Annex 1

NPPP Mon­it­or­ing Frame­work Update August 2024

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: a) Annu­al emis­sions from res­id­ents: 277,145 tCO2e (14.4 tCO2e per per­son per year) b) Annu­al emis­sions from vis­it­ors while in the Nation­al Park: 89,788 tCO2e (20.8 kgCO2e per vis­it­or-day) c) Annu­al emis­sions from vis­it­ors trav­el­ling to/​from the Nation­al Park: 232,591 tCO2e (112.5 kgCO2e per vis­it) d) Annu­al industry emis­sions: 64,853 tCO2e
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Dash­board of high­light annu­al indic­at­ors being developed by Small World Con­sultancy for Nation­al Park – due to be com­pleted end of 2024.
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.
Pro­gress 2023 – 2024	SWC dash­board for annu­al pro­gress report in devel­op­ment, for com­ple­tion late 2024. Areas of wood­land expan­sion exceed path­way to net-zero tar­gets with 2,658 hec­tares (Ha) of Forest Grant Schemes approved in 2023⁄24. Estim­ated area of peat­land under res­tor­a­tion above tar­get with 1345ha com­pleted in 2023⁄24
Part­ner Activity	Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship (CBP) net­work­ing events will have a focus on ​‘Toward net zero’, this will be a focus for them and their mem­bers. HIE invest­ig­at­ing a part­ner­ship approach to sup­port this. Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Lim­ited have an action plan for Net Zero report­ing, includ­ing renew­able energy options. Talks con­tin­ue with Scot­land and South­ern Elec­tri­city Net­works (SSEN) with regards poten­tial upgrades to the elec­tric­al supply.

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 10,000ha 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)	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 man­agers of non-grant fun­ded proposals.
Pro­gress 2022- 2023	April 2022 – March 2023: a) 402.98 ha of wood­land cre­ation was approved b) 105.48 (26%) of which was nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion c) 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-19 impacts on mar­kets, hes­it­a­tion around a revised Forest Grant Scheme and poten­tial car­bon markets.
Pro­gress 2023- 2024	April 2023 — March 2024: a) 2658ha of wood­land cre­ation was approved b) 1211ha (45%) of which was nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion c) 1262ha of wood­land was registered under the Wood­land Car­bon Code with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Pro­gress against tar­gets was good in 2023⁄24, largely delivered through a few large schemes. Most nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion was delivered through herb­i­vore man­age­ment on one estate. The pipeline of new schemes in the con­sulta­tion pro­cess indic­ates future tar­gets likely to be met. The pro­por­tion of new wood­land which is being entered into the Wood­land Car­bon Code is being invest­ig­ated by Scot­tish Forestry.
Part­ner Activity	Sev­er­al estates con­tin­ue to pro­mote nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion through herb­i­vore man­age­ment with­in the Nation­al Park. Many oth­er estates are con­sid­er­ing planted schemes, and a num­ber of forestry schemes are cur­rently work­ing their way through the approv­al process.

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. a) 80% of all drains are restored by 2035. b) All erosion fea­tures are restored by 2050. c) 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 and 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	1080ha brought under restoration
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	1345ha 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. Tri­als of design and deliv­ery through pro­ject man­age­ment by third party agents are ongo­ing and we are sup­port­ing capa­city build­ing in estate teams. Pipeline of poten­tial pro­jects remains strong. Sup­port for new entrants’ schemes has been con­tin­ued with the aim of build­ing capa­city in the sec­tor. All of the estim­ated 1345ha which were brought under res­tor­a­tion were entered into the Peat­land Code.
Part­ner Activity	Land man­ager sup­port for peat­land res­tor­a­tion remains high. This is true across all land man­age­ment object­ives and peat­land res­tor­a­tion con­tin­ues to enjoy wide­spread sup­port and little oppos­i­tion. In 2024⁄25 we have 13 live pro­jects across the Nation­al Park.

