240913Paper6 Annex1 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan19_24

MAN­AGE­MENT PLANS

CAIRNGORMS NATURE Action Plan 2019 – 2024

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

Con­tents

1. Intro­duc­tion 4
2. Stra­tegic Con­text 8
3. Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2013 – 2018 12
4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action 14
   • Aim: Sup­port land­scape scale con­ser­va­tion and col­lab­or­a­tion to deliv­er eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion and sus­tain­able land man­age­ment, bal­an­cing envir­on­ment­al, social and eco­nom­ic factors 16
   • Aim: Deliv­er focused action to improve the con­ser­va­tion status of threatened or declin­ing spe­cies 24
   • Aim: Enga­ging, inspir­ing and encour­aging loc­al com­munit­ies and com­munit­ies of interest to value and care for nature, be proud of the con­ser­va­tion work in the Cairngorms and want to do some­thing to pro­tect and enhance their nat­ur­al her­it­age 32
5. Deliv­ery & Mon­it­or­ing 36

This doc­u­ment is avail­able in large print and oth­er formats, on request. Please con­tact the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity on 01479 873535. It is also avail­able to view at www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk

Pub­lished by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Tel: 01479 873535

www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk

© CNPA 2019. All rights reserved ISBN 978−1−906071−93−6

Intern­al photo cred­its: Peter Cairns/​2020VISION/​CNPA; CNPΑ; Mark Hamblin/​2020VISION/​CNPA; Mat­thew Hawkins; Jane Hope; Jak­ub Iwanicki/​Vis­itScot­land; Ellie Rotheray; Will Boyd Wallis

Front cov­er photo: Mark Hamblin/​2020VISION/​CNPA

4 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

I. Intro­duc­tion Very few super­lat­ives can adequately describe the out­stand­ing nature and land­scapes of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, its import­ance for the people who live and work here, the people who vis­it and enjoy the area and the true mag­nitude and sig­ni­fic­ance of the wild­life and hab­it­ats sup­por­ted by this unique and spe­cial place.

This is a place hugely val­ued by people for diverse reas­ons and a land­scape of immense import­ance to wild­life, much of which depends on and is a product of the work­ing of the land over gen­er­a­tions. It is also a land­scape where there is a shared vis­ion to cre­ate even more diversity, even great­er abund­ance of dis­tinct­ive hab­it­ats and spe­cies and which is inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised for its qual­ity of envir­on­ment – but with people at its heart.

Cairngorms Nature is deliv­er­ing this vis­ion. It is a part­ner­ship that brings those with an interest in the area togeth­er to pro­mote eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion and biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion as part of caring for and man­aging land, work­ing togeth­er to agree object­ives, inspir­ing and devel­op­ing new ini­ti­at­ives, enga­ging and involving people, rais­ing aware­ness and under­stand­ing of land man­age­ment and the mul­tiple bene­fits con­ser­va­tions brings and ulti­mately ensur­ing the area’s nat­ur­al cap­it­al – the land­scapes, geo­logy, soil, air, water and all liv­ing things – is pro­tec­ted and enhanced for future gen­er­a­tions, provid­ing a wide range of eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al and oth­er values.

This is the second Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, which fol­lows pre­vi­ous Biod­iversity Action Plans, all of which have made sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tions. A huge amount has been achieved in the last five years demon­strat­ing the power of part­ner­ships and co-oper­a­tion, and the energy and ded­ic­a­tion of those pro­tect­ing, man­aging and look­ing after the Park’s dis­tinct­ive wood­land, wet­land, moor­land, mont­ane and farm­land features.

Cairngorms Nature aims to nur­ture, inspire and enable this work, bring­ing people togeth­er to col­lect­ively make things hap­pen. As a part­ner­ship the aim is to be inclus­ive, to con­sult and seek agree­ment, to use evid­ence and to tackle dif­fi­cult issues by build­ing trust and rela­tion­ships through dis­cus­sion and col­lab­or­a­tion and ulti­mately mak­ing a dif­fer­ence on the ground.

