240628FBPaper5CapercaillieEmergencyPlan

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 1 of 6

For Decision Title: Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pre­pared by: Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change

Stra­tegic context

1. There are three dir­ectly rel­ev­ant actions and object­ives in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan: a) A13 Spe­cies recov­ery, action to ​“deliv­er a work pro­gramme to sup­port caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the Cairngorms based on best avail­able evid­ence” b) A2 Wood­land expan­sion, object­ive to ​“increase the amount of wood­land in the Nation­al Park to sup­port lar­ger, more nat­ur­al wood­lands” c) C8 Access­ible path and cycle net­work, action to ​“con­sider all poten­tial mech­an­isms to reduce dis­turb­ance on key species”
2. The Park Authority’s dir­ect and indir­ect deliv­ery com­mit­ments to caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion are detailed in the Cor­por­ate Plan as: a) A13: Lead on a caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan and long term strategy b) A2: Deliv­er 1,000ha of new or expan­ded wood­land with new and innov­at­ive uses of the Forest Grant scheme as part of Cairngorms2030; pro­mote and admin­is­ter a Wood­land Chal­lenge Fund to sup­port land man­agers in the pre­par­a­tion of Forest Grant scheme applic­a­tions c) A2: The Park Author­ity will inspire, encour­age and provide advice on wood­land cre­ation, poten­tial forestry applic­a­tions and forest plans in the Park to landown­ers and Scot­tish Forestry in line with the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, Cairngorms Nature and Cairngorms Forest Strategy. d) C8: Devel­op and deliv­er Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan – includ­ing pro­pos­als to reduce dis­turb­ance to key spe­cies and habitats.
3. The Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy (SBS) sets out Scotland’s response to the biod­iversity chal­lenge and achieve a nature pos­it­ive future. The SBS vis­ion is to halt biod­iversity loss by 2030 and reverse it with land­scape scale res­tor­a­tion by 2045. The Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan dir­ectly reflects SBS vis­ion and out­comes by incor­por­at­ing emer­gency meas­ures by 2030 and long term plans to increase resi­li­ence in the forest net­work through hab­it­at expan­sion and enhancement.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 2 of 6

1. The fund­ing strategy focusses pub­lic money on hab­it­at expan­sion and enhance­ment in a way that also sup­ports wider policy ambi­tions and pri­or­it­ies for wood­land, biod­iversity, invest­ing in nat­ur­al cap­it­al and hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity in the Scot­tish Nation­al Adapt­a­tion Plan, Scotland’s Forestry Strategy, SBS, Scot­tish Cli­mate Change Plan and pro­pos­als in the Scot­tish Nation­al Adapt­a­tion Plan.

Pur­pose

1. In response to the NatureScot Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Com­mit­tee (SAC) report invest­ig­at­ing the prin­cip­al causes of decline in the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment reques­ted the Park Author­ity and NatureScot work with stake­hold­ers to devel­op a cos­ted, spa­tial plan of activ­ity for caper­cail­lie conservation.

2. At the 8 Septem­ber 2023 Board meet­ing, mem­bers agreed that stra­tegic aspects of the plan would come back to the Board for approv­al, and to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee for reg­u­lar updates.

3. This paper sets outs the scope of activ­ity and over­all fund­ing strategy con­tained with­in the cos­ted spa­tial plan i.e. Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan. Board mem­bers are now asked to agree the ele­ments of the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan as presen­ted in this paper.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Board is asked to: a) Agree that the scope of activ­ity in the Emer­gency Plan meets the request from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to con­tin­ue invest­ment in land­scape scale res­tor­a­tion of pine­wood hab­it­at; devel­op a cos­ted, spa­tially expli­cit plan and fund­ing strategy; and under­take a pine marten pop­u­la­tion sur­vey. b) Agree that the fund­ing strategy is appro­pri­ate and suf­fi­cient to meet requirements.

Stra­tegic policy consideration

1. At the June 2022 Board meet­ing, mem­bers con­sidered work on caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion to date and the find­ings from the SAC report. It was agreed the Park Author­ity and NatureScot would provide stra­tegic over­sight of caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the Cairngorms by coordin­at­ing and over­see­ing the col­lect­ive deliv­ery of a clear place based strategy.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 3 of 6

1. In June 2023, hav­ing con­sidered advice from the Park Author­ity and NatureScot Boards, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment reques­ted that the Park Author­ity and NatureScot work with stake­hold­ers to: a) Con­tin­ue invest­ment in action to achieve land­scape scale res­tor­a­tion of pine­wood hab­it­ats the long term mech­an­isms to achieve the vis­ion for a thriv­ing pop­u­la­tion of caper­cail­lie in Scot­land b) Devel­op a cos­ted, spa­tially expli­cit plan of pos­it­ive man­age­ment meas­ures based on the SAC Report recom­mend­a­tions, and a fund­ing strategy which explores a wide range of pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary mech­an­isms to gen­er­ate fur­ther fund­ing for caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion; and c) 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.

2. The Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan is agreed by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund to be the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project’s Leg­acy Plan. Not­ably, sup­port for com­munity led action to reduce the impact of dis­turb­ance, com­mon mes­saging, com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment, and hab­it­at expan­sion and enhancement.

3. Caper­cail­lie is a pri­or­ity spe­cies in the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. The plan high­lights that, ulti­mately, spe­cies recov­ery must be integ­rated with land­scape scale hab­it­at recov­ery as the long term, sus­tain­able con­ser­va­tion meas­ure; and that for some highly threatened spe­cies there is also a need for short term focused action to get spe­cies back on a sus­tain­able foot­ing and provide the envir­on­ment for long term recovery.

