For Dis­cus­sion

Title: Caper­cail­lie Con­ser­va­tion Pre­pared by: Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change Pur­pose: This paper sets out the next steps in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion fol­low­ing on from the Park Author­ity Board dis­cus­sion last year and the Minister’s response to the advice provided by NatureScot (NS) and the Park Author­ity. It is a high-pro­file area of work with repu­ta­tion­al and resource implic­a­tions, there­fore Board are asked to note the plans in order for staff to con­sider mem­bers’ opin­ions in shap­ing work as it goes forwards.

The Minister’s recent response to the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee (SAC) report set out a request to the Park Author­ity and NatureScot to work with stake­hold­ers to pro­gress a coordin­ated approach to:

• Con­tin­ue invest­ment in action to achieve land­scape scale res­tor­a­tion of pine­wood hab­it­at as the long-term mech­an­isms to achieve the vis­ion for a thriv­ing pop­u­la­tion of caper­cail­lie in Scotland;
• Devel­op a cos­ted, spa­tially expli­cit plan of pos­it­ive man­age­ment meas­ures based on the SAC Report recom­mend­a­tions, and a fund-rais­ing strategy which explores a wide range of pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary mech­an­isms to gen­er­ate fur­ther fund­ing for caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion; and
• Not pro­gress action to con­trol pro­tec­ted pred­at­ory spe­cies for caper­cail­lie, but that a pine marten pop­u­la­tion sur­vey is under­taken to bet­ter under­stand the size of the population.

It is now a key stage in pro­gress­ing caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion giv­en the stra­tegic sig­ni­fic­ance of the Minister’s response, the forth­com­ing con­sulta­tion on Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy deliv­ery plans, leg­acy plan­ning for the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, and devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan and Act­ive Cairngorms.

The Park Author­ity is com­mit­ted to pro­du­cing the spa­tial plan and tak­ing joint respons­ib­il­ity with NatureScot for lead­ing and over­see­ing a part­ner­ship approach. The Park Author­ity has spe­cif­ic respons­ib­il­it­ies for par­tic­u­lar ele­ments regard­ing cre­ation of ​‘quiet spaces for nature’.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board Is asked to:

a) Note Park Author­ity com­mit­ment to work­ing with NatureScot in devel­op­ing a cos­ted, spa­tially expli­cit plan as per the Minister’s requests. b) Note that the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee will receive reg­u­lar updates on the over­sight and deliv­ery of the plan once produced.

Stra­tegic context

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2023 – 2027, which was approved by Min­is­ters in August 2022, provides the over­all guide for stra­tegic align­ment between pub­lic agen­cies with­in the Nation­al Park. a) Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan A13 Spe­cies Recov­ery action: deliv­er a work pro­gramme to sup­port caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the Cairngorms, based on best avail­able evid­ence. b) Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 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. c) Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan C8 action: Con­sider all poten­tial mech­an­isms to reduce dis­turb­ance on key spe­cies and recre­ation­al impacts on high ground.

2. The Cor­por­ate Plan sets out the con­tri­bu­tion the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity will make over the next 4 years to the imple­ment­a­tion of that Plan, using our grant- in-aid from the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and oth­er fund­ing sources. a) Cor­por­ate Plan dir­ect deliv­ery A13: Lead on a caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan and long-term strategy. b) Cor­por­ate Plan dir­ect deliv­ery A2: Deliv­er 1,000 ha of new or expan­ded wood­land with new and innov­at­ive uses of the Forest Grant Scheme as part of Cairngorms 2030; Pro­mote and admin­is­ter a Wood­land Chal­lenge Fund to sup­port land man­agers in the pre­par­a­tion of Forest Grant Scheme applic­a­tions. c) Cor­por­ate Plan indir­ect deliv­ery A2: The Park Author­ity will inspire, encour­age and provide advice on wood­land cre­ation, poten­tial forestry applic­a­tions & forest plans in the Park to landown­ers and Scot­tish Forestry in line with Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, Cairngorms Nature & Cairngorms Forest Strategy. d) Cor­por­ate Plan C8 dir­ect deliv­ery: Devel­op and deliv­er Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan – includ­ing pro­pos­als to reduce dis­turb­ance to key spe­cies and habitats.

Stra­tegic policy consideration

1. The Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy sets out Scot­land’ response to the biod­iversity chal­lenge and achieve a nature pos­it­ive future. The strategy’s vis­ion is to halt biod­iversity loss by 2030 and reverse it with land­scape-scale res­tor­a­tion by 2045 and that regen­er­ated biod­iversity will sup­port thriv­ing com­munit­ies and a sus­tain­able economy.

