For Dis­cus­sion

Title: Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Annu­al Update

Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning

Pur­pose

This paper sum­mar­ises the mon­it­or­ing frame­work for the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and iden­ti­fies some of the key areas where indic­at­ors show pro­gress or where officers expect pro­gress to be demon­strated in future after the first year of deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to:

a) Note the pro­gress sum­mar­ised in the paper and asso­ci­ated Annex 1

Stra­tegic context

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan iden­ti­fies the long term object­ives for the Nation­al Park that will sup­port the deliv­ery of the three long term out­comes for 2045 under the sec­tions of Nature, People and Place. Each long term object­ive has an indic­at­or iden­ti­fied to help assess pro­gress to the long term object­ives and out­comes. This paper sum­mar­ises the data avail­able for the indic­at­ors by August 2023, after one year of deliv­ery cur­rent Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and iden­ti­fies the areas of sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress or of sig­ni­fic­ant challenge.

2. The indic­at­ors are made up of range of data, some of which is col­lec­ted annu­ally or more fre­quently, some of which is only reviewed every few years, and some of which requires new work to identi­fy in future. They are inten­ded to be most effect­ive over the full life of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and in show­ing pro­gress or identi­fy­ing prob­lems towards the out­comes for 2045. Some are effect­ive indic­at­ors at this early point in the deliv­ery of the Part­ner­ship Plan. Oth­ers require more time to be effect­ive so can be sup­ple­men­ted with oth­er data or examples of work.

3. Deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is at the core of the Board’s role and this annu­al report provides a mile­stone from which to assess pro­gress and identi­fy any areas where change is required and will sup­ple­ment oth­er reports on work giv­en through the reg­u­lar CEO updates to Board. At only one year of deliv­ery this report does not identi­fy any areas of sig­ni­fic­ant con­cern, but the mon­it­or­ing frame­work sum­mar­ised here is one of the tools used to identi­fy any and to sup­port the Board’s stra­tegic overview.

Implic­a­tions

1. There are no sig­ni­fic­ant new implic­a­tions in terms of deliv­ery, stra­tegic policy or resources at this point in time.

Sum­mary of pro­gress to August 2023

1. The fol­low­ing three sec­tions sum­mar­ise pro­gress under the Nature, People and Place themes in the first year of deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Nature

1. The long-term out­come for Nature is: a car­bon neg­at­ive and biod­iversity rich Nation­al park with bet­ter func­tion­ing, bet­ter con­nec­ted and more resi­li­ent ecosystems.

2. At the first year of deliv­ery of long term and land­scape-scale actions that will help reach the long-term out­come and object­ives for Nature, here has been steady pro­gress in build­ing on past part­ner­ships and estab­lish­ing new work. Peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects, which have been scal­ing-up earli­er years reached more than 1000ha restored between 2022 and 2023, accel­er­at­ing at the rate needed to meet the 2045 tar­get of 35000ha. The only tar­get with­in the Nature theme that can be flagged as a slight con­cern was under wood­land expan­sion, where 402ha of new wood­land were cre­ated. That reflects a Scot­land-wide drop in new wood­land cre­ation dur­ing the year but is expec­ted to increase dur­ing 2023 – 2024 as wood­land cre­ation schemes that are being pre­pared gain approval.

3. High­lights under the Nature theme over the past year include:

   a) Estab­lished the timeline for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to be net zero and tar­get for becom­ing car­bon neg­at­ive. Report finds Cairngorms Nation­al Park could reach net zero well ahead of tar­get — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity;

   b) 1080ha peat­land brought under res­tor­a­tion between 2022 and 2023, exceed­ing the rate needed to meet 2035 target;

   c) Rare spe­cies rein­force­ment pro­grammes under­way for Scot­tish wild­cat, pine hov­er­fly and dark bordered beauty moth His­tor­ic mile­stone reached as first ever release of rare moth takes place in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to boost threatened spe­cies | RZSS;

   d) Cairngorms Beaver rein­tro­duc­tion pro­ject star­ted Beavers — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity;