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	a) Cairngorms and Spey­side <5/​km2 (2016 data) b) South Deeside & North Angus 10/​km² (2022 data) c) South Grampi­ans 16/​km² (2022 data) d) Upper Deeside and Don­side 6 – 7/​km² (2016 data) e) 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 sev­en agree­ment is in place for much of 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 three 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 Nation­al Park as part of Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 devel­op­ment phase.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	The cull tar­gets for year one with­in the Caen­lochan Sec­tion sev­en agree­ment have been exceeded and there are two cull­ing years to go. Fol­low­ing on from the com­ple­tion of Stra­tegic Land Use Part­ner­ships (SLUPs) for three Deer Man­age­ment Groups (DMGs) in the Nation­al Park, some estates are bring­ing for­ward nat­ur­al cap­it­al pro­jects for con­sid­er­a­tion for fund­ing under Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery phase. The park Author­ity will run an incent­ive scheme which will pay a sub­sidy on a pro­por­tion of the hind and calf cull taken in 2024⁄25, provided high­er culls are achieved. This scheme aims to incentiv­ise lar­ger hind culls in high­er dens­ity areas.
Part­ner Activity	Deer man­age­ment through cull­ing is ongo­ing through­out the Nation­al Park. The amount of par­ti­cip­a­tion in the incent­ive scheme to increase culls will be appar­ent by March 2025.

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: a) Golden Eagle — 39 b) Hen Har­ri­er — 21 (Nation­al sur­vey due in 2023) c) Mer­lin — don’t have data as no com­pre­hens­ive sur­vey d) 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. Ha of juni­per, wil­lows and young nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion re-sur­veyed every five years, col­lec­ted by East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship Officer. Moor­land diversity indic­at­ors via Cairngorms Nature Index, every five years, Adam Fraser.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Assess­ments of poten­tial and cur­rent moor­land man­age­ment pro­jects and prac­tices col­lec­ted ad hoc by the Park Author­ity. Assess­ments of impact of new Wild­life Man­age­ment Bill, col­lec­ted ad hoc by the Park Author­ity and NatureScot.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Rap­tor data, num­ber of per­se­cu­tion incid­ents and assess­ment of pro­ject pro­gress to follow.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Rap­tor data have been col­lec­ted for the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship area where pop­u­la­tions of golden eagles, per­eg­rines and hen har­ri­ers are stable or increas­ing. Data col­lec­tion is not entirely com­pre­hens­ive for all spe­cies (mer­lin and per­eg­rine) in all areas. Per­eg­rine sur­vey under­way in 2024. A baseline of 108 ha of scrub has been estim­ated for East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship area using remote sens­ing tech­no­logy. The Wild­life Man­age­ment and Muir­burn Act became law in sum­mer 2024 although dif­fer­ent parts of the Act will be enacted at dif­fer­ent dates. It estab­lishes a licens­ing sys­tem for Grouse shoot­ing and a sep­ar­ate licens­ing sys­tem to reg­u­late Muir­burn. Both licens­ing sys­tems will be under­pinned by Codes set­ting out clear guid­ance on what prac­ti­tion­ers must do to com­ply with legis­la­tion. The effect­ive­ness of the Act will be partly assessed through mon­it­or­ing of rap­tor pop­u­la­tions. Six rap­tor per­se­cu­tion incid­ents repor­ted in 2013⁄24.
Part­ner Activity	The Grouse Moor Licens­ing sys­tem is in place now but not all grouse estates have applied for a license as there are few grouse to shoot this year. The Muir­burn License sys­tem is sched­uled to be act­ive from Septem­ber 2025. A nat­ur­al trans­ition from wood­land to moor­land is expand­ing through herb­i­vore man­age­ment, not­ably on estates in the Cairngorms Con­nect part­ner­ship and on Mar Lodge estate. Plot­ting and mon­it­or­ing con­tin­ues on these estates.

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	a) Num­ber of gamebird releases to be estab­lished in 2023. b) Biod­iversity indic­at­ors to be estab­lished in 2024.
Mon­it­or­ing Data — Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Gamebird releases, col­lec­ted every five years, Game and Wild­life Con­servancy Trust (GWCT). Biod­iversity impacts, meas­ured as per indic­at­ors estab­lished in 2024, repeated every five 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 Nation­al Park. Data will be col­lec­ted dur­ing 2024.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Data col­lec­tion has been delayed but is now under­way. Data on game bird releases with­in the Nation­al Park should be avail­able by the end of 2024. Meth­od­o­logy agreed for PhD research into impacts. Due to start late 2024.
Part­ner Activity	GWCT will lead on this project.