4. In Novem­ber 2023 Board mem­bers approved the con­tent of the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan. A pri­or­ity area for work in the plan is ​‘Min­im­ising recre­ation­al impact on sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats. Work to build on the leg­acy of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie pro­ject and thus the emer­gency plan is spe­cific­ally referred to.

5. There is a strong expect­a­tion amongst stake­hold­ers that the Park Author­ity, and NatureScot, will take a lead­er­ship role, provid­ing resource and com­mit­ment to deliv­ery of the emer­gency plan. Over 50 stake­hold­ers from a range of sec­tors have atten­ded work­shops and meet­ings since August 2023. There has been a very pos­it­ive response to a move from con­sulta­tion into action, led by NatureScot and the Park Authority.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 4 of 6

1. The Park Author­ity main­tains its com­mit­ment to caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion in the form of pri­or­it­ising hab­it­at expan­sion and enhance­ment, deliv­er­ing a pro­gramme of activ­it­ies to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance and provid­ing resource to a co-ordin­a­tion and lead­er­ship role. The Park Author­ity will take an act­ive role in seek­ing altern­at­ive sources of fund­ing, where pos­sible, to address the imme­di­ate meas­ures required to halt and reverse the cur­rent decline in num­bers and range.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. There is poten­tial for deliv­ery of the caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan to impact on the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk ref­er­ence 11 – ​‘Unreal­ist­ic expect­a­tions of what the Park Author­ity and its part­ners can achieve in the face of the sig­ni­fic­ant risks presen­ted by cli­mate change, spe­cies extinc­tion, flood man­age­ment and fire; and / or dis­agree­ment between the Park Author­ity and stake­hold­er groups with­in the Nation­al Park’.

2. Des­pite con­cen­trated and coordin­ated effort there remains a high risk of loc­al extinc­tion and fur­ther con­ser­va­tion effort does not reverse decline. A coordin­ated 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.

3. Fur­ther fund­ing for caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion may be per­ceived to redir­ect lim­ited fund­ing away from oth­er high pri­or­ity con­ser­va­tion work. In mit­ig­a­tion, the fund­ing strategy tar­gets pub­licly fun­ded activ­it­ies at hab­it­at work that provides mul­tiple bene­fits for nature net­works, cli­mate resi­li­ence and wider biod­iversity. The emer­gency plan rep­res­ents a well researched suite of meas­ures, developed through wide stake­hold­er dis­cus­sion, engage­ment and co-design and hence has sup­port amongst the con­ser­va­tion community.

4. The emer­gency plan con­tains actions to estab­lish a mon­it­or­ing scheme that will allow us to bet­ter track changes in the pine marten pop­u­la­tion over time. Some stake­hold­ers’ expect­a­tions are that this is not suf­fi­cient activ­ity in this area.

Stake­hold­er engagement

1. Over 70 stake­hold­ers have been involved in the cre­ation of the emer­gency plan. These include the approx­im­ately 30 land­hold­ings over which the capercaillie

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 5 of 6

pop­u­la­tion extends; those who rep­res­ent recre­ation­al groups and busi­nesses; and those who man­age rel­ev­ant pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary fund­ing mechanisms.

1. Col­lab­or­a­tion with stake­hold­ers in the cre­ation of the emer­gency plan has emphas­ised the need for col­lect­ive com­mu­nic­a­tions, joint own­er­ship and deliv­ery of the plan, the scope of activ­ity with­in the plan, the con­tex­tu­al chal­lenges and prag­mat­ic expect­a­tions for con­ser­va­tion of the species.

2. Con­sulta­tion on the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan iden­ti­fied there is broad sup­port for the approach of min­im­ising dis­turb­ance through apply­ing extra meas­ures in cer­tain places at cer­tain times of year, on the basis that access rights are not being restricted.

Implic­a­tions

1. Fin­an­cial: Deliv­ery costs asso­ci­ated with indi­vidu­al activ­it­ies are iden­ti­fied as part of the fund­ing strategy, along with the poten­tial fund­ing mech­an­isms that may be avail­able and could be applied to dis­crete areas of work. The Park Authority’s con­tri­bu­tion is iden­ti­fied in the dir­ect and indir­ect deliv­ery actions in the Cor­por­ate Plan.

2. Staff­ing: The ongo­ing coordin­a­tion and over­sight of deliv­ery is 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 comes to a close. Fur­ther staff resource required to deliv­er the emer­gency plan is iden­ti­fied in the fund­ing strategy as an over­all cost which requires fur­ther fund­ing being sought. Deliv­ery of spe­cif­ic ele­ments around redu­cing the impacts of dis­turb­ance is accom­mod­ated with­ing the cur­rent staff resource alloc­ated to devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of Act­ive Cairngorms.

3. Liab­il­it­ies: Long term resi­li­ence meas­ures such as wood­land expan­sion and enhance­ment are nation­al and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan long term policies. Meas­ures to sup­port min­im­ising dis­turb­ance in sens­it­ive areas at cer­tain times of year is com­pli­ment­ary to exist­ing work pro­grammes and adds no addi­tion­al resource demands on Rangers.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 5 Form­al Board 28 June 2024 Page 6 of 6

Suc­cess meas­ures By 2030, decline in the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion in the Nation­al Park will have been halted.

Sup­port­ing information

1. Links to pre­vi­ous board papers: 10 June 2022, Caper­cail­lie Paper 8 Septem­ber 2023 Form­al Board Minutes

2. Emer­gency plan scope of activ­ity (con­tents page), see Annex 1

3. Fund­ing strategy, see Annex 2