restore and man­age peat­land with­in the Nation­al Park to reduce car­bon emis­sions and improve biodiversity.
Tar­get / Indicator	A min­im­um of 38,000 ha peat­land is under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment by 2045. • 80% of all drains are restored by 2035. • All erosion fea­tures are restored by 2050. • 6500ha under res­tor­a­tion by 2027
Baseline 2022	38,000ha of peat­land to be restored by 2045.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Ha act­ively erod­ing / erosion fea­tures & Ha drain block­ing col­lec­ted annu­ally in March by Park Author­ity Peat­land Action Team.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­ject deliv­ery, assess­ments of resource and expres­sions of interest from land man­agers, col­lec­ted ad hoc by Peat­land Team.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	1,080ha brought under res­tor­a­tion The area of res­tor­a­tion exceeded the tar­get. The new entrant scheme suc­cess­fully increased the num­ber of con­tract­ors work­ing in the area. Effi­cien­cies have been made and land man­ager con­fid­ence increased through the use of multi-year con­tracts. New tri­als estab­lished for work­ing with high­er deer densities.
Name	A4 Deer and herb­i­vore impacts
Object­ive	Reduce the neg­at­ive impacts of red deer and oth­er herb­i­vores across the Nation­al Park to enable wood­lands to expand, heath­er loss to be reversed, peat­lands to recov­er and wider biod­iversity and land­scape enhance­ments to take place.
Tar­get / Indicator	Aver­age open range red deer dens­it­ies in each deer man­age­ment group are a max­im­um of five to eight per km² by 2030. Non-nat­ive sika and fal­low deer will be con­tained with­in their cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion in the Nation­al Park by 2030. Indic­at­or: Impact of herb­i­vores on Part­ner­ship Plan eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion tar­gets (peat­land, moor­land and struc­tur­al diversity in moorland)
Baseline 2022	• Cairngorms & Spey­side <5/​km² (2016 data) • South Deeside & North Angus 10/​km² (2022 data) • South Grampi­ans 16/​km² (2022 data) • Upper Deeside & Don­side 6 – 7/​km² (2016 data) • West Grampi­an DMG: 20 deer/​km² (2022 data) Assess­ment of cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion of sika and fal­low is to be col­lec­ted from Deer Man­age­ment Group meet­ings dur­ing 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Heli­copter counts col­lec­ted by NatureScot, full open range count sched­uled 2026⁄27. Hab­it­at Impact Assess­ments and red deer foot counts, col­lec­ted by Deer Man­age­ment Groups Site Con­di­tion Mon­it­or­ing col­lec­ted by Naturescot Cairngorm Nature Index moor­land indicators
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al sika and fal­low report­ing by Deer Man­age­ment Groups.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	A Sec­tion 7 agree­ment is in place for the South Grampi­an deer Man­age­ment Group and the Caen­lochan spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion. Deer man­agers and NatureScot have agreed a plan to reduce deer dens­it­ies to 10/​km² over the next 3 years. Stra­tegic Land Use Plans, includ­ing nat­ur­al cap­it­al assess­ments and deer pop­u­la­tion mod­el­ling, have been com­pleted for the three Deer Man­age­ment Groups in the south of the Park as part of Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 devel­op­ment phase.
Name	A5 Moor­land Management
Object­ive	Increase the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of moor­land man­age­ment in the Nation­al Park to ensure great­er spe­cies and struc­tur­al diversity in moor­land areas of the Nation­al Park.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: A meas­ur­able and sus­tained increase in both the home range, occu­pa­tion and breed­ing suc­cess of golden eagle, hen har­ri­er, mer­lin and per­eg­rine across the Nation­al Park. Indic­at­or: Increased spe­cies and hab­it­at diversity on grouse moors, link­ing togeth­er a nat­ur­al trans­ition from wood­land to mont­ane scrub to upland heath.