2. The Strategy, presen­ted as final draft in order to have con­sidered opin­ion from CoP15 and be incor­por­ated into con­sulta­tion on the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Bill, will be sup­por­ted by a series of 5 year rolling deliv­ery plans. The first plan includes ambi­tious actions to ensure we are on track to halt­ing biod­iversity loss by 2030.

3. A 12 week con­sulta­tion on the over­all biod­iversity frame­work and ele­ments of the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Bill will be launched on 7 Septem­ber. Part A will include the final draft of the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy and a draft of the first five-year Deliv­ery Plan. Part B will focus on a sub­set of the pro­vi­sions to be included in the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Bill.

4. The Spa­tial Plan for Caper­cail­lie will dir­ectly reflect the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy’s Vis­ion and Out­comes by incor­por­at­ing emer­gency meas­ures to halt loss by 2030 and long-term plans to increase resi­li­ence in the forest net­work through hab­it­at expan­sion and enhancement.

5. In the con­text of caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion, urgent action includes mark­ing and remov­ing fences, min­im­ising dis­turb­ance, and redu­cing the impacts of pred­a­tion. Longer term action includes advoc­at­ing and sup­port­ing a reduc­tion in the use of fen­cing with new forest expan­sion schemes and sup­port­ing the cre­ation of an expan­ded forest network.

6. The Minister’s response to the Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee and sub­sequent advice for the Park Author­ity and NatureScot Boards is clear that we should not pro­gress fur­ther action on the con­trol of pro­tec­ted spe­cies. Pred­at­or man­age­ment is a highly con­ten­tious area with dif­fer­ing views on what short term urgent actions might look like and on what a sus­tain­able, resi­li­ent future land­scape might look like. The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to work with all con­cerned in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and foster col­lab­or­a­tion where possible.

7. The Land Reform (Scot­land) Act sets out stat­utory pub­lic access rights and recip­roc­al duties for landown­ers and the Park Author­ity as the Access Author­ity. Meas­ures to cre­ate ​‘quiet spaces for nature’ could, in prin­ciple, be open to leg­al chal­lenge. Sec­tion 13 of the Land Reform Act states that the Park Author­ity does have a duty to uphold access rights; and sec­tion 13 (2) also states that the Park Author­ity is not required to do any­thing in pur­su­ance of this duty which would be incon­sist­ent with the car­ry­ing out of any of the Park Authority’s oth­er func­tions. The robust­ness to such chal­lenge under sec­tion 14 would largely depend on clear evid­ence of the inten­tion to obstruct access rights.

8. Sec­tion 28 1. (a) of the Land Reform Act allows a Sher­riff to declare wheth­er a per­son who has exer­cised or pur­por­ted to exer­cise access rights has exer­cised those rights respons­ibly. In doing so would require con­sid­er­ing wheth­er the per­son has com­plied with the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code guid­ance on not inten­tion­ally or reck­lessly wild­life and vol­un­tary agree­ments between land man­agers and recre­ation bodies.

9. To date the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um has sup­por­ted the Access Author­ity in cla­ri­fy­ing respons­ible con­duct in rela­tion to SOAC and sens­it­ive sites with capercaillie.

10. A work­shop held on 16 August to start the pro­cess of writ­ing a spa­tial plan was atten­ded by over 50 del­eg­ates from a range of sec­tors. There was a very pos­it­ive response to the work­shop and total sup­port for NatureScot and the Park Authority’s approach. Par­ti­cipants dis­cussed what the plan needs to con­tain, tan­gible action points, fund­ing mech­an­isms, next steps for deliv­ery, and gov­ernance struc­tures that will allow for full engagement.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. Risks iden­ti­fied from the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk register: a) Pub­lic sec­tor fin­ances – the expect­a­tion is to move quickly from spa­tial plan to deliv­ery. The spa­tial plan will be cos­ted with iden­ti­fic­a­tion of instreams to include private and vol­un­tary mech­an­isms. The res­ult will be expli­cit about how much, and on which aspects of the plan, pub­lic sec­tor fund­ing com­mit­ment would be sought. b) Repu­ta­tion – caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion remains a high pro­file, con­ten­tious area of work with often polar­ised views, par­tic­u­larly con­cern­ing pred­at­or management

Actions that include, or appear to include, a restric­tion of pub­lic access can be sim­il­arly con­ten­tious and are recog­nised as a risk engagement.