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)	a) A draft Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan will be avail­able for con­sulta­tion by Decem­ber 2024. b) Amount of muir­burn on deep peat / blanket bog mapped by 2026. c) Num­ber of muir­burn licences issued, the area they cov­er and any infringe­ments NatureScot, times­cale to be determ­ined as per Wild­life Man­age­ment and Muir­burn Act.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	a) Reports of wild­fire incid­ents in Nation­al Park. b) Ranger reports of camp­fires and bar­be­cues. c) 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 became an Act in sum­mer 2024. This legis­la­tion will be key to pro­gress­ing action in this objective.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan is in devel­op­ment. On track for con­sulta­tion in autumn 2024. To be presen­ted at wild­fire con­fer­ence in Novem­ber as part of that con­sulta­tion. Fire byelaw con­sulta­tion under­way. This con­sulta­tion will cov­er the word­ing of the byelaw. The Wild­life Man­age­ment and Muir­burn Act estab­lishes a licens­ing sys­tem for grouse shoot­ing. This is in place from 12 August 2024. The licens­ing sys­tem for muir­burn will not be ready for imple­ment­a­tion until Septem­ber 2025. The Muir­burn Code is being revised to fit with new legislation.
Part­ner Activity	Land man­ager engage­ment with the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan devel­op­ment has been wide­spread and constructive.

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. Estab­lish a Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Frame­work for the Nation­al Park by 2023.
Baseline 2022	a) Per­cent­age of farm­ing units in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park with accred­ited car­bon schemes to be estab­lished in 2023. b) Ha of land in Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) to be estab­lished in 2023. c) Num­ber of farms with biod­iversity audits to be estab­lished in 2023. d) Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Frame­work estab­lished in 2022.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	a) Ha of land under Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate schemes, col­lated annu­al by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Rur­al Pay­ments Inspect­or­ate Dir­ect­ive. b) Num­ber of farms with biod­iversity audits, NatureScot, annu­ally. c) 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.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	31 farms with car­bon audits with­in the Nation­al Park in 2023. Work­ing with NatureScot on test­ing Biod­iversity Audit meth­od­o­logy, due end of 2024. Approx­im­ately 60,000 Ha with­in Agri-Envir­on­ment and Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) con­tracts annu­ally. Approx­im­ately 60 farms deliv­er­ing Nature Friendly Farm­ing pro­jects to deliv­er Cairngorms Nature Action Plan objectives.
Part­ner Activity	Strath­spey Waders and Wet­lands Ini­ti­at­ive deliv­ery of hab­it­at man­age­ment at pri­or­ity sites. Farms and crofts through­out the Nation­al Park are expand­ing the spe­cies rich grass­land resource in the Nation­al Park, tri­al­ling mob graz­ing and devel­op­ing low till­age and oth­er low car­bon practices.

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 five years, the Park Author­ity 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 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.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	The fresh­wa­ter index for the Cairngorm Nature Index high­lights six indic­at­ors in good, stable or improv­ing con­di­tion, four in good, but declin­ing con­di­tion, and three indic­at­ors in poor con­di­tion. Over­all, the fresh­wa­ter eco­sys­tem is con­sidered to be in good condition.
Part­ner Activity	The Catch­ment Part­ner­ships have been suc­cess­ful in awards of approx­im­ately £1.6 mil­lion in the South Esk and £200,000 in Deeside from the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund and £1.6 mil­lion from the Her­it­age Lot­tery with­in Cairngorms 2030 in the South Esk, Spey and Dee Catch­ments for large scale flood­plain pro­jects. Pub­lic bod­ies, fish­er­ies board and trust, and com­munity rep­res­ent­at­ives com­mit­ted time and resource to devel­op­ment of a Dee Resi­li­ence Strategy, align­ing pub­lic and private out­comes around com­mon object­ives for water management.