Baseline 2022	2019 — 2021 aver­age: • Golden Eagle — 39 • Hen Har­ri­er — 21 (Nation­al sur­vey due in 2023) • Mer­lin — don’t have data as no com­pre­hens­ive sur­vey • Per­eg­rine — 17 (based on lim­ited sur­vey) Ha of scrub juni­per, wil­lows, and young nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion to be sur­veyed and col­lated in 2023. Moor­land diversity indic­at­ors sched­uled 2026.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al Rap­tor Study Group rap­tor mon­it­or­ing data, Rap­tor pro­ject officer. Num­ber of per­se­cu­tion incid­ents, Police Scot­land, annually.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Assess­ments of poten­tial and cur­rent moor­land man­age­ment pro­jects and prac­tices, col­lec­ted ad hoc by Park Author­ity. Assess­ments of impact of new Wild­life Man­age­ment Bill, col­lec­ted ad hoc by Park Author­ity and Naturescot.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	Rap­tor data, num­ber of per­se­cu­tion incid­ents & assess­ment of pro­ject pro­gress to fol­low. The con­sulta­tion on the Wild­life Man­age­ment Bill and pro­posed legis­la­tion for the con­trol and licen­cing of grouse shoot­ing and muir­burn took place from Octo­ber 2022 to Decem­ber 2022 and is cur­rently going through the Com­mit­tee stage. This legis­la­tion will be key to pro­gress­ing action in this Objective.
Name	A6 Gamebird management
Object­ive	Ensure that all pheas­ant and part­ridge shoots adhere to best prac­tice and that all gamebird releases are sus­tain­able and do not neg­at­ively impact on nat­ive biodiversity.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: Gamebird releases have no neg­at­ive impact on nat­ive biod­iversity. Indic­at­or: Impacts of gamebirds released around the Nation­al Park each year.
Baseline 2022	• Num­ber of gamebird releases to be estab­lished in 2023. Biod­iversity indic­at­ors to be estab­lished in 2024.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Gamebird releases, col­lec­ted every 5 years, Game and Wild­life Con­servancy Trust. Biod­iversity impacts, meas­ured as per indic­at­ors estab­lished in 2024, repeated every 5 years.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	Research has been com­mis­sioned to pro­duce a meth­od­o­logy for cap­tur­ing gamebird release data from land man­agers in the Park. Data will be col­lec­ted dur­ing 2024.
Name	A7 Fire management
Object­ive	Ensure that all man­aged burn­ing (muir­burn) fol­lows best prac­tice as defined by the muir­burn licens­ing scheme, sup­port­ing hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion and recovery.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: Reduce wild­fire risk by devel­op­ing an integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment plan for the Nation­al Park. Indic­at­or: All muir­burn will com­ply with reg­u­la­tions set out in the muir­burn licens­ing scheme, includ­ing stop­ping burn­ing on deep peat­lands as defined by the licens­ing fol­low­ing Wild­life Man­age­ment Bill régime.
Baseline 2022	Deep peat / blanket bog across the Nation­al Park to be mapped by 2026.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Integ­rated wild­life Man­age­ment Plan in place by Decem­ber 2024. • Amount of muir­burn on deep peat/​blanket bog mapped by 2026. • Num­ber of muir­burn licences issued, the area they cov­er and any infringe­ments NatureScot, times­cale to be determ­ined as per wild­life Man­age­ment Bill.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Reports of wild­fire incid­ents in Nation­al Park. • Ranger reports of camp­fires and BBQs Impact of Muir­burn licens­ing legis­la­tion, ad hoc by Park Author­ity staff
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	The con­sulta­tion on the Wild­life Man­age­ment Bill and pro­posed legis­la­tion for the con­trol and licen­cing of grouse shoot­ing and muir­burn took place from Octo­ber 2022 to Decem­ber 2022 and is cur­rently going through the Com­mit­tee stage. This legis­la­tion will be key to pro­gress­ing action in this Objective.
Name	A8 Farm­ing
Object­ive	Work with farms in the Nation­al Park to reduce their car­bon foot­print, con­serve soil car­bon, encour­age sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion and deliv­er increased biod­iversity on in-bye land.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: Car­bon and biod­iversity plans are in place for farms across the Nation­al Park by 2028. Indic­at­or: Tar­get rur­al pay­ments to sup­port sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion, reduce car­bon, increase and main­tain the health of hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems, enhance biod­iversity and help con­nect dif­fer­ent hab­it­ats across the Nation­al Park.
