Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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Cor­por­ate Plan 2023 — 2027

1. Fore­word

Con­vener and CEO

2. Intro­duc­tion

The nature and cli­mate crisis is at the core of the new Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. That plan sets out how we will look after the Park and how we devel­op and deliv­er a well-being eco­nomy that works for the people of the Cairngorms whilst also restor­ing nature and deliv­er­ing net zero. It is our duty to deliv­er the Part­ner­ship Plan along with many oth­ers to look after and enhance this spe­cial place for the people of Scotland.

This Cor­por­ate Plan describes how the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity con­trib­utes to the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027.

Our Cor­por­ate Plan also sets out how the Park Author­ity plans to achieve our aim of being ​‘the best small pub­lic body in Scot­land’ and how we will sup­port Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment across its policy priorities.

Our ambi­tion is set out across three themes – Nature, People and Place. These are the themes of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and this doc­u­ment sets out the role of the Nation­al Park Author­ity in help­ing to deliv­er the object­ives set out in that doc­u­ment. This is under­pinned by our cor­por­ate func­tions and com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment work.

Over 100 organ­isa­tions are lis­ted in the Part­ner­ship Plan doc­u­ment and it is our inten­tion to work in part­ner­ship with a range of organ­isa­tions, com­munit­ies, land man­agers, busi­nesses and oth­ers to deliv­er real change on the ground.

The Park Author­ity has a good track record of using its fund­ing to lever­age sig­ni­fic­ant sup­port into the Cairngorms and we will con­tin­ue to do this. The Part­ner­ship Plan focuses on the big issues in the Nation­al Park and our role is to work with all to tackle those key chal­lenges and come up with prac­tic­al solutions.

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3. Stra­tegic context

Nation­al Park

The Cairngorms is the UK’s largest nation­al park at 4,528 sq km (6% of Scotland’s land mass) and is home to one quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered spe­cies. Around 18,000 people live in the Nation­al Park across the areas of Aber­deen­shire, Angus, High­land, Moray, Perth and Kinross, with over two mil­lion vis­it­ors enjoy this spe­cial place every year.

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out by Parliament:

• To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area.
• To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area.
• To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public.
• To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

These aims are to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9.6 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). This helps ensure con­ser­va­tion of the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age under­pins the eco­nom­ic, social and recre­ation value of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Scot­land

The dir­ec­tion of travel from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment is clear around the nature and cli­mate crisis, the need to have a just trans­ition and the need to devel­op an eco­nomy that works for all. There is sig­ni­fic­ant change likely to hap­pen­ing in Scot­land over the com­ing years that will have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the Park and how the Park Author­ity oper­ates. This includes the Nature / Envir­on­ment Bill, Land Reform Bill and Agri­cul­ture Bill all due with­in this par­lia­ment­ary term. There are also pro­pos­als for at least one new Nation­al Park in Scotland.

The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to work closely with pub­lic sec­tor part­ners through work­ing groups and through stra­tegic engage­ment in entit­ies like the Envir­on­ment and Eco­nomy Lead­ers’ Group, Scot­tish For­um on Nat­ur­al Cap­it­al etc. and across the full range of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment functions.

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Fur­ther afield

The Park Author­ity works closely with oth­er nation­al parks in the UK as part of the Nation­al Parks Part­ner­ship and Nation­al Parks UK. These col­lab­or­at­ive mech­an­isms allow us to use the power of fif­teen nation­al parks to tackle some of the key stra­tegic pri­or­it­ies around green fin­ance, fun­drais­ing and spon­sor­ship, and oth­er issues that are more dif­fi­cult to tackle as a single nation­al park.

At a European level, the Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to be an effect­ive and enthu­si­ast­ic mem­ber of the Euro­parc Fed­er­a­tion, which provides great insight, coordin­a­tion and know­ledge-shar­ing into how Nation­al Parks are tack­ling the big issues across Europe.

4. Our approach

Cairngorms Nation­al Park vision

‘An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together.’

Park Author­ity mission

To lead the way in deliv­er­ing for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park by:

• Bring­ing people togeth­er towards a com­mon purpose
• Enhan­cing the Nation­al Park for everyone
• Inspir­ing new gen­er­a­tions to be Nation­al Park champions

Park Author­ity values

The Park Author­ity is an open, inclus­ive, innov­at­ive and pro­fes­sion­al organ­isa­tion that behaves with integ­rity. The Park Author­ity will also oper­ate in an envir­on­ment­ally friendly way that demon­strates lead­er­ship in this area.