   e) Com­mis­sioned work to pro­duce meth­od­o­logy for gamebird release data for Nation­al Park from 2023;

   f) Cairngorms 2030 low car­bon farm­ing pilot pro­jects estab­lished. Car­bon audits and farm busi­ness reviews to go ahead in Cairngorms — Farmin­gUK News;

   g) The fresh­wa­ter mod­el for the Cairngorms Nature Index has been developed and is being reviewed by an expert advis­ory group;

   h) Spey Catch­ment Ini­ti­at­ive has become a Scot­tish Char­it­able Incor­por­ated Organ­isa­tion with increased capa­city and organ­isa­tion­al resi­li­ence to deliv­er land­scape-scale projects;

   i) River Dee Trust has con­tin­ued to deliv­er prac­tic­al hab­it­at improve­ment pro­jects at a land­scape scale in the upper Dee catch­ment. Wood­land res­tor­a­tion pro­ject makes pro­gress with over 100,000 trees planted | River Dee;

   j) Green fin­ance tri­al estab­lished at Del­nadamph demon­strat­ing that a com­bin­a­tion of pub­lic and private invest­ment can secure peat­land res­tor­a­tion and deliv­er 10% of the profits for com­munity benefit.

People

1. The long term out­come for People is: a well­being eco­nomy that works for all the people of the Cairngorms.

2. There has been good pro­gress under the people theme, with the estab­lish­ment of the Green Health Refer­rals and doub­ling of the Volun­teer Cairngorms par­ti­cipants mile­stones in work. The work to devel­op hos­pit­al­ity train­ing for young people on Deeside in part­ner­ship with schools and busi­ness has poten­tial to cre­ate a mod­el that could be applied else­where and sup­port the loc­al labour mar­ket, eco­nomy and help young people devel­op skills. Work to devel­op a Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan has been slower than anti­cip­ated, partly because of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity staff time sup­port­ing the Cairngorms 2030 Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund bid and an expect­a­tion that the devel­op­ment of corner­stone indic­at­ors for a well­being eco­nomy would provide fur­ther insights into what a well­being eco­nomy action plan might focus on. In real­ity that work has rein­forced our view that the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan provides a sound frame­work for a well­being eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park and devel­op­ing the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan will be a focus the remainder of 2023.

   a) Devel­op­ment of corner­stone indic­at­ors for a well­being eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park;

   b) Devel­op­ment of hos­pit­al­ity train­ing with schools in Upper Deeside and Badenoch;

   c) Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land are plan­ning for a large rur­al / green skills event in Septem­ber 2024 with train­ing pro­viders, employ­ers, schools and further/​higher edu­ca­tion pro­viders and train­ing / job seekers;

   d) Estab­lish­ment of the Green Health Refer­rals in the Nation­al Park and growth in num­ber of Health Walks;

   e) Cairngorms Youth LAG and Youth Action Team hos­ted a cli­mate change sum­mer camp at Bad­aguish in August 2023;

   f) Volun­teer Cairngorms par­ti­cipants doubled from 2022 to 2023 (30 to 64);

   g) The Nation­al Park hos­ted two vis­its by groups from Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers group Black Scot­tish Adven­tur­ers – This is Liv­ing!, each with more than 90 par­ti­cipants, build­ing aware­ness of and con­fid­ence in oppor­tun­it­ies to vis­it and enjoy the Park.

   h) Nation­al Park Ranger Ser­vice increased patrolling dur­ing spring an sum­mer months at key vis­it­or loc­a­tions, includ­ing with police in Glen­more and sup­por­ted the Lek it Be cam­paign with caper­cail­lie lek patrols dur­ing the spring.