Baseline 2022	Estab­lish a Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Frame­work for the Nation­al Park by 2023. • Per­cent­age of farm­ing units in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park with accred­ited car­bon schemes to be estab­lished in 2023. • Ha of land in Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) to be estab­lished in 2023. • Num­ber of farms with biod­iversity audits to be estab­lished in 2023. • Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Frame­work estab­lished in 2022.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Ha of land under Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate schemes, col­lated annu­al by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Rur­al Pay­ments Inspect­or­ate Dir­ect­ive. • Num­ber of farms with biod­iversity audits, NatureScot, annu­ally. • Farm­ing units in accred­ited car­bon schemes col­lec­ted annually.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­gress of nature friendly farm­ing pro­jects and farm wild­life pop­u­la­tion trends, col­lec­ted annu­ally by Cairngorms Nature part­ners. Pro­gres­sion of Pilot­ing an Out­comes Based Approach in Scot­land and region­al­ised pay­ments schemes, col­lec­ted annu­ally by Naturescot.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	Cur­rently being assessed.
Name	A9 Fresh­wa­ter systems
Object­ive	Restore and con­nect rivers to thriv­ing wet­lands and flood­plains as part of a wider res­tor­a­tion of the Nation­al Park’s fresh­wa­ter sys­tems, help­ing mit­ig­ate the impacts of cli­mate change.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: 70% of our rivers are in good eco­lo­gic­al con­di­tion Good Eco­lo­gic­al Con­di­tion by 2045, with eco­lo­gic­al struc­ture, func­tion and pro­ductiv­ity not devi­at­ing sig­ni­fic­antly from a near-nat­ur­al sys­tem con­di­tion. Indic­at­or: The Cairngorms Nature Index will estab­lish a baseline and meas­ure change in river nat­ur­al­ness. This is aligned with the Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive and enhanced by indicators.
Baseline 2022	68% of rivers cur­rently in Good Eco­lo­gic­al Con­di­tion based on Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive. Fur­ther detail to be added in 2023 based on Cairngorms Nature Index.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Cairngorms Nature Index indic­at­ors, repeated every 5 years, CNPA with data from Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships, Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency and NatureScot.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­gress of cur­rent and poten­tial res­tor­a­tion pro­jects sourced through annu­al reports from Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships and Cairngorms Nature partners.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	The Fresh­wa­ter mod­el for the Cairngorms Nature Index has been com­pleted and is under review by an expert advis­ory group. The Spey Catch­ment Ini­ti­at­ive has become a Scot­tish Char­it­able Incor­por­ated Organ­isa­tion with increased capa­city and organ­isa­tion­al resi­li­ence to deliv­er land­scape-scale pro­jects. Catch­ment man­age­ment Part­ner­ships have drawn down approx­im­ately £300,000 of fund­ing, primar­ily via the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund, for res­tor­a­tion in the Spey, Dee and South Esk catchments.
Name	A10 Eco­lo­gic­al network
Object­ive	Con­nect hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems across all dif­fer­ent types of land use in the Nation­al Park to cre­ate an eco­lo­gic­al net­work, which will bring wider land­scape, biod­iversity and people benefits.
Tar­get / Indicator	Estab­lish a frame­work for an eco­lo­gic­al net­work across the Nation­al Park by 2025.
Baseline 2022	No cur­rent baseline. To be estab­lished fol­low­ing iden­ti­fic­a­tion of con­nectiv­ity indic­at­ors in 2024.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Nature Net­works frame­work with indic­at­ors of con­nectiv­ity, estab­lished by March 2024 by the Park Author­ity. Cairngorms Nature Index meas­ure of con­nectiv­ity, to be estab­lished in 2024, repeated every 5 years.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Assess­ments of land man­ager interest, pro­ject pro­gress and ambi­tions for hab­it­at expan­sion, col­lated annu­ally by the Park Author­ity. Landown­er interest and uptake in ​‘call for sites’, col­lated annu­ally by the Park Authority.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	The Park Author­ity has been work­ing closely with NatureScot in align­ing think­ing for Nature Net­works and links with the 30 by 30 com­mit­ment. Con­nectiv­ity indic­at­ors for spe­cies, hab­it­at and cli­mate resi­li­ence will be ready dur­ing 2023.
Name	A11 Eco­lo­gic­al restoration
Object­ive	Improve eco­sys­tem func­tion­al­ity and resi­li­ence across the Nation­al Park by increas­ing the area of land man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­lo­gic­al restoration.