Each plan is not an end-point on its own, but a means of focus­sing pri­or­it­ies for the next stage of the jour­ney. Land­scape scale con­ser­va­tion, pri­or­ity spe­cies man­age­ment and involving people have been agreed as being the key aims for the next five years. This is not a Park Author­ity plan but is a plan for every­one who lives, works, enjoys, stud­ies in and cares for this won­der­ful area. By get­ting involved any­one can play a part in deliv­er­ing a sus­tain­able future, ensur­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park remains an out­stand­ing jew­el amongst Scotland’s, the UK’s and Europe’s spe­cial places.

Ar welle Andy Wells Chair, Cairngorms Nature

1. Intro­duc­tion

1. Fac­al-tois­ich Cha ghabh mòran faclan gu bheil comas­ach air cun­ntas a thoirt air sar-nàdarr is cruthan-tìre a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh gu h‑urranta, no a’ mìneachadh dè cho cudromach ​‘s a tha iad air­son muin­ntir na sgìre gu bheil a’ fuire­ach is ag obair an-seo, no air­son na daoine gu bheil an tadhail is am meal­adh, no dè cho cudromach is sòn­raichte gu bheil an fhi­adh-bheatha is na h‑àrainnean air an taic leis an t‑àite air leth seo.

Tha an sgìre seo air a meas­adh le daoine air­son iomadh adhbhar, is tha i na cruth-tire deatamach air­son fiadh-bheatha, agus tha mòran beath­a­ichean a’ crochadh ri àiteachd daonna thairis air na lin­ntean. Tha i cuideachd na cruth-tire far a bheil seal­ladh air­son tuilleadh ioma­dachd a chruthachadh, agus tuilleadh pail­teas na h‑àrainnean is nan seòr­sachan sòn­raichte – cruth-tire gu bheil air aith­neachadh air feadh an t‑saoghail air­son sàr-mhath­as a h‑àrainneachd – ach le daoinne aig a cridhe.

Tha Cairngorms Nature a’ libhrigeadh an t‑sealladh seo. Tha Cairngorms Nature na cho-bhonn gu bheil a’ tio­n­ail daoine aig a bheil ùidh anns an sgìre seo le chèile, air­son ath-stéid­heachadh èic-eòlach agus glèid­hteachas na bith-ioma­dachd a bhrosnachadh mar phàirt cùram is stiùire­adh na tìre, air­son co-obrachadh ri amas­an aontachadh, air­son iomairtean ùra a bhrosnachadh is a leas­achadh, air­son daoine a‑steach a ghabhail, air­son mothachadh is tuigsinn stiùire­adh na tire is buan­nachdan a’ ghlèid­htea­chais a dhùs­gadh, agus aig a’ cheann thall, air­son a’ dèanamh cin­nteach gu bheil calpa nàdarra na sgìre – na cruthan-tire, an geòlas, an talamh, an t‑adhar, an uisge, agus a h‑uile beath­a­ichean – fo dhion agus a’ tighinn am feabhas air­son na lin­ntean ri teachd, a’ sol­arachadh luachan cul­tarail, eaconamach, is eile.

’S e seo an dàrna Plana-Gnìomha Nàdarr a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh, agus tha e a’ leantainn na Planaichean-Gnìomh Bith-loma­dachd mu dheire­adh, planaichean a rinn co-thabhartas­an mòra. Tha mòran air a bhuan­nachd anns na còig bli­adhna seo chaidh, agus tha sin a’ seall­tainn cum­hachd cho-bhuinn is cho-obra­chaidh, agus an lùthas is cois­ri­geadh gach uile gu bheil a’ dion, a’ stiùire­adh, agus a’ gabhail cùram air coill­tean, talam­han fliuch, mòintichean, bean­ntan, agus fear­ainn-thuath­anais na Pàirce Nàiseanta.