Cul­ture

The Park Author­ity wants to be the best small pub­lic body in Scot­land. The Best Com­pan­ies Sur­vey has con­sist­ently shown that we are a people-ori­ent­ated organisation

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that is per­form­ing well for its employ­ees. The Park Author­ity will build on our Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy and will strive to ensure a high-per­form­ance cul­ture and take for­ward new oppor­tun­it­ies where they arise to deliv­er for the Nation­al Park. We will also be innov­at­ive, quick to act and to empower staff to deliv­er the strategies that are put in place by the Park Author­ity board. Diversity and equal­ity will be a key com­pon­ent of our work as the Park Authority.

New ways of working

The Park Author­ity will con­tin­ue to look at new ways to oper­ate as an organ­isa­tion to deliv­er our com­mit­ments in this plan peri­od. This includes look­ing for altern­at­ive fund­ing streams, from applic­a­tions to the likes of the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund to spon­sor­ship oppor­tun­it­ies, green fin­ance and oth­er mech­an­isms. It will also include work­ing col­lab­or­at­ively with part­ners to deliv­er improved ser­vices on the ground.

Per­form­ance monitoring

We have set out indic­at­ors for each of the key object­ives in the Part­ner­ship Plan and these will be meas­ured and mon­itored across the next five years. By nature of the Park Authority’s role – seek­ing to lead col­lab­or­at­ive effort in tack­ling the big issues for the Cairngorms – these per­form­ance meas­ures are rarely dir­ectly con­trol­lable by the Park Author­ity and cer­tainly not by the Park Author­ity alone. Rather, they require the neces­sary col­lab­or­a­tion and engage­ment of the Park Author­ity and our part­ners. In this way, they act as meas­ures of the effect­ive­ness of our lead­er­ship and influ­en­cing abil­it­ies, com­bined with our own dir­ect invest­ment of fin­ance and staff resources, in tack­ling these priorities.

5. Park Author­ity board

The Park Author­ity board provides stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for the organ­isa­tion. There are 19 board mem­bers and the board car­ries out its func­tions through a pro­cess of form­al pub­lic meet­ings and com­mit­tee meet­ings. The board’s form­al com­mit­tees are: audit and risk, plan­ning, resources and performance.

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6. Ser­vices

The Park Author­ity is the Plan­ning Author­ity and Out­door Access Author­ity for the area. This means that cer­tain func­tions have to be provided by the Park Author­ity, eg Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, Core Paths Plan, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment (where plan­ning applic­a­tions are called-in), out­door access case work and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

The Park Author­ity also has a num­ber of ongo­ing fund­ing com­mit­ments, such as to com­munity devel­op­ment officers, ranger ser­vices, multi-year pro­jects (Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030, Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment), peat­land res­tor­a­tion, catch­ment man­age­ment and nature res­tor­a­tion projects.

These ongo­ing com­mit­ments and stat­utory duties, along­side the over­arch­ing Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, mean that the room for sig­ni­fic­ant change in stra­tegic dir­ec­tion is rel­at­ively restricted.

7. Cor­por­ate Plan Delivery

To deliv­er the long-term out­comes set out in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, the Plan has three main themes – Nature, People and Place. These are sup­ple­men­ted by a sup­port theme – Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Com­mu­nic­a­tions. The table below shows the dir­ect and indir­ect deliv­ery of the Park Author­ity against the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan objectives.

The KPI’s for Nature, People and Place are set out in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The Cor­por­ate KPI’s are set out in this doc­u­ment in Sec­tion 4.

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Sec­tion 1 — Nature

Name	Part­ner­ship Plan object­ive	Part­ner­ship Plan actions by 2027	Park Author­ity dir­ect deliv­ery	Park Author­ity indir­ect delivery
A1: Net zero	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.	• Car­bon audit and baseline estab­lished for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in 2022. • Estab­lish date for Cairngorms Nation­al Park to be net zero and car­bon neg­at­ive by 2023. • Estab­lish a Com­munity Cli­mate Action Hub for the Nation­al Park. • Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 programme.	Deliv­er­ing baseline report, mon­it­or and annu­ally report on pro­gress towards CNP achiev­ing net-zero and sub­sequently act­ing as a car­bon sink Lead on deliv­er­ing Cairngorms 2030, empower­ing people to con­trib­ute to net zero ambitions	Park Author­ity will work with part­ners includ­ing SG to estab­lish a Com­munity Cli­mate Action Hub.
A2: Wood­land expansion	Increase the amount of wood­land in the Nation­al Park to sup­port lar­ger, more nat­ur­al wood­land, expand­ing in places up to a nat­ur­al treeline, provid­ing connections	• Expand wood­land by a min­im­um of 7,000 ha through the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy and tar­geted grant schemes.	Deliv­er 1,000 ha of new or expan­ded wood­land with new and innov­at­ive uses of the Forest Grant Scheme as part of Cairngorms 2030.	CNPA will inspire, encour­age and provide advice on wood­land cre­ation, poten­tial forestry applic­a­tions & forest plans in the Park to