There is a risk that the Park Author­ity, as joint leads with NatureScot in devel­op­ing the spa­tial plan, is per­ceived to be the sole body respons­ible for, and account­able for, caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion. It is there­fore import­ant the part­ner­ship nature of devel­op­ment and deliv­ery is stressed through­out, and our dir­ect respons­ib­il­it­ies are explicit.

A new gov­ernance struc­ture will accom­mod­ate all stake­hold­ers in the devel­op­ment of the spa­tial plan devel­op­ment and over­sight. The Park Author­ity work closely with NatureScot in adopt­ing clear policy positions.

c) Repu­ta­tion / not address­ing the four aims of the Nation­al Park col­lect­ively there is a risk that cre­at­ing ​‘quiet spaces for nature’ is seen to be in con­flict with the aim of pro­mot­ing under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment. The close work­ing with com­munit­ies of place and interest dur­ing the deliv­ery phase of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject has demon­strated valu­able learn­ing in user-led engage­ment approaches. Access groups engaged in the pro­ject and in dis­cus­sions around the spa­tial plan to date have been very con­struct­ive. d) Stra­tegic deliv­ery – des­pite con­cen­trated and coordin­ated effort there remains a high risk of loc­al extinc­tion and fur­ther con­ser­va­tion effort does not reverse decline. A co-ordin­ated approach to com­mu­nic­a­tions and joint-own­er­ship of the actions in the spa­tial plan will be used to encour­age and facil­it­ate response from a range of part­ners, most appro­pri­ate to the stake­hold­ers and chal­lenge. The estab­lish­ment of ​‘quiet spaces for nature’ may have an impact on landown­ers abil­ity to sup­port out­door access events such as ori­enteer­ing, run­ning races and mass par­ti­cip­a­tion walk­ing events. e) Staff­ing / turnover – Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject eval­u­ation and Shar­ing Good Prac­tice pro­cesses and out­comes are com­pre­hens­ive. Staff that have led and worked on the pro­ject, from the Park Author­ity and a range of part­ners, are lead­ing work on devel­op­ing the spa­tial plan to ensure con­tinu­ation and con­tinu­ous devel­op­ment. Leg­acy plan­ning for the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject includes a trans­ition of work into the spa­tial plan and the new gov­ernance struc­ture will incor­por­ate struc­tures from the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject and oth­er ongo­ing caper­cail­lie groupings.

Implic­a­tions

1. Staff­ing- Sup­port for the co-ordin­a­tion and writ­ing of the spa­tial plan is accom­mod­ated with the 2023/2024 oper­a­tion­al plan and in the leg­acy plan­ning com­mit­ment in the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject. The ongo­ing co-ordin­a­tion and over­sight of deliv­ery will be a com­pon­ent of future work plans in Park Author­ity staff teams. In prac­tice this will be a reduc­tion in staff time alloc­ated to caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion as the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject come to a close. Deliv­ery of spe­cif­ic ele­ments around the cre­ation of ​‘quiet spaces for nature’ will be accom­mod­ated with­ing the cur­rent staff resource alloc­ated to devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of Act­ive Cairngorms.

2. Fin­an­cial – The cost for pro­du­cing a spa­tial plan is alloc­ated in the 2023/2024 oper­a­tion­al plan and the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie leg­acy plan­ning budget. Deliv­ery costs asso­ci­ated with indi­vidu­al activ­it­ies will be iden­ti­fied as part of the spa­tial plan, as will the fund­ing mech­an­isms that may be avail­able and should be applied to dis­crete areas of work. Once determ­ined, fur­ther costs across the pub­lic sec­tor will be con­sidered for future oper­a­tion­al plans, chal­lenge funds and integ­ra­tion with exist­ing fund­ing streams.

3. Liab­il­it­ies – Com­mit­ments to emer­gency meas­ures are expec­ted to be time lim­ited, to be con­sidered in the spa­tial plan. Long term resi­li­ence meas­ures such as wood­land expan­sion and enhance­ment are nation­al and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan long term policies. Meas­ures to sup­port the man­age­ment of ​‘quiet areas for nature’ are likely to coin­cide with areas where ranger ser­vices are cur­rently act­ive and will be act­ive in the future, adding no addi­tion­al resource demands on Rangers. Ranger com­mit­ment is how­ever still sub­ject to future budget provisions.