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 five 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 x 30 com­mit­ment. Con­nectiv­ity indic­at­ors for spe­cies, hab­it­at and cli­mate resi­li­ence will be ready dur­ing 2023.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Under­way, re-sched­uled timeline to fit with devel­op­ment of nation­al guid­ance on net­works and 30 x 30 sites, Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan require­ments and Cairngorms Nature Index. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Nature Net­work sched­uled for com­ple­tion autumn 2024, includ­ing incor­por­a­tion into Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.
Part­ner Activity	NatureScot has developed draft cri­ter­ia for Nature Net­works and 30 x 30 sites. Cri­ter­ia for Oth­er Effect­ive Area-Based Con­ser­va­tion Meas­ures (OECMs) in development.

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)	The per­cent­age of Cairngorms Nation­al Park man­aged prin­cip­ally for res­tor­a­tion, every five years, the Park Authority.
Mon­it­or­ing Data — Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	a) Estate man­age­ment state­ments reviewed and updated where neces­sary every five years by the Park Author­ity. b) Under­stand­ing of land man­ager ambi­tions, col­lec­ted ad hoc by the Park Author­ity. c) Estab­lish­ment and suc­cess of land­scape-scale partnerships.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Draft cri­ter­ia developed, applied and mapped. 23% of the Nation­al Park man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem restoration.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	27% of the Nation­al Park cur­rently man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion. Nat­ive wood­land cre­ation and peat­land res­tor­a­tion areas included in revised fig­ures. Final cri­ter­ia being developed in tan­dem with work on Nature Net­works and 30 x 30. Sched­uled for 2024. New land­scape scale part­ner­ships cre­ated in the Angus Glens and around the Dee Resi­li­ence Strategy
Part­ner Activity	Land man­age­ment plans and object­ives at Dal­nac­ar­doch and Glen Prosen estates are more expli­citly aligned with eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion. More recent changes in land own­er­ship and object­ives are expec­ted to make sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to tar­gets once man­age­ment plans are final­ised. The Park Author­ity is offer­ing advice and sup­port in writ­ing plans.

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	Con­tain­er Net­work Inter­face (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, the Park Author­ity, annually.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Pro­gress towards estab­lish­ing Cairngorms Atlas and Data Portal. Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies map­ping, NatureScot, every five years.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Work under­way to estab­lish baselines.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	On track to be com­pleted by end of 2024. Indic­at­or selec­tion has been com­pleted for all six eco­sys­tems, and baseline met­rics will be final­ised by the end of 2024. Data acquis­i­tion and set­ting of ref­er­ence con­di­tions is under way, with sup­port from Nor­we­gi­an Insti­tute for Nature Research (NINA), Atmos and rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers, and will con­tin­ue in 2024. Act­ive engage­ment with rel­ev­ant stake­hold­ers is ongo­ing, with the CNI presen­ted at a num­ber of rel­ev­ant sem­inars and conferences.
Part­ner Activity	Con­tri­bu­tions to steer­ing group and provid­ing data

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: a) 25 achieved and/​or on track to meet recov­ery curve tar­get. b) One requires fur­ther effort to bring on track to meet recov­ery curve tar­get. c) Two at high risk of not meet­ing recov­ery curve tar­get. d) One 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 the Park Authority.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Work under­way to estab­lish 2023 figures.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Final report on Cairngorms Nature Action Plan due June 2024. Report­ing against Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve tar­gets to date: 15 achieved tar­gets; six sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress made; nine tar­gets not met. Over 80% of the actions were com­pleted, but inex­per­i­ence with using Recov­ery Curve in the Park res­ul­ted in some over ambi­tious tar­gets being set, and extern­al factors not accoun­ted for. Beaver rein­tro­duced to the upper Spey catch­ment. Park Author­ity and NatureScot joint caper­cail­lie emer­gency plan sched­uled for pub­lic­a­tion Septem­ber 2024.
Part­ner Activity	Part­ner activ­ity includes Rare Plants in the Cairngorms; Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms; Pine hov­er­fly and Dark bordered beauty trans­lo­ca­tion pro­jects; and Wild­cat reintroduction.