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| | across river catch­ments and around the cent­ral core of the moun­tains. | • Ensure all scales of wood­land are con­sidered and sup­por­ted, includ­ing agro-forestry, and that at least 2,500 ha is achieved through nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion without plant­ing. • Work with land man­agers to ensure exist­ing wood­lands are man­aged for a range of bene­fits includ­ing tim­ber pro­duc­tion, pub­lic access, biod­iversity etc. • Work to deliv­er improve­ments to wood­land deer man­age­ment plan­ning in forest plans. • Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. | Pro­mote and admin­is­ter a Wood­land Chal­lenge Fund to sup­port land man­agers in the pre­par­a­tion of FGS applic­a­tions. | landown­ers and Scot­tish Forestry in line with NPPP, Cairngorms Nature & Cairngorms Forest Strategy. | | A3: Peat­land res­tor­a­tion | Restore and man­age peat­land with­in the Nation­al Park to reduce car­bon emis­sions and improve biod­iversity. | • Restore a min­im­um of 6,500 ha of peat­land. • Increase con­tract­or and estate capa­city while cre­at­ing job oppor­tun­it­ies | Sup­port and fin­ance the res­tor­a­tion of peat­land, with 6,500 hec­tares restored by 2027 | Peat­land skills train­ing pro­gramme to be developed with partners |

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| | | • through a peat­land skills train­ing pro­gramme. • Devel­op guid­ance on the integ­ra­tion of peat­land res­tor­a­tion and wood­land expan­sion in the Nation­al Park • Explore pro­tec­tion options for peat­land res­tor­a­tion from herb­i­vores. • Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. | | Guid­ance on integ­ra­tion of peat­land and wood­land to be developed with part­ners includ­ing how to pro­tect from herb­i­vores. | | A4 – Deer and herb­i­vore impacts | 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. | • Work in part­ner­ship with deer man­age­ment groups to pro­duce stra­tegic land use plans which explore a wide range of income streams (includ­ing from nat­ur­al cap­it­al), reduce hab­it­at impacts and deliv­er a wide range of pub­lic and private bene­fits. • Explore new mod­els of pub­lic / private part­ner­ship for main­tain­ing stalk­er | Work with Deer Man­age­ment Groups, as part of Cairngorms 2030, to deliv­er stra­tegic land man­age­ment plans to sup­port a reduc­tion in deer num­bers. Invest­ig­ate and tri­al mod­els which achieve policy out­comes and retain skills and employ­ment in the sec­tor | CNPA will work with part­ners on the Stra­tegic Board and Work­ing Groups in imple­ment­ing recom­mend­a­tions from the Deer Work­ing Group. |

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| | | • employ­ment in key areas of the Nation­al Park to achieve over­all deer policy object­ives. • Explore the use of meas­ures of deer and herb­i­vore occu­pancy across the Nation­al Park and invest­ig­ate how those meas­ures might be used to improve the man­age­ment of herb­i­vores and, spe­cific­ally, reduce deer impacts on res­tor­a­tion tar­gets. • Her­it­age Hori­zons: | Invest­ig­ate the effic­acy and prac­tic­al­it­ies of meas­ures used in assess­ing impacts | | | A5 — Moor­land man­age­ment | Increase the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of moor­land man­age­ment in the Nation­al Park to ensure great­er spe­cies and struc­tur­al diversity in moor­land areas of the Nation­al Park. | • Intro­duc­tion of grouse moor licens­ing and oth­er ele­ments of the Inde­pend­ent Review of Grouse Moor Man­age­ment with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. • Sup­port know­ledge exchange and shar­ing of good prac­tice from the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship to oth­er parts of the Nation­al Park. | Lead the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship as a demon­stra­tion of sus­tain­able moor­land man­age­ment deliv­er­ing both pub­lic and private interests. | Con­trib­ute to the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of grouse moor licens­ing Coordin­ate and sup­port Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group |