4. Com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment – There are many var­ied and often strongly held opin­ions on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion by land man­agers, envir­on­ment­al NGOs, access groups and res­id­ents. In work to date the Park Author­ity has reen­forced its pos­i­tion as an organ­isa­tion that listens, is respons­ive to dif­fer­ent opin­ions and main­tains a com­mit­ment to deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives. The Park Author­ity and NatureScot tak­ing a lead on a deliv­ery focussed plan of tan­gible action is very well received. In all com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment, it is import­ant the Park Author­ity, and NatureScot, take a clear pos­i­tion on the scope of our involve­ment and responsibilities.

Meas­ures to cre­ate ​‘quiet areas for nature’ could be open to chal­lenge. The Park Author­ity must demon­strate what steps are taken to uphold access rights and be clear that this is guid­ance, not leg­ally restrict­ing access, and that this is based on robust evid­ence that indic­ates a need to reduce dis­turb­ance and is there­fore proportionate.

A com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment plan for the pro­ject will be developed and over­seen through joint NatureScot and Park Author­ity governance.

Suc­cess measures

1. Pro­duc­tion of co-cre­ated, cos­ted, spa­tial plan with new gov­ernance mech­an­ism and stake­hold­er input mech­an­isms to take for­wards deliv­ery, by March 2024.

2. Integ­ra­tion of deliv­ery activ­it­ies into Act­ive Cairngorms, Cairngorms Nature and the oper­a­tion­al plans of partners.

3. Col­lab­or­at­ive work con­tinu­ing to take place across a wide range of stake­hold­ers from the pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary sectors.

4. Inward invest­ment into deliv­ery the plan from vari­ety of sources

Sup­port­ing information

1. Links to: a) Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Board paper 220610 -
   220610CNPABdPaper4AACaperPaper_V7.pdf (cairngorms​.co​.uk) b) CCP pro­ject web­site — Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project c) CCP per­form­ance com­mit­tee paper d) 230609PerfCtteePaper2CapercaillieProject (cairngorms​.co​.uk) e) Microsoft Word — High­light Report_Q4_2022-23_­Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project.docx

Back­ground inform­a­tion and next steps

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and NatureScot have been asked by Lor­na Slater, the Scot­tish Government’s Min­is­ter for Green Skills, Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Biod­iversity to work with stake­hold­ers to lead a coordin­ated action plan for the crit­ic­ally endangered capercaillie.

2. Caper­cail­lie num­bers have decreased by over 50% in the last five years with the latest nation­al sur­vey (2021÷2022) estim­at­ing that there are only 542 caper­cail­lie left in Scotland.

3. A sub­group of the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee has advised that the spe­cies could be lost with­in two to three dec­ades if we do not move quickly, and that renewed intens­ive meas­ures are needed if the pop­u­la­tion is to be conserved.

What steps have we already taken to begin coordin­at­ing action?

a) Feb­ru­ary 2022: A report on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment was pub­lished by a sub­group of the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee. b) April 2022: Views on the areas for action out­lined in the report were gathered from over 100 stake­hold­ers by the Park Author­ity and NatureScot through an online sur­vey and meet­ings. c) May 2022: The areas for action and views gathered in response were explored with stake­hold­ers at a work­shop in Coylumbridge held by the Park Author­ity and NatureScot. d) June 2022: Park Author­ity and NatureScot Boards sup­por­ted recom­mend­a­tions for coordin­ated action for caper­cail­lie based on the major­ity views gathered from stake­hold­ers. e) Octo­ber 2022: All pro­ject activ­it­ies delivered by the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject were reviewed to identi­fy impacts and learn­ing that could sup­port coordin­ated action. f) Feb­ru­ary 2023: A know­ledge exchange vis­it took place to learn from actions and expert­ise in the Black Forest Nation­al Park where a Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan is in place. g) June 2023: Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment con­firmed sup­port for coordin­ated action for caper­cail­lie led by the Park Author­ity and NatureScot.

h) July 2023: RZSS com­pleted their research to identi­fy the genet­ic diversity of the UK caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion. The find­ings were shared with stake­hold­ers at an online session.

What com­mon ground have we iden­ti­fied so far?

1. The report on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment pub­lished by a sub­group of the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee, was not in itself a plan for action. Whilst it recom­men­ded pos­it­ive man­age­ment meas­ures, the sub­group were not asked to con­sider inter­ac­tions with wider biod­iversity and com­munit­ies, or costs and prac­tic­al­it­ies. Led by the Park Author­ity and NatureScot, stake­hold­ers were invited to share their views on these and oth­er factors via an online sur­vey in April 2022 and work­shop held in Coylumbridge in May 2022.