Tha Cairngorms Nature ag amas ris an obair seo àladh, a bhrosnachadh, agus a dhèanamh comas­ach, agus a’ tion­al daoine air­son sin a choileanadh le chèile. Mar com-pàirteachas, ​‘s e ion-ghabhail, co-chom­hair­leachadh air­son aontachadh, agus cleach­dadh fianais air­son cùisean dhoirbh fhuasgladh tro earb is chòm­hradh is chleam­h­nas is cho-obrachadh a th’ ann am prìomh-amas, agus nì sin an dio­far bunaiteach.

Chan e puing-dheiridh a th’ ann an gach plana, ach dòigh ri cùisean a chur ann an òrdugh prìom­ha­chais air­son ath-cheum a’ thurais. Tha aontachadh againn gu bheil stiùire­adh sgèile a’ chrutha-tire, stiùire­adh seòr­sachan le prìom­hachas, agus gabhail a‑steach dhaoine nar prìomh-amas­an air­son an còig bli­adhna seo tighinn. Chan e plana air­son Ugh­dar­ras na Pàirce Nàiseanta a th’ ann, ach plana air­son na h‑uile gu bheil a’ tadhail, a’ fuire­ach, ag obair, agus ag ionnsachadh anns an sgìre àlainn seo. Nan tèid sibh an sàs ann am Plana seo, biodh sibh nur pàirt ann an libhrigeadh so-sheasmhachd ann an Alba anns an t‑àm ri teachd, a’ dèanamh cin­nteach gum fan­adh Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh mar àilleag am measg àitichean sòn­raichte na h‑Alba, an Rioghachd Aon­aichte, is na h‑Eòrpa.

Ar welle Andy Wells Cath­raiche, Cairngorms Nature

6 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

SCOT­TISH BIOD­IVERSITY STRATEGY – 6 BIG STEPS FOR NATURE

1. Eco­sys­tem restoration
2. Invest­ment in nat­ur­al capital
3. Qual­ity green­space for health and edu­ca­tion benefits
4. Con­serving Wildlife
5. Sus­tain­able man­age­ment of land and freshwater
6. Sus­tain­able man­age­ment of mar­ine and coastal ecosystems

Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive, Scotland’s Wild Deer: A Nation­al Approach, Scot­tish Land Use Strategy, Scot­tish Forestry Strategy, Scotland’s Cli­mate Change Plan, Scot­tish Pol­lin­at­or Strategy

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK PART­NER­SHIP PLAN – BIG CON­SER­VA­TION CHALLENGES

Enhan­cing hab­it­ats on a land­scape scale Pro­tect­ing and enhan­cing spe­cies Build­ing sup­port and engagement

Cairngorms Forest Strategy, Catch­ment Man­age­ment Plans, Deer Man­age­ment Plans, Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Strategy, Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, Act­ive Cairngorms, LBAPs

NATION­AL

REGION­AL

7 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

Cairngorms NATURE ACTION PLAN

LAND­SCAPE SCALE CON­SER­VA­TION	PRI­OR­ITY SPE­CIES	INVOLVING PEOPLE	AIMS
• wood­land expan­sion & enhance­ment • nature friendly farm­ing • fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion • moor­land & peatland	• Scot­tish wild­cat • moun­tain hare • beaver • caper­cail­lie • cur­lew • golden eagle • per­eg­rine fal­con • hen har­ri­er • inver­teb­rates • fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel • aspen • plants, fungi & lichen	• great­er col­lab­or­a­tion and engage­ment in land use decision mak­ing • recog­nise and cel­eb­rate good con­ser­va­tion work • provide oppor­tun­it­ies to get involved • more people act­ively and respons­ibly enjoy­ing nature	PRI­OR­IT­IES
• 5,000ha new wood­land (includ­ing regen­er­a­tion and mont­ane) • 70% of new wood­land is nat­ive • 750ha PAWS & nat­ive wood­land under act­ive res­tor­a­tion • 20 farms in wood­land and grass­land pro­jects • increase in farm­land waders from 2015 baseline • 5,000ha peat­land under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment • 150km river / ripari­an res­tor­a­tion • 50 ponds cre­ated or restored	• tar­gets iden­ti­fied as per Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve • a meas­ur­able and sus­tained increase in both home range (re)occupation and breed­ing suc­cess of golden eagle, hen har­ri­er and per­eg­rine falcon	• 50 volun­teer rangers • 5 com­munit­ies involved in land­scape val­ues pro­ject • 3 com­munit­ies involved in land use decision mak­ing • 15,000 people at nature events • 20 land man­agers trained in com­munity engagement	TAR­GETS
			PART­NER­SHIPS & DELIVERY