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 is 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. Num­ber of tri­als and pro­jects sup­por­ted by green invest­ment deliv­er­ing res­tor­a­tion and/​or com­munity bene­fit, annu­ally, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.
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.
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Land sales. The green fin­ance tri­al estab­lished at Del­nadamph is under­way, deliv­er­ing peat­land res­tor­a­tion 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 approx­im­ately £80 per unit. The tri­al has been suc­cess­ful in demon­strat­ing this mod­el and that con­tri­bu­tions from the pub­lic purse can reduce whilst 10% of the profits can poten­tially be real­ised for com­munity benefit.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	The green fin­ance tri­al at Del­nadamph is pro­gress­ing well with two of five sites com­plete. Fin­an­cial mod­el remains highly depend­ent on the price of car­bon, with cur­rent prices pro­ject­ing lim­ited income to both landown­er and community.
Part­ner Activity	Private sec­tor invest­ment to sup­port the Park Author­ity Peat­land Action has exceeded 300k in 2024⁄25. The Del­nadamph peat­land res­tor­a­tion pilot in part­ner­ship with Pal­la­di­um is ongoing.

People

Name	B1 Work­ing-age population
Object­ive	The pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-aged people in the Nation­al Park increases rel­at­ive to the total res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion, which remains stable.
Tar­get / Indicator	The pro­por­tion of young people and work­ing-aged 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: a) Chil­dren (under 16 years): 14% b) Work­ing age (16 — 64): 60% c) 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 one to two 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	a) Work has star­ted on Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) for 2026. b) Hos­pit­al­ity skills pro­ject star­ted in Upper Deeside, part­ner­ing schools and busi­ness to devel­op young people and provide reward­ing employ­ment. c) Cairngorms Youth Action Team growing.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	a) Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) Evid­ence Report in pre­par­a­tion and early engage­ment with key agen­cies and stake­hold­ers star­ted. b) Nation­al Records of Scot­land 2022 based mid-year pop­u­la­tion estim­ates for Scot­land and Loc­al Author­it­ies pub­lished 26 March 2024 – Data for small areas (allow­ing Nation­al Park to estim­ate) to be pub­lished from May/​June 2024.
Part­ner Activity	High­land and Island Enter­prise (HIE) and part­ners dis­cuss­ing a pro­pos­al to sup­port Mac­Don­ald Aviemore High­land Resort devel­op a Hos­pit­al­ity Skills Academy.

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)	Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan indic­at­ors (corner­stone indic­at­ors) to be mon­itored annu­ally by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and take hol­ist­ic view of well­being of Nation­al Park. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) Nation­al indic­at­ors on well­being eco­nomy to be pub­lished 2023.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Qual­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)
Pro­gress 2022 — 2023	Corner­stone indic­at­ors developed. Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan devel­op­ment slower than planned and requires work in late 2023.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan devel­op­ment to be com­pleted by end 2024.
Part­ner Activity	Moray Coun­cil deliv­er­ing com­munity wealth build­ing strategy and action plan High­land Coun­cil con­sult­ing on com­munity wealth build­ing strategy.

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	Nine Real Liv­ing Wage accred­ited busi­nesses in Nation­al Park 2022⁄23.
Mon­it­or­ing Data – Quant­it­at­ive (who col­lects, how often)	Annu­al data on Real Liv­ing Wage (RLW) 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	a) Real Liv­ing Wage employ­er accred­it­a­tion data being col­lec­ted. b) Grant to Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship fun­ded to under­take sur­vey of mem­bers pay­ing real liv­ing wage.
Pro­gress 2023 — 2024	a) Nine accred­ited Real Liv­ing Wage Employ­ers in Nation­al Park 2023⁄24. b) Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship Busi­ness Baro­met­er sur­vey indic­ated 67% of respond­ing mem­bers pay the real liv­ing wage.
Part­ner Activity	HIE sup­port is tar­geted at those busi­ness pay­ing RLW. New HIE oper­at­ing plan seeks to address/​increase aver­age wages in the region.

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