2. Based on the views gathered and the pos­it­ive man­age­ment meas­ures recom­men­ded in the report, the fol­low­ing areas of align­ment were iden­ti­fied, with align­ment strong in some areas, e.g., redu­cing the risk of fence strikes, and less so in oth­ers, e.g., redu­cing the impact of predation.

3. Gen­er­al areas of align­ment: a) The report on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion and man­age­ment pub­lished by a sub­group of the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee is a much-needed pro­act­ive step that broadly provides enough evid­ence to build on. b) A spa­tial strategy and addi­tion­al resource for the core caper­cail­lie area will help with pri­or­it­isa­tion, mon­it­or­ing and adapt­ive man­age­ment going for­ward. c) Invest­ig­a­tion into the genet­ics of the pop­u­la­tion should continue.

4. Redu­cing dis­turb­ance: a) Take for­ward work to invest­ig­ate options for path man­age­ment, devel­op­ing ​‘quiet spaces for nature’, encour­aging respons­ible access and employ­ing a great­er suite of meas­ures to reduce human dis­turb­ance than con­sist­ently employed cur­rently. b) Learn from and build on the com­munity-led approach taken by the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject to find sus­tain­able solu­tions. c) Ensure a pro­por­tion­al response and equity amongst recre­ation­al users. d) Take a broad approach that looks at ​‘quiet spaces for nature’, rather than focus­ing just on capercaillie.

5. Redu­cing the impact of predation:

a) The cur­rent situ­ation of a patch­work of inter­ven­tions, both spa­tially and in terms of spe­cies being con­trolled, is not hav­ing the demon­strable pos­it­ive effect on breed­ing suc­cess. b) Pine marten con­trol through trap and trans­lo­cate and/​or trap, hold and release is unvi­able for sev­er­al reas­ons. c) Con­tin­ue and con­duct fur­ther research into the effic­acy and meth­od­o­lo­gies of diver­sion­ary feed­ing and inter­ac­tions in the pred­at­or guild. d) Expand the cur­rent diver­sion­ary feed­ing tri­al in Badenoch and Strathspey.

1. Redu­cing the risk of fence strikes: a) Just focus­ing on fen­cing with­in 1km from lek sites is not enough to safe­guard caper­cail­lie from the risk of col­li­sions. b) Increased fence mark­ing and remov­al across the caper­cail­lie range will improve caper­cail­lie sur­viv­al rates. c) Fen­cing that has served its pur­pose should be removed as soon as pos­sible. d) This work could be actioned rel­at­ively quickly sub­ject to funding.

Object­ives of the work­shop on 16 August

1. A shared view on what a coordin­ated action plan for caper­cail­lie should look like.

2. More detail to aid the deliv­ery of the fol­low­ing pos­it­ive man­age­ment meas­ures, build­ing on the areas of align­ment iden­ti­fied in the 2022 work­shop in light of the state­ment from Ms Slater: a) Redu­cing dis­turb­ance b) Redu­cing the impact of pred­a­tion c) Improv­ing and expand­ing hab­it­at d) Redu­cing the risk of fence strikes

3. Explor­a­tion of pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary mech­an­isms to fund the coordin­ated action plan for capercaillie.

Next steps

1. Septem­ber — Octo­ber 2023: Fol­low-up work­shops and con­sulta­tions will be held to review the deliv­ery plans developed as part of and in response to the workshop.

2. Octo­ber 2023: A study will be com­mis­sioned to invest­ig­ate the feas­ib­il­ity of rein­for­cing the UK caper­cail­lie population.

3. Novem­ber 2023: Deliv­ery plans to reduce dis­turb­ance to caper­cail­lie, developed through the work­shop and fol­low-up con­sulta­tions and build­ing on the work of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, will be included in the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan and con­sidered by the Park Author­ity Board.

4. Decem­ber 2023: A full eval­u­ation of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject will be con­duc­ted to identi­fy impacts and learn­ing that will sup­port coordin­ated action.

5. March 2024: A draft coordin­ated action plan will be pro­duced for Park Author­ity and NatureScot approv­al. The plan will be based on all the input from stake­hold­ers received to date and will take for­ward short-term (emer­gency) actions and longer- term actions to secure the future for caper­cail­lie in Scotland.