Cairngorms Con­nect, East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship, Deer Man­age­ment Groups, Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships, Tomin­toul & Glen­liv­et Land­scape Part­ner­ship, Volun­teer Cairngorms, Ranger Ser­vices, Cairngorms Trust, Wet­lands & Wader Initiatives

8 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

2. Stra­tegic Context Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy – a Route Map to 2020 (SBS)

The SBS sets our six ​‘Big Steps for Nature’ which provide a focus on col­lab­or­at­ive work to help deliv­er Scotland’s com­mit­ments to meet­ing inter­na­tion­al goals and tar­gets. Cairngorms Nature will make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion towards five of the six Big Steps for Nature (the sixth is ​‘Sus­tain­able man­age­ment of mar­ine and coastal ecosystems’).

1. Eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion – to meet the Aichi tar­get of restor­ing 15% of degraded ecosystems
2. Invest­ment in nat­ur­al cap­it­al – to ensure the bene­fits nature provides are bet­ter under­stood and appreciated
3. Qual­ity green­space for health and edu­ca­tion bene­fits – to ensure the major­ity of people derive increased bene­fits from con­tact with nature
4. Con­serving wild­life in Scot­land – to secure the future of pri­or­ity hab­it­ats and species
5. Sus­tain­able man­age­ment of land and fresh­wa­ter — to ensure that envir­on­ment­al, social and eco­nom­ic ele­ments are well balanced

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (CNPPP) sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Park will coordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues. It sets out the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Park, provid­ing clar­ity on the pub­lic interest pri­or­it­ies we seek to deliv­er through land use in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan is one of five key strategies and plans which sup­port deliv­ery of the Part­ner­ship Plan. Con­ser­va­tion is one of the three, long term out­comes and the three aims of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan dir­ectly reflect the three big con­ser­va­tion chal­lenges as described in the CNPPP:

• Enhan­cing hab­it­ats on a land­scape scale
• Pro­tect­ing and enhan­cing species
• Build­ing sup­port and engagement

9 2. Stra­tegic Context

The work of Cairngorms Nature is set with­in the wider con­text of land man­age­ment in the Nation­al Park. Cairngorms Nature recog­nises and respects many of the dif­fer­ent eco­lo­gic­al, eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al drivers that dif­fer­ent estates and organ­isa­tions have.

Decisions around land use are often guided by exist­ing policies and much of the work Cairngorms Nature under­takes will be sup­por­ted by, and in the con­text of, some key plans, prin­ciples and projects.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy 2018

Wood­lands in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park are vitally import­ant for wild­life and are a dis­tinct­ive fea­ture of the land­scape, eco­logy, eco­nomy and cul­tur­al her­it­age. Part of the reas­on for their import­ance and dis­tinct­ive­ness stems from the unusu­ally high pro­por­tion of nat­ive trees (even com­mer­cial wood­lands are pre­dom­in­antly Scots pine). Whilst the aver­age pro­por­tion of nat­ive wood­land across all Scot­tish loc­al author­ity areas is 22.5%, in the Cairngorms it is at least 69%. Four of the ten stra­tegic object­ives in the Forest Strategy are to:

1. Pro­mote the cre­ation of new wood­lands that com­ple­ment oth­er land use
2. Enhance the con­di­tion of exist­ing woodlands
3. Restore lost or vul­ner­able forest ecosystems
4. Encour­age nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion of nat­ive forests