Tar­get / Indicator	At least 50% of the Nation­al Park to be man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion by 2045 (see Nature object­ive A12 – Cairngorms Nature Index).
Baseline 2022	Accur­ate baseline to be estab­lished by Octo­ber 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	% of CNP man­aged prin­cip­ally for res­tor­a­tion, every 5 years, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Estate man­age­ment state­ments reviewed and updated where neces­sary every 5 years by the Park Author­ity. • Under­stand­ing of land man­ager ambi­tions, col­lec­ted ad hoc by the Park Author­ity. • Estab­lish­ment and suc­cess of land­scape-scale partnerships.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	Work under­way to estab­lish baseline.
Name	A12 – Cairngorms Nature Index
Object­ive	Devel­op a more com­plete under­stand­ing of the Nation­al Park’s spe­cies, hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems, and help mon­it­or long-term pro­gress through a ded­ic­ated Cairngorms Nature Index.
Tar­get / Indicator	Devel­op and roll out the Cairngorms Nature Index by 2024.
Baseline 2022	CNI fresh­wa­ter baseline estab­lished. Baseline for all six eco­sys­tems sched­uled for 2024
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Num­ber of Cairngorms Nature Index eco­sys­tems com­pleted, CNPA, annually.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­gress towards estab­lish­ing Cairngorms Atlas and Data Portal. Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies map­ping, NatureScot, every 5 years.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Work under­way to estab­lish baselines.
Name	A13 — Spe­cies recovery
Object­ive	Ensure spe­cies thrive in the Nation­al Park with key assemblages across the Cairngorms with­in the semi-nat­ur­al landscape.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve – pri­or­ity spe­cies pro­gress from research to devel­op­ing solu­tions to sus­tain­able management.
Baseline 2022	Of the 29 pri­or­ity spe­cies: • 25 achieved and/​or on track to meet recov­ery curve tar­get; • 1 requires fur­ther effort to bring on track to meet recov­ery curve tar­get; • 2 at high risk of not meet­ing recov­ery curve tar­get; • 1 no data.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­gress along spe­cies recov­ery curve, annu­ally as part of Cairngorms Nature Action Plan report­ing cycle by the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group. New Action Plan and report­ing cycle under devel­op­ment, for pub­lic­a­tion 2024.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Updates on Pri­or­ity Spe­cies pro­jects, quarterly as part of Cairngorms Nature Action Plan report­ing cycle by Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group. Updates on caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan deliv­ery and beaver rein­tro­duc­tion, annu­ally CNPA.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Work under­way to estab­lish 2023 figures.
Name	A14 — Green investment
Object­ive	Use private green invest­ment in the Nation­al Park to fund nature’s recov­ery and share the bene­fits between com­munit­ies, landown­ers, work­ers and wider society.
Tar­get / Indicator	Tar­get: The Cairngorms Nation­al Park attracts an increas­ing amount of green fin­ance per annum for pro­jects that deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits (car­bon, biod­iversity, flood mit­ig­a­tion, community).
Baseline 2022	One green fin­ance tri­al pro­ject under­way. Ha of land registered for Peat­land Code and Wood­land Code as of March 2022 (to follow).
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Ha of land registered for wood­land and peat­land codes, Inter­na­tion­al Uni­on for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature and wood­land car­bon code, annually.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Land man­ager ambi­tions, ad hoc, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Pro­gress on mul­tiple nat­ur­al cap­it­al met­rics, annu­ally, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Land sales.
Pro­gress 2022 ‑2023	The green fin­ance tri­al estab­lished at Del­nadamph has star­ted res­tor­a­tion on site with Phase 1 of 5 com­pleted and Phase 2 under­way. The pro­ject is deliv­er­ing peat­land res­tor­a­tion and com­munity bene­fit through a com­bin­a­tion of 80% pub­lic and 20% private fin­an­cing. The vari­ation in pub­lic and private invest­ment is heav­ily depend­ent on the price of the car­bon mar­ket. Assess­ments are that for peat­land res­tor­a­tion to be entirely privately fun­ded the mar­ket price would need to rise from its cur­rent levels around £20 per unit, to approx £80 per unit. The tri­al has been very suc­cess­ful in demon­strat­ing this mod­el and that con­tri­bu­tions from the pub­lic purse can reduce whilst 10% of the profits, can be real­ised for com­munity benefit.