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| | | | | | | A6 — Gamebird man­age­ment | 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. | • Devel­op and sup­port Estate Man­age­ment Plans and Wild­life Estates Scot­land accred­it­a­tion. • Estab­lish a baseline for the num­ber of gamebirds released in the Nation­al Park and assess their impact on nat­ive biod­iversity. • Depend­ing on the evid­ence gathered, invest­ig­ate the use of Park Author­ity powers to reg­u­late gamebird releases and devel­op a reg­u­lat­ory approach if required. | Estab­lish baseline and assess impact of gamebird releases on nat­ive biod­iversity. Pro­duce report & recom­mend­a­tions on poten­tial options based on impact assess­ment. | | | A7 – Fire man­age­ment | Ensure that all man­aged burn­ing (muir­burn) fol­lows best prac­tice as defined by the muir­burn licens­ing scheme, sup­port­ing hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion and recov­ery. Reduce wild­fire risk by devel­op­ing an integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment | • Con­duct an audit to estab­lish an accur­ate baseline for the extent of deep peat in the Nation­al Park • Intro­duce and sup­port a muir­burn licen­cing régime in the Nation­al Park. • Devel­op an integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment plan for the Nation­al Park, | Devel­op an integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment plan Estab­lish a baseline of deep peat | Con­trib­ute to the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of muir­burn good prac­tice and licens­ing régime and clear com­mu­nic­a­tion about the risk of fires and appro­pri­ate behaviour. |

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| | plan for the Nation­al Park. | • includ­ing stra­tegic firebreaks. • Devel­op and agree Nation­al Park approach on camp­fires and bar­be­cues. | | | | A8 – Farm­ing | 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. | • Agree car­bon and biod­iversity man­age­ment plans with farm­ers in the Nation­al Park to help guide their activ­it­ies. • Devel­op nature-friendly farm­ing pro­jects (wood­land, waders, spe­cies rich grass­land) as part of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. • Devel­op and estab­lish a Region­al Land Use Frame­work and Part­ner­ship. | Com­plete pilot RLUP and RLUF Lead over­sight of deliv­ery of Cairngorms Nature Action Plan Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 Future Farm­ing pro­jects sup­port­ing farm­ers in achiev­ing car­bon neut­ral­ity and help­ing address the twin crises in the con­text of a prof­it­able farm busi­ness. | Coordin­ate and sup­port Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship and Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group Work with part­ners to sup­port farm­ers and crofters through trans­itions | | A9 — Fresh­wa­ter sys­tems | Restore and con­nect rivers to thriv­ing wet­lands and flood­plains as part of a wider res­tor­a­tion of the Nation­al Park’s | • Deliv­er catch­ment man­age­ment plans. • Devel­op and agree a long- term approach to water man­age­ment and | Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 Cli­mate Resi­li­ent Catch­ment pro­jects demon­strat­ing res­tor­a­tion com­pli­ment­ary to sur­round­ing land use that | Sup­port Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships and Fish­er­ies Boards |

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| | fresh­wa­ter sys­tems, help­ing mit­ig­ate the impacts of cli­mate change. | abstrac­tion to help alle­vi­ate flood and drought issues | bene­fits com­munit­ies and wild­life. | | | A10 — Eco­lo­gic­al net­work | 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. | • Devel­op Cairngorms Nature Net­works – a spa­tial map­ping of poten­tial stra­tegic areas for expand­ing, enhan­cing, and increas­ing con­nectiv­ity of hab­it­ats and spe­cies in the Nation­al Park • Under­take a ​‘call’ for new nature res­tor­a­tion sites in the Nation­al Park that deliv­er eco­lo­gic­al func­tion­al­ity and look to secure long-term fund­ing. • Review and devel­op our approach to des­ig­na­tions in the Nation­al Park to help deliv­er eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion and con­trib­ute to eco­lo­gic­al net­works and net zero, in line with new Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy. | Design, deliv­er and show­case a tem­plate for Nature Net­works to guide hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion pri­or­it­ies and sup­port land use decision mak­ing. Devel­op, pub­li­cise and admin­is­ter a sys­tem for encour­aging land man­agers to engage with cre­at­ing Nature Net­works includ­ing a call for sites. | Encour­age using test cases in the Nation­al Park to devel­op new think­ing and mod­els for the role of des­ig­nated sites in meet­ing the nature and cli­mate crises |

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| | | | | | | A11 — Eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion | Improve eco­sys­tem func­tion­al­ity and resi­li­ence across the Nation­al Park by increas­ing the area of land man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion. | • Devel­op NatureScot Con­ser­va­tion Advice Pack­ages. • Work with Cairngorms Con­nect, the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship and oth­ers to expand the area of the Nation­al Park under eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion • Devel­op case stud­ies demon­strat­ing what suc­cess looks like, share know­ledge, and agree an appro­pri­ate mon­it­or­ing frame­work. | Define and estab­lish a baseline on land man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion. Encour­age more land in the Nation­al Park to be man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion to meet the tar­get in the Park Plan. | Show­case eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion through land­scape scale part­ner­ships in the Park Con­trib­ute to the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of 30 x 30 | | A12 — Cairngorms Nature Index | 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. | • Estab­lish the Cairngorms Nature Index. • Estab­lish a Cairngorms Nature Atlas / data portal. • Mon­it­or changes in Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies. | Design, deliv­er and show­case a Cairngorms Nature Index Estab­lish a bio­lo­gic­al data portal | Sup­port Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship | | A13 – Spe­cies recov­ery | Ensure spe­cies thrive in the Nation­al Park with key assemblages across | • Deliv­er spe­cies recov­ery plans for pri­or­ity spe­cies | Lead on beaver rein­tro­duc­tion. | Coordin­ate and sup­port the Cairngorms Nature |