The Strategy also includes guid­ance on:

• cre­at­ing forest hab­it­at networks
• integ­ra­tion with man­aged moor­land farmed land and peatlands
• deer man­age­ment and fencing
• land­scape and wild land
• des­ig­nated sites

• bio­se­c­ur­ity, invas­ive spe­cies and wildfire

• mont­ane wood­land, ripari­an wood­land and aspen

• pro­tect­ing and enhan­cing wood­land rem­nants and ancient and semi-nat­ur­al woodlands
• felling

Deer man­age­ment Deer man­age­ment is integ­ral to wood­land expan­sion and peat­land res­tor­a­tion and Deer Man­age­ment Groups (DMGs) will play a key role in sup­port­ing deliv­ery. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan states “… we aim to con­tin­ue the cur­rent dir­ec­tion of travel in which deer num­bers and con­sequent impacts are reduced, where deer wel­fare is improved and sport stalk­ing in a high qual­ity envir­on­ment con­tin­ues to make a valu­able eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tion to the Nation­al Park”. Cairngorms Nature part­ners will con­tin­ue to advise and sup­port estates and DMG’s, work­ing togeth­er to achieve this in stra­tegic locations.

Moor­land management Moor­land man­age­ment is a sig­ni­fic­ant land use in the Nation­al Park, extend­ing to approx­im­ately 44% of land cov­er, shap­ing much of the land­scape. Cur­rently, much of it is man­aged for the primary aim of pro­du­cing suf­fi­cient pop­u­la­tions of red grouse and/​or red deer for sport shoot­ing. The longer term aim is to devel­op a more sus­tain­able mod­el of hunt­ing, which includes more hab­it­at and spe­cies diversity and deliv­ers more pub­lic benefit.

10 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

Good moor­land man­age­ment can make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to deliv­er­ing con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies and bring asso­ci­ated social and eco­nom­ic bene­fits. The key con­sid­er­a­tion is the bal­ance of land use object­ives and the extent to which the intens­ity of some man­age­ment prac­tices might be affect­ing long term sus­tain­ab­il­ity and deliv­ery of outcomes.

A part­ner­ship approach to address­ing these issues is crit­ic­al. These are top­ics which at a nation­al level are often polar­ised, char­ac­ter­ised by con­flict­ing object­ives, debates about evid­ence and lack of trust. Through the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship (ECMP) there is the oppor­tun­ity to work with a very prac­tic­al focus at a region­al scale. Approaches piloted in the ECMP will seek to estab­lish, deliv­er and pro­mote a shared under­stand­ing of what good moor­land man­age­ment looks like and look to take these for­wards with oth­er land man­agers in the Park.

Rewild­ing Rewild­ing is a pop­u­lar term. It has many defin­i­tions and means dif­fer­ent things to dif­fer­ent people. For Cairngorms Nature rewild­ing prin­ciples run through all of the aims and all land­scapes. Rewild­ing brings bene­fits to people and wild­life in gar­dens and fields as well as forests and moun­tains. Rewild­ing brings fresh ideas and approaches which allows nat­ur­al pro­cesses to flour­ish along­side pro­duct­ive land man­age­ment and build­ing diverse, nature-based eco­nom­ies that sup­port robust, resi­li­ent communities.

In this Plan, there are aims and actions for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion, more sus­tain­able land man­age­ment, spe­cies recov­ery with­in more nat­ur­al sys­tems, care­fully con­sidered spe­cies trans­lo­ca­tions, re-con­nect­ing people with nature and explor­ing new ways for com­munit­ies to bene­fit from the wild­life and nature around them. All of this could be called rewilding.