People

Name	B1 Work­ing-age population
Object­ive	The pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-age people in the Nation­al Park increases rel­at­ive to the total res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion, which remains stable.
Tar­get / Indicator	The pro­por­tion of young people and work­ing-age people in the Nation­al Park rel­at­ive to the total res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion increases between 2020 and 2045. The pop­u­la­tion sta­bil­ises between 2020 and 2045.
Baseline 2022	Baseline cur­rently 2021 mid-year estim­ates from Nation­al Records Scot­land: • Chil­dren (under 16 years): 14% • Work­ing age (16 — 64): 60% • Pen­sion­able Age (65 and over): 26%
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Mid-year estim­ates are pub­lished annu­ally by Nation­al Records Scot­land, but are usu­ally 1 – 2 years in arrears for pub­lic­a­tion. 2022 fig­ures will be based on the 2022 Scot­tish Census data. Data is col­lated by Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Work has star­ted on LDP for 2026. • Hos­pit­al­ity skills pro­ject star­ted in Upper Deeside, part­ner­ing schools and busi­ness to devel­op young people and provide reward­ing employ­ment. • Cairngorms Youth Action Team growing.
Name	B2 Well­being economy
Object­ive	Devel­op a well­being eco­nomy that deliv­ers social justice in a healthy eco­sys­tem, draw­ing on the spe­cial nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms.
Tar­get / Indicator	Devel­op Cairngorms Corner­stone Indic­at­ors and a Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan by 2023.
Baseline 2022	Corner­stone indic­at­ors to be developed by Sept 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Cairngorms Corner­stone indic­at­ors to be mon­itored annu­ally by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. SG Nation­al indic­at­ors on well­being eco­nomy to be pub­lished 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Corner­stone indic­at­ors incor­por­ate qual­it­at­ive ele­ments and can be sup­ple­men­ted with oth­er examples.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Corner­stone indic­at­ors developed. Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan devel­op­ment slower than planned and requires work in late 2023.
Name	B3 Real Liv­ing Wage
Object­ive	Increase the num­ber of Real Liv­ing Wage employ­ers in the Nation­al Park.
Tar­get / Indicator	The Park will have an increas­ing num­ber of Real Liv­ing Wage employ­ers and will aim to have the highest pro­por­tion in rur­al Scot­land by 2030.
Baseline 2022	9 Real Liv­ing Wage accred­ited busi­nesses in Nation­al Park 2022/2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al data on Real Liv­ing Wage accred­ited busi­nesses from RLW Scotland.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship mem­ber sur­vey of Real Liv­ing Wage pay­ing mem­bers 2023.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Real Liv­ing Wage employ­er accred­it­a­tion data being col­lec­ted. • Grant to Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship fun­ded to under­take sur­vey of mem­bers pay­ing real liv­ing wage.
Name	B4 Skills and training
Object­ive	Increase skills and train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for people in the Nation­al Park to meet busi­ness needs and ensure oppor­tun­it­ies cre­ated by the growth in green jobs can be filled by res­id­ents and under-rep­res­en­ted groups.
Tar­get / Indicator	There are an increas­ing num­ber of appren­tice­ships with­in the Nation­al Park. An increas­ing num­ber of people employed in green jobs such as peat­land res­tor­a­tion, deer man­age­ment etc.
Baseline 2022	Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land data on appren­tice­ships – data being processed.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al, Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land statistics.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case study examples of busi­nesses or indi­vidu­als / employ­ees, ad hoc.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Skill Devel­op­ment Scot­land data on appren­tice­ships being processed.
	• Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land build­ing the rur­al skills youth work with schools and plan­ning a green skills train­ing and employ­ment event for 2024.
Name	B5 Com­munity assets and land
Object­ive	Increase the num­ber of assets in com­munity own­er­ship or man­age­ment, the num­ber of social enter­prises that gen­er­ate a profit and the area of land where com­munit­ies are involved in man­age­ment decisions.
Tar­get / Indicator	The num­bers of assets in com­munity own­er­ship or man­age­ment increases year on year from 2021.