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| | the Cairngorms with­in the semi-nat­ur­al land­scape. | through the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. • Deliv­er a work pro­gramme to sup­port caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the Cairngorms, based on best avail­able evid­ence. • Facil­it­ate beaver trans­lo­ca­tion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. • Reduce wild­life crime in the Nation­al Park, with a spe­cif­ic focus on elim­in­at­ing it as a con­straint on rap­tor num­bers and range occu­pancy in the Nation­al Park. • Deliv­er the Cairngorms Rap­tor Pro­ject, in part­ner­ship with land man­agers and rap­tor study groups. | Lead on a caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan and long term strategy. Lead on the Cairngorms rap­tor pro­ject. | part­ner­ship and deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. Foster col­lab­or­a­tion with Police Scot­land, Rap­tor Study Groups and land man­agers | | A14 – Green invest­ment | Use private green invest­ment in the Nation­al Park to fund nature’s recov­ery and share the bene­fits | • Tri­al a green fin­ance pro­ject for peat­land res­tor­a­tion in the Nation­al Park. • Explore green fin­ance oppor­tun­it­ies at a land­scape | Pilot approaches to blen­ded pub­lic and private fin­ance to deliv­er net zero and biod­iversity tar­gets, whilst also provid­ing long- | Sup­port res­tor­a­tion activ­it­ies at scale via land­scape partnerships. |

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| | between com­munit­ies, landown­ers, work­ers and wider soci­ety. | scale and for a wider range of bene­fits, includ­ing loc­al com­munity bene­fit. • Identi­fy a pipeline of pro­jects with­in the Nation­al Park over the next five years. • Identi­fy oppor­tun­it­ies to strengthen the role of com­munit­ies and pub­lic author­it­ies in land pur­chase decisions in the Nation­al Park through the next Land Reform Bill. | term bene­fits for land man­agers, investors and loc­al communities. | |

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Sec­tion 2 — People

Name	Part­ner­ship Plan object­ive	Part­ner­ship Plan actions by 2027	Park Author­ity dir­ect deliv­ery	Park Author­ity indir­ect delivery
B1: Work­ing- age population	The pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-age people in the Nation­al Park increases rel­at­ive to the total res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion, which remains stable	• Devel­op and imple­ment a Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. • Devel­op a green skills / youth appren­tice­ship pro­ject to help grow a strong work­ing age pop­u­la­tion (see People object­ive B4 – Skills and train­ing). • Grow the influ­ence and level of youth par­ti­cip­a­tion in the Cairngorms Youth Action Team.	Deliv­er and mon­it­or Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Lead devel­op­ment of new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Lead the coordin­a­tion and devel­op­ment of Cairngorms Youth Action Team	Pro­mote devel­op­ment of sites with­in LDP Work in part­ner­ship with LAs to pro­mote coordin­ated deliv­ery of LDP Sup­port part­ners deliv­er­ing green skills youth appren­tice­ship or equi­val­ent skills and train­ing initiatives.
B2: Well­being economy	Devel­op a well­being eco­nomy that deliv­ers social justice in a healthy eco­sys­tem, draw­ing on the spe­cial nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms.	• Devel­op Cairngorms Corner­stone Indic­at­ors for a well­being eco­nomy to track key social and eco­nom­ic data and trends. • Devel­op and imple­ment a Well­being Eco­nomy Action	Lead the devel­op­ment of Corner­stone Indic­at­ors Lead devel­op­ment of Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan to integ­rate economic	Pro­mote accred­it­a­tion schemes to pro­mote equal­it­ies and equal opportunities