Spe­cies rein­tro­duc­tions and reinforcements Con­ser­va­tion trans­lo­ca­tions can bring many bene­fits for eco­sys­tems, com­munit­ies and busi­nesses. Many con­ser­va­tion trans­lo­ca­tions are low-risk. How­ever, some have the poten­tial for neg­at­ive impacts on the envir­on­ment and oth­er land uses. Pro­jects on pine hov­er­fly, alpine blue sow thistle and fresh water pearl mus­sel are prov­ing invalu­able to the spe­cies’ con­ser­va­tion and Cairngorms Nature is keen to explore where trans­lo­ca­tions can have a last­ing, pos­it­ive impact.

Cairngorms Nature will play an act­ive role in care­fully con­sid­er­ing when con­ser­va­tion trans­lo­ca­tions may be appro­pri­ate and the types of situ­ation in which they may cause prob­lems. Cairngorms Nature will work closely with Scotland’s Nation­al Spe­cies Rein­tro­duc­tion For­um and involve people who live and work in the Park on any pro­posed trans­lo­ca­tions that would affect people’s well­being and livelihoods.

11 2. Stra­tegic Context

Oth­er nation­al and region­al plans and strategies

The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan sup­ports and builds on a wide range of strategies, policies and plans relat­ing to the envir­on­ment, land use, eco­nomy and com­munity engage­ment, notably:

• Scot­tish Forestry Strategy
• Wild Deer: A Nation­al Approach
• Scotland’s Cli­mate Change Plan
• Scot­tish Pol­lin­at­or Strategy
• Scot­tish Land Use Strategy
• Com­munity Empower­ment Act
• Nation­al stand­ards for com­munity engagement
• Caper­cail­lie Framework
• Act­ive Cairngorms
• Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Strategy
• Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan
• Com­munity action plans
• Catch­ment man­age­ment plans
• Deer man­age­ment plans
• River basin man­age­ment plans
• Loc­al biod­iversity action plans
• Region­al and site spe­cif­ic hab­it­at and spe­cies plans

Wild land and wildness

Argu­ably the most cel­eb­rated of the Nation­al Park’s spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies is that of wild­ness. The feel­ing of being sur­roun­ded by wild­life and nat­ur­al hab­it­ats is greatly val­ued as it helps us recon­nect with nature, and refreshes the mind and body. Wild­land, which is where wild­ness is most strongly exper­i­enced, has been mapped in Scot­land by Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age (SNH) and is safe­guarded by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment policy. There are extens­ive areas of wild land cov­er­ing upland parts of the Nation­al Park.

In any area of high wild­ness, new man-made fea­tures or abrupt changes in man­age­ment may detract from the spe­cial qual­it­ies. Infra­struc­ture and man­age­ment for wood­land expan­sion and deer man­age­ment may well mean inter­ven­tions that detract from the sense of wild­ness if not under­taken with care. How­ever research shows that wood­land, and more hab­it­at and spe­cies diversity, actu­ally enhances the sense of wild­ness and is there­fore encour­aged. Each situ­ation is unique and will need to be assessed to min­im­ise the imme­di­ate effects, whilst policies and approaches to wild land sup­port achiev­ing the longer term aims.

12 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

3. Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2013 – 2018

The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2013 — 2018 was the first Plan for the new part­ner­ship, build­ing on the Loc­al Biod­iversity Action Plan 2003 — 2013. It detailed the out­stand­ing nat­ur­al her­it­age in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, iden­ti­fied the com­monly agreed key issues and set our four aims. A report sum­mar­ising activ­ity over the last five years is avail­able at www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk.

Improv­ing the qual­ity and con­nectiv­ity of wood­lands and wetlands Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress was made in encour­aging wood­land expan­sion and enhance­ment, which remains a pri­or­ity. More than 4,000ha of new nat­ive wood­land was cre­ated, sup­por­ted by a 12.5% addi­tion­al premi­um rate for plant­ing in tar­get areas. A new, expan­ded tar­get map is avail­able to sup­port this ongo­ing work. There are also hun­dreds, if not thou­sands, of hec­tares of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion across the Nation­al Park. Our under­stand­ing of the amount of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion is an incom­plete, but extremely import­ant, part of the pic­ture and we will work to quanti­fy this.