Baseline 2022	In 2021 there were 71 assets in com­munity own­er­ship or man­age­ment: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​o​r​k​i​n​g​-​t​o​g​e​t​h​e​r​/​s​u​p​p​o​r​t​i​n​g​-​c​o​m​m​u​n​i​t​i​e​s​/​c​o​m​m​u​n​i​t​y​-​o​w​n​e​d​-​a​s​s​e​t​s​-map/.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Data to be updated in 2023 as part of the pre­par­a­tion of the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. It will be mon­itored and updated annu­ally by Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case study examples.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Com­munity Action Plans reviews under­way in Dal­whin­nie and Bal­later as well as com­pleted for Blair Atholl and Struan.
Name	B6 New approaches to cit­izen participation
Object­ive	Strengthen the par­ti­cip­a­tion struc­tures that sup­port plan­ning and decision- mak­ing at a loc­al level.
Tar­get / Indicator	Review approaches to com­munity par­ti­cip­a­tion and engage­ment in decision- mak­ing and devel­op an improve­ment plan by June 2023.
Baseline 2022	Qual­it­at­ive descrip­tion based on 2022.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case stud­ies of par­ti­cip­a­tion, engage­ment and decision-mak­ing. Examples from Cairngorms 2030 Project.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject built wide engage­ment over a wide range of top­ics and involved 2000+ Nation­al Park residents.
Name	B7 Com­munity-led plan­ning and development
Object­ive	Com­munit­ies have up- to-date com­munity action plans and are sup­por­ted by a com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment fund­ing pro­gramme, deliv­er­ing the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.
Tar­get / Indicator	All com­munit­ies have com­munity action plans in place that are no more than five years old. A new scheme is in place to deliv­er fund­ing for com­munit­ies, at least equi­val­ent to the old LEAD­ER programme.
Baseline 2022	2022 num­bers avail­able. 2022 funding.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity & Cairngorms Trust.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case stud­ies.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Approx­im­ately £360k of grant awards made by Cairngorms Trust for pro­jects in the Nation­al Park, of which around £260k came from Scot­tish Governmnet’s Com­munity-led Vis­ion fund and £90k from Park Author­ity funding.
Name	B8 Gael­ic lan­guage and culture
Object­ive	Encour­age great­er use of Gael­ic in the Nation­al Park.
Tar­get / Indicator	Increased oppor­tun­it­ies for indi­vidu­als and com­munit­ies to engage with Gael­ic lan­guage and culture.
Baseline 2022	Con­tent of pub­lic sec­tor Gael­ic lan­guage plans.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Pub­lic sec­tor Gael­ic lan­guage plan report­ing. • Case stud­ies of Gael­ic lan­guage and inter­pret­a­tion projects.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Nation­al Park Brand refresh incor­por­ates strong use of Gael­ic across all levels of use. • Vis­itScot­land are devel­op­ing the Nation­al Gael­ic Tour­ism Strategy.
Name	B8 Men­tal and phys­ic­al health
Object­ive	Improve the men­tal and phys­ic­al health and well­being of the people of the Nation­al Park through great­er con­nec­tion with nature and the outdoors.
Tar­get / Indicator	There will be Green Health Refer­ral pro­grammes in place in all GP prac­tices in the Nation­al Park.
Baseline 2022	3 Green Health Refer­rals since April 2023 (start of scheme). 14 health walks act­ive in 21⁄22.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Green Health Refer­rals, NHS, Annu­al. Health walks, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Annual.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case stud­ies of impact, profile/​popularity of groups. via NHS and Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• 3 Green Health Refer­rals since April 2023 (start of scheme). • 16 health walks act­ive in 22⁄23.
Name	B10 A Park for All
Object­ive	There will be bet­ter oppor­tun­it­ies for every­one to enjoy the Nation­al Park and the vis­it­or pro­file will be more diverse, espe­cially with regards to people who are dis­abled, from lower socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, LGB­TQ+ and from minor­ity and eth­nic groups.
Tar­get / Indicator	Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park will more closely resemble the over­all demo­graphy of Scot­land. Res­id­ent and vis­it­or val­ues and atti­tudes to key issues in the Nation­al Park are reg­u­larly evaluated.