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | | Plan with tar­geted sup­port and devel­op­ment meas­ures for key sec­tors. • Sup­port employ­ers to gain accred­it­a­tion for eg Dis­ab­il­ity Con­fid­ent, Carer Pos­it­ive and the Young Person’s Guar­an­tee (see People object­ive B10 – Park for All). | and com­munity-led devel­op­ment | | | B3: Real Liv­ing Wage | Increase the num­ber of Real Liv­ing Wage employ­ers in the Nation­al Park. | • Under­take a Real Liv­ing Wage audit of employ­ers in the Nation­al Park and Pro­mote best prac­tice and provide reg­u­lar reports. Sug­gest delet­ing next action • Pro­mote best prac­tice and provide reg­u­lar reports. | Pro­mote the devel­op­ment of Real Liv­ing Wages through Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group as part of Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan | Coordin­ate and sup­port Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group Con­trib­ute to research on Real Liv­ing Wage and sup­port ini­ti­at­ives to increase par­ti­cip­a­tion | | B4: Skills and train­ing | 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 | • Sup­port skills and train­ing pro­grammes rel­ev­ant to busi­ness needs and changes in land man­age­ment with­in the Nation­al Park (see Nature object­ives A2 to A6) | Devel­op CNPA as exem­plar of good prac­tice in youth train­ing and skills — emphas­is on Plan­ning Ser­vice, Peat­land, Ranger Ser­vice and Out­door | Fin­an­cially sup­port tar­geted skills ini­ti­at­ives, ment­or­ing schemes and col­lab­or­at­ive busi­ness organ­iz­a­tions (e.g. Grow­biz, Countryside |

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | can be filled by res­id­ents and under-rep­res­en­ted groups. | • Devel­op schol­ar­ships and a ment­or­ing scheme for young people who want to study and be employed in the Nation­al Park. • Devel­op tar­geted skills ini­ti­at­ives to sup­port social enter­prises (see People object­ive B5 – Com­munity assets and land). | Access and Cor­por­ate func­tions | Learn­ing Scot­land, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship) Pro­mote schol­ar­ships and train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies | | B5: Com­munity assets and land | 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. | • Identi­fy oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munity land own­er­ship through a refreshed set of com­munity action plans / loc­al place plans. • Pro­mote Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion Guid­ance and mon­it­or com­pli­ance. • Devel­op tar­geted skills ini­ti­at­ives to sup­port social enter­prises — as B4 • Sup­port com­munit­ies to acquire and man­age assets / land through enhanced fund­ing and train­ing sup­port | Coordin­ate and pro­mote the devel­op­ment of Loc­al Action Plans/​Loc­al Place Plans Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects — com­munity man­aged grant scheme; effect­ive com­munity engage­ment, etc. | Pro­mote LCS Guid­ance through all part­ner­ship work Coordin­ate and pro­mote the devel­op­ment of com­munity owned or man­aged assets in the Park. |

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | | | | | | B6: New approaches to cit­izen par­ti­cip­a­tion | Strengthen the par­ti­cip­a­tion struc­tures that sup­port plan­ning and decision-mak­ing at a loc­al level. | • Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme (see page XX above). | Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects – com­munity man­aged grant scheme; effect­ive com­munity engage­ment, etc | Sup­port devel­op­ment of train­ing for com­munity par­ti­cip­a­tion in plan­ning. | | B7: Com­munity- led plan­ning and devel­op­ment | 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. | • A refreshed pro­gramme of sup­port for com­munity action plan­ning and loc­al place plans. • Devel­op and admin­is­ter a new com­munity-led devel­op­ment fund­ing stream. | Coordin­ate and pro­mote the devel­op­ment of Loc­al Action Plans/​Loc­al Place Plans Act as account­able body or oth­er sup­port­ing role as required to under­pin deliv­ery of CLLD in Cairngorms. | Influ­ence stra­tegic devel­op­ment of nation­al focus on and design of CLLD to secure an adequate level of resourcing which con­tin­ues to focus on Cairngorms NP as an admin­is­trat­ive bound­ary. | | B8: Gael­ic lan­guage and cul­ture | Encour­age great­er use of Gael­ic in the Nation­al Park. | • All pub­lic bod­ies imple­ment their Gael­ic lan­guage plans in full. Devel­op a suite of sup­port tools for Gael­ic, in col­lab­or­a­tion with loc­al busi­nesses and com­munity / cul­tur­al groups. | Devel­op the Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan for CNPA | Pro­mote Gael­ic espe­cially though work on sus­tain­able tour­ism, com­munity devel­op­ment and rel­ev­ant her­it­age projects |

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | | | | | | B9: Men­tal and phys­ic­al health | Improve the men­tal and phys­ic­al health and well­being of the people of the Nation­al Park through great­er con­nec­tion with nature and the out­doors. | • Review, update and deliv­er the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan. • Extend the health walks pro­gramme to every com­munity in the Nation­al Park. • Increase the num­ber of oppor­tun­it­ies for green volun­teer­ing. • Make great­er use of green health dir­ect­or­ies to sup­port self-led green health activ­it­ies. | Lead devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects – Green Health | Sup­port suit­able ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice | | B10: A Park for All | 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+ | • Work with the Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Pan­el to address sys­tem­ic issues and deliv­er a Park for All. • Review, update and deliv­er the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan, infra­struc­ture plans and Tour­ism Action Plan. • Grow the role, remit and influ­ence of the Cairngorms | Lead on devel­op­ing deliv­er­ing new Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan Deliv­er the Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan and Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan. See B1 above re Youth Action Team | Pro­mote suit­able schemes and inform­a­tion Sup­port suit­able pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice |

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | and from minor­ity and eth­nic groups. | Youth Action Team. (see People policy B1). • Devel­op tar­geted sup­port pro­grammes to over­come spe­cif­ic bar­ri­ers to enjoy­ing the Nation­al Park, includ­ing look­ing at busi­ness and infra­struc­ture capa­city • Con­duct reg­u­lar sur­veys of res­id­ents’ and vis­it­ors’ val­ues and atti­tudes to key issues in the Nation­al Park. • Refresh the Park for All cam­paign to address bar­ri­ers to par­ti­cip­a­tion from groups / sec­tors that are under-rep­res­en­ted in the Nation­al Park. | Devel­op Equal­it­ies Main­stream­ing Report and Plan Refresh and pro­mote Park for All cam­paign Lead coordin­a­tion of Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Pan­el | | | B11: Volun­teer­ing and out­door learn­ing | Increase the num­ber of volun­teer days spent caring for the Nation­al Park, tak­ing an inclus­ive approach to volun­teer­ing recruit­ment. | • Review, update and deliv­er the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan. • Devel­op and expand the volun­teer, juni­or ranger and John Muir Award pro­grammes. | Lead on deliv­er­ing new Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan Lead on recruitment/​training/​coordin­a­tion of volun­teers to care for Park | Work in part­ner­ship with landown­ers, com­munit­ies and Third sec­tor bod­ies to use volun­teers to care for the Park |

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| | Sup­port and deliv­er oppor­tun­it­ies for out­door learn­ing, linked to the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. | Sup­port com­munit­ies in main­tain­ing and improv­ing their loc­al envir­on­ment (path net­work, lit­ter col­lec­tion, open spaces, spe­cies and hab­it­at work etc). | | |

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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Sec­tion 3 — Place

Name	Part­ner­ship Plan object­ive	Part­ner­ship Plan actions by 2027	Park Author­ity dir­ect deliv­ery	Park Author­ity indir­ect delivery
C1: Access to housing	Ensure that there is suf­fi­cient afford­able hous­ing stock to enable people to live and work with­in the Nation­al Park.	• Intro­duce short-term let con­trol areas and short-term let licens­ing to increase the sup­ply of mid-mar­ket prop­er­ties avail­able for loc­al res­id­ents and work­ers. • Secure invest­ment in the private ren­ted sec­tor to provide long-term hous­ing for work­ers and loc­al people. • Devel­op part­ner­ship approaches led by loc­al busi­nesses and com­munity- led ini­ti­at­ives to address accom­mod­a­tion needs for work­ers and loc­al people.	Deliv­er and mon­it­or Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Lead devel­op­ment of new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. Coordin­ate com­munity-led hous­ing network	Pro­mote need for invest­ment in public/​community own­er­ship of land. Work with loc­al author­it­ies to pur­chase hous­ing land through loc­al hous­ing strategies and stra­tegic hous­ing invest­ment plans. Sup­port com­munity and busi­ness hous­ing pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

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| | | | | | | C2: New hous­ing | Deliv­er new hous­ing in the Nation­al Park and ensure as much as pos­sible is secured for key work­ers and / or to resolve afford­ab­il­ity issues. | • Deliv­er at least 200 new afford­able and mid-mar­ket rent homes through loc­al author­ity Stra­tegic Hous­ing Invest­ment Plans and afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery pro­grammes. • Use the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan to identi­fy fur­ther loc­a­tions where more than 25% afford­able hous­ing is required and bring this up to 75% afford­able over­all. • Sup­port com­munit­ies to deliv­er com­munity-led hous­ing solu­tions, includ­ing by mak­ing the most of powers to buy land and tak­ing a more pro-act­ive role in man­age­ment where appro­pri­ate. | Deliv­er and mon­it­or Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Lead devel­op­ment of new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. Coordin­ate com­munity-led hous­ing net­work | Pro­mote need for invest­ment in public/​community own­er­ship of land. Work with loc­al author­it­ies to pur­chase hous­ing land through loc­al hous­ing strategies and stra­tegic hous­ing invest­ment plans. Sup­port com­munity and busi­ness hous­ing pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice. Sup­port devel­op­ment and and mon­it­or­ing of mech­an­isms to pro­mote hous­ing for liv­ing work­ing in Park |