Place

1. The long term out­come for Place is: a place that people want to live in, work in and vis­it that works for all.

2. Over the past year, a num­ber of afford­able hous­ing devel­op­ments have been com­pleted or are inn devel­op­ment fol­low­ing plan­ning con­sents in earli­er years. High­land Council’s afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery pro­gramme con­tin­ues to deliv­er on the ground and High­land Hous­ing Alli­ance have cre­ated mid­mar­ket rent prop­er­ties in Aviemore and Kin­craig in part­ner­ship with the Cairngorms Busi­ness part­ner­ship. Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et devel­op­ment Trust’s afford­able hous­ing pro­ject in Tomin­toul was com­pleted in early 2023 and occu­pied soon after. Invest­ment in vis­it­or and access infra­struc­ture con­tin­ued and the open­ing of the new Beinn a’ Ghlo car­park and refresh­ment of the main Cairngorm Moun­tain car park at Coire Cas will be used many people. The Spey­side way was upgraded through Anagch Woods near Grant­own-on Spey, sig­ni­fic­antly increas­ing access­ib­il­ity for many people in Grant­own and improv­ing the long dis­tance route.

3. High­lights under the Place theme over the past year include:

   a) Early work on pre­par­a­tion of the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan for Cairngorms Nation­al Park with pub­lic­a­tion of Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme (cairngorms​.co​.uk) and ini­tial engage­ment star­ted Have Your Say Today — Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan — Com­mon­place;

   b) High­land Council’s afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery pro­gramme con­tin­ues on sites at pro­ject in Kin­gussie, Kin­craig, Car­rbridge & Dul­nain Bridge;

   c) Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship pro­ject with High­land Hous­ing Alli­ance to rent-guar­an­tee mid-mar­ket rent prop­er­ties has expan­ded from Aviemore to Kin­craig. First homes ded­ic­ated to loc­al busi­ness work­ers in Badenoch and Strath­spey to be launched (strath​spey​-her​ald​.co​.uk);

   d) Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust’s com­munity hous­ing site at Tomin­toul was com­pleted Tomintoul-poster‑4.pdf (tgdt​.org​.uk);

   e) Cairngorms Nation­al Park Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan was approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity board and the Nation­al Park has reapplied for European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas and expects to be re-accred­ited late 2023;

   f) The STEAM Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Activ­ity Mon­it­or data for 2022 shows vis­it­or num­bers were down 16% on pre-pan­dem­ic levels but eco­nom­ic impact of vis­it­ors had increased by 2% overall.

   g) Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects identi­fy­ing act­ive travel improve­ment pro­jects with­in com­munit­ies and between com­munit­ies across Nation­al Park and explor­ing pub­lic trans­port improve­ments with trans­port authorities;

   h) New Beinn a’ Ghlo car park opened Out­door Access Trust For Scot­land | New Beinn a’ Ghlo trail­head car park gives back to the moun­tains near Blair Atholl to reduce car park­ing pres­sures and sup­port path maintenance;

   i) New and upgraded paths com­pleted the Anagach Woods as part of Spey­side Way Upgrad­ing of Spey­side Way at Grant­own-on-Spey gets under­way! — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and in Kincraig;

   j) Cat­er­an Eco­mu­seum were awar­ded Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund money to sup­port their museum of rap­id trans­ition pro­ject Help Us Deliv­er The Next Phase Of Our Museum Of Rap­id Trans­ition pro­gramme — Cat­er­an Eco­mu­seum.

Next steps

1. In a prac­tic­al sense, all part­ners will con­tin­ue to deliv­er their work and coordin­ate their work through the rel­ev­ant part­ner­ships or oper­a­tion­al struc­tures. Mon­it­or­ing of the plan and col­la­tion of data to assess pro­gress will con­tin­ue as part of that.

2. Com­mu­nic­at­ing pro­gress and change more widely plays an import­ant role in build­ing sup­port and under­stand­ing of the work with­in loc­al com­munit­ies and wider audi­ences. The mon­it­or­ing inform­a­tion repor­ted here will be added to the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan micros­ite (Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan – Where people and nature thrive togeth­er) in a simple and access­ible way and will be sup­ple­men­ted with case study examples that can illus­trate pro­gress. That con­tent will then be used to sup­port the Park Authority’s wider com­mu­nic­a­tions chan­nels, tar­get­ing news and inform­a­tion to the right audi­ences in the most effect­ive ways.