Fresh­wa­ter actions focused largely on remov­ing man-made bar­ri­ers, ripari­an plant­ing, re-mean­der­ing and nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment know­ledge gath­er­ing, largely driv­en by out­comes in the Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive and the Flood Risk Act. Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships con­tin­ue to play a key role in ​‘Fresh­wa­ter and wet­land res­tor­a­tion’. Wet­lands and Waders Ini­ti­at­ives worked with farm­ers and crofters to man­age hab­it­at for farm­land waders, increas­ing some pop­u­la­tions for the first time in over a dec­ade. This pos­it­ive work is con­tin­ued and built on under the land­scape scale pri­or­ity of nature friendly farming.

Pri­or­ity work on oth­er habitats Work on oth­er hab­it­ats focused on uplands and grass­lands. The Peat­land Action pro­ject has been a great suc­cess, Cairngorms Con­nect and Mar Lodge Estate have set the agenda for mont­ane wood­land aspir­a­tions and the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship is a focus for demon­strat­ing what sus­tain­able moor­land man­age­ment can look like. Tak­ing this work for­wards, mont­ane wood­land is con­sidered part of wood­land expan­sion, a nat­ur­al exten­sion of the tree line rather than a sep­ar­ate entity. Moor­land man­age­ment is recog­nised as being more sig­ni­fic­ant and high­lighted as a land­scape scale pri­or­ity. And grass­land actions are taken for­wards with a renewed focus in ​‘Nature Friendly Farming’.

13 3. Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2013 – 2018

Focused action for pri­or­ity species Action for spe­cies pro­gressed sig­ni­fic­antly with the start of the Cairngorms Wild Plants pro­ject and the Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms pro­ject. Both pro­jects are recog­nised as crit­ic­al to con­tinu­ing momentum for inver­teb­rate and plant con­ser­va­tion in the Park. Resourcing spe­cies con­ser­va­tion was chal­len­ging and a refreshed list bene­fits from hav­ing many organ­isa­tions and NGOs as lead part­ners, alloc­at­ing resource and link­ing with nation­al strategies and plans. Without baseline data and com­pre­hens­ive mon­it­or­ing it was impossible to make an assess­ment of pop­u­la­tions. The Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve is being tri­alled to estab­lish pro­gress and it is a pri­or­ity to ​‘Ensure good inform­a­tion and data are avail­able to guide long term conservation’.

Involving people The Cairngorms Nature BIG Week­end, social media, Young Presenters and Farm Awards have all sig­ni­fic­antly raised the pro­file of con­ser­va­tion in the Park and will con­tin­ue to be sup­por­ted and built on. Close work­ing with Volun­teer Cairngorms and Act­ive Cairngorms presents new oppor­tun­it­ies for get­ting involved and work­ing with vis­it­ors and busi­nesses on respons­ible access and sus­tain­able tour­ism. Deliv­ery of the actions for com­munity engage­ment and empower­ment were not pro­gressed as widely as anti­cip­ated, although there were key suc­cesses in cer­tain loc­a­tions such as the Tomin­toul & Glen­liv­et Land­scape Part­ner­ship. This work is con­tin­ued with a renewed focus on land­scape and land­scape change as an access­ible, more rel­ev­ant sub­ject and com­munity involve­ment in the three land­scape-scale part­ner­ships in the Park.

14 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024 has three aims:

• Land­scape scale conservation
• Focused action for pri­or­ity species
• Involving people

The aims are split into a num­ber of pri­or­it­ies, reflect­ing ​‘Agen­das for Action’ in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, ​‘Pri­or­ity Pro­jects’ in the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy, con­tinu­ing work from the first Cairngorms Nature Action Plan (2013−2018) and con­sulta­tion with part­ners on cur­rent issues. The aims and pri­or­it­ies in this Action Plan are the next step towards the 50 year vis­ions for 2063, as set out in the first Cairngorms Nature Action Plan (2013−2018).