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| | | | | | | C3: Hous­ing and com­munity bene­fit | Work with com­munit­ies to ensure that the major­ity of land alloc­ated for devel­op­ment around vil­lages and towns in the Nation­al Park is con­trolled by com­munit­ies or pub­lic bod­ies to help man­age long-term devel­op­ment needs. | • Review options and fund­ing for pub­lic sec­tor pur­chase of alloc­ated devel­op­ment land. • Sup­port com­munit­ies to use all pos­sible options to access land for the devel­op­ments they need. | Lead devel­op­ment of new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Coordin­ate com­munity-led hous­ing net­work | Share best prac­tice and sources of fund­ing with com­munit­ies. Pro­mote need for invest­ment in public/​community own­er­ship of land. Work with loc­al author­it­ies to pur­chase hous­ing land through loc­al hous­ing strategies and stra­tegic hous­ing invest­ment plans. Sup­port com­munity and busi­ness hous­ing pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice. | | C4. Vil­lage and town centres | Ensure vil­lages and town centres in the Nation­al | Review mech­an­isms avail­able to the pub­lic sec­tor | Pro­mote regen­er­a­tion through Well­being | Fin­an­cially sup­port tar­geted initiatives |

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| | Park are thriv­ing places where people live, shop and meet. | • to encour­age regen­er­a­tion of our town and vil­lage centres. • Pro­mote busi­ness and com­munity-led col­lab­or­at­ive pro­jects to encour­age loc­al expendit­ure and sup­ply chains. • Devel­op a rur­al approach to the 20-minute neigh­bour­hood concept in the Nation­al Park. | Eco­nomy Action Plan and Com­munity Action Plans Lead devel­op­ment of new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects – act­ive travel, com­munity grant scheme | and col­lab­or­at­ive busi­ness organ­isa­tions (e.g. Grow­biz, Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land, Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship) Par­ti­cip­ate in Scotland’s Towns Part­ner­ship scheme Sup­port suit­able pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice | | C5: Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park | Work to sta­bil­ise vis­it­or num­bers in the peak sea­son, focus­ing growth on quieter months and on those areas that have the infra­struc­ture and capa­city to | • Review, update and deliv­er the Cairngorms Tour­ism Action Plan to pro­mote areas with geo­graph­ic and / or sea­son­al capa­city in a sus­tain­able man­ner. | Deliv­er Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan and Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan. | Sup­port pro­jects to devel­op the leg­acy of pre­vi­ous pro­jects to devel­op the Park (eg Badenoch; The Story­lands, Dark Skies |

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| | accom­mod­ate addi­tion­al vis­it­ors. | • Devel­op a stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan to provide high­er qual­ity infra­struc­ture at key vis­it­or hot­spots and for key sec­tors (e.g. camp­ing and motorhomes). • Col­lect and share high qual­ity data on vis­it­or num­bers, beha­viour, per­cep­tions, and aspir­a­tions. | Lead the devel­op­ment of Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan Under­take vis­it­or sur­veys and col­late and share vis­it­or data. | Park, Snow Roads, etc) Use digit­al tech­no­logy to mon­it­or and influ­ence vis­it­or dis­tri­bu­tion and beha­viour Sup­port suit­able ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice | | C6: A sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion | Secure the nation­al Park’s repu­ta­tion as an inter­na­tion­al exem­plar in sus­tain­able tour­ism and the man­age­ment of pro­tec­ted areas | • Sub­mit Tour­ism action Plan to Euro­parc by 2023 and secure accred­it­a­tion • Main­tain our status with Glas­gow Declar­a­tion (Cli­mate Action in Tour­ism) | Deliv­er Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan and Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan. Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects – act­ive travel, com­munity grant scheme | Sup­port suit­able pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice | | C7: Trans­port to and around the Park | Pro­mote a mod­al shift towards sus­tain­able and act­ive travel in the way vis­it­ors and com­muters | • Work to ensure bike capa­city as part of the High­land Main­line devel­op­ment. | Deliv­er Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan. | Sup­port suit­able pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives through grant aid and advice |

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| | get to, and every­one moves around, the Nation­al Park. | • Sup­port Sus­trans-led work on pro­mot­ing and devel­op­ing the Lochs and Glens Way (formerly Nation­al Cycle Net­work 7) and Nation­al Cycle Net­work 195. • Pro­mote low-cost ini­ti­at­ives to access the Nation­al Park by pub­lic trans­port (see People object­ive B10 – A Park for All). • Pro­mote innov­at­ive approaches based on ​‘mobil­ity as a ser­vice’, demand-respons­ive trans­port ini­ti­at­ives, improved con­nectiv­ity of bus routes, and e‑scooters, elec­tric car schemes, car share schemes etc. | Deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects – act­ive travel, com­munity grant scheme, Glen­more Trans­port pro­ject. | Pro­mote need for invest­ment | | C8