Baseline 2022	Accord­ing to the 2019 – 2020 vis­it­or sur­vey 2.4% of vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park were of Black, Asi­an or minor­ity eth­nic groups, up from 1% in 2014 – 2015.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	The next Nation­al Park Vis­it­or Sur­vey will be car­ried out in 2024 / 2025 and repor­ted by the Nation­al Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qualitative	Case study examples of unrep­res­en­ted groups com­ing to Nation­al Park or pro­grammes to sup­port them.
	(who col­lects, how often) CNPA & partners.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Park Author­ity part­ner­ing with Black Pro­fes­sion­als Scot­land Black Pro­fes­sion­als Scot­land — Include | Col­lab­or­ate | Grow to improve diversity and inclu­sion in Park Author­ity work. • Nation­al Park hos­ted two vis­its by Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers group Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers – This is Liv­ing! To increase aware­ness of oppor­tun­it­ies to enjoy the Park. • Park Author­ity fund­ing Cairngorms Trust to com­mis­sion pro­ject build­ing a net­work of con­tacts with­in eth­nic minor­ity groups around Nation­al Park.
Name	B11 Volun­teer­ing and out­door learning
Object­ive	Increase the num­ber of volun­teer days spent caring for the Nation­al Park, tak­ing an inclus­ive approach to volun­teer­ing recruit­ment. Sup­port and deliv­er oppor­tun­it­ies for out­door learn­ing, linked to the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park.
Tar­get / Indicator	At least 200 volun­teer rangers in the Nation­al Park by 2030. Increase the num­ber of Nation­al Park volun­teer days every year. An increase in the num­ber of John Muir Awards under­taken with­in the Nation­al Park.
Baseline 2022	• 30 Volun­teer Cairngorms 2022 (64 in 2023). • JM A pro­gramme being reviewed in 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	• Num­ber of volun­teer rangers, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Annu­al • Num­ber of John Muir Award par­ti­cipants, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity & John Muir Trust, annual.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case study examples of volunteering.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Doubled par­ti­cipants in Volun­teer Cairngorms (64 in 2023).

Place

Name	C1 Access to housing
Object­ive	Ensure that there is suf­fi­cient afford­able hous­ing stock to enable people to live and work with­in the Nation­al Park.
Tar­get / Indicator	A max­im­um of 15% of all hous­ing stock in the Nation­al Park will be second homes, vacant or short-term let prop­er­ties by 2040.
Baseline 2022	House­hold estim­ates based on coun­cil tax data for 2021: • Total dwell­ings: 10,283 • Occu­pied: 8,643 (84%) • Second homes: 1,118 (11%) • Vacant: 522 (5%) • Inef­fect­ive stock (second homes and vacant): 1,640 (16%)
	Data on short-term lets not avail­able until after licen­cing dead­line passes on 1 Octo­ber 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	House­hold estim­ates are pub­lished annu­ally by Nation­al Records Scot­land, but are usu­ally 1 – 2 years in arrears for pub­lic­a­tion. Data on short-term lets will be derived from licen­cing data. The dead­line for all exist­ing short-term lets is 1 Octo­ber 2023. A baseline will there­fore not be avail­able until that date has passed. Data will be col­lated by Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Case stud­ies where appropriate.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	• Loc­al Author­it­ies imple­ment­ing short-term let licen­cing sys­tem. • High­land Coun­cil pro­gress­ing short-term let con­trol area for Badenoch and Strath­spey. • Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship invest­ig­at­ing a lar­ger scale hous­ing pro­ject in part­ner­ship with Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust.
Name	C2 New housing
Object­ive	Deliv­er new hous­ing in the Nation­al Park and ensure as much as pos­sible is secured for key work­ers and / or to resolve afford­ab­il­ity issues.
Tar­get / Indicator	By 2030, 75% of new hous­ing is for social rent­al, mid-mar­ket rent­al or oth­er afford­able cat­egor­ies that provide afford­ab­il­ity in perpetuity.
Baseline 2022	Hous­ing com­ple­tions in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park • Hous­ing com­ple­tions over the last 5 years: 412 • Com­ple­tion in 2022: 132
	In 2022 thirty-nine plan­ning applic­a­tions were giv­en con­sent for hous­ing, with a net gain in the fol­low­ing ten­ure types: • Mar­ket hous­ing: 49 • Afford­able hous­ing (vari­ous ten­ures): 10
	Note, all con­sents that do no not provide on-site afford­able hous­ing are required to make a fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion towards afford­able housing.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who collects,