15 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

16 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

AIM

Sup­port land­scape scale con­ser­va­tion and col­lab­or­a­tion to deliv­er eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion and sus­tain­able land man­age­ment, bal­an­cing envir­on­ment­al, social and eco­nom­ic factors

17 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is an out­stand­ing place for nat­ur­al her­it­age. Nowhere else in Bri­tain can you find such a col­lec­tion of dif­fer­ent hab­it­ats of such high qual­ity and excep­tion­al size and scale. It con­tains some of the UK’s best examples of nat­ur­al and semi-nat­ur­al hab­it­ats, includ­ing a quarter of Scotland’s nat­ive wood­lands, extens­ive arc­tic-like plat­eaux, the head­wa­ters of four of Scotland’s major rivers, func­tion­ing flood­plains and the some of the last few remain­ing frag­ments of moun­tain wood­land. The found­a­tions for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion, for hab­it­ats to reach their full eco­lo­gic­al poten­tial on a grand scale, are impressive.

Main object­ives

• Big­ger, more nat­ur­al wood­lands, expand­ing up to a nat­ur­al treeline, provid­ing con­nec­tions across catch­ments and around the cent­ral core of the mountains.
• More nat­ur­al, dynam­ic rivers con­nec­ted to func­tion­ing wet­lands and floodplains.
• Restored peat­lands stop­ping the loss of car­bon, improv­ing water qual­ity and help­ing alle­vi­ate flooding.

2063 VIS­ION

Patches of forest and wood­land, some miles across, some as small as foot­ball fields, link togeth­er through farm­land and open ground. They are expand­ing up hill­sides and into quiet areas, provid­ing refuge for spe­cies to flour­ish, like the once crit­ic­ally endangered but now flour­ish­ing caper­cail­lie. They are made up almost entirely of nat­ive trees: a patch­work of dif­fer­ent wood­lands, includ­ing pro­duct­ive plant­a­tions, all with rich under­stories, trees of all ages, clear­ings, bogs and dead­wood scattered through­out. The UK’s largest nat­ur­al forests are con­sidered an exem­plar of wood­lands man­aged for mul­tiple benefits.

Most of the blanket bog is in favour­able con­di­tion, retains water and acts as a car­bon sink. Rivers nat­ur­ally meander and waters rise and fall sea­son­ally across land grazed by live­stock. Large, inter­con­nec­ted wet­lands help pre­vent dam­aging flood events in the Park and fur­ther down­stream. Nat­ur­al pro­cesses in river catch­ments do not affect the pro­ductiv­ity of land. The high water qual­ity status has been main­tained or increased.

18 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is also a cul­tur­al land­scape. The work of gen­er­a­tions of land man­agers has pro­duced the land­scapes and hab­it­ats we see today. It is an IUCN Cat­egory 5 pro­tec­ted land­scape, which recog­nises and seeks to safe­guard the integ­rity of the inter­ac­tion of people and nature over time, and the aims of the Park cater for the needs of people as well as wild­life. Man­aging for biod­iversity and the sus­tain­able use of the area’s nat­ur­al resource is part of many land man­agers’ every­day busi­ness. Sig­ni­fic­ant areas of the Nation­al Park are man­aged primar­ily for forestry, sport­ing and agri­cul­ture and the pro­duct­ive wood­lands, moor­lands, farms and crofts are home to many of the Park’s rare and endangered spe­cies. Cairngorms Nature seeks to build on this, sup­port­ing land man­agers work­ing for wildlife.

Main object­ives

• More sus­tain­ably man­aged moor­lands with more struc­tur­al and spe­cies diversity and pock­ets and strips of trees and shrubs on moor­land edges, steep slopes, in gul­lies and around wood­land remnants.
• More hab­it­at suit­able for breed­ing waders as part of agri­cul­tur­al systems.
• Wild­life-rich grass­land and wood­land on pro­duct­ive, prof­it­able farms.

2063 VIS­ION

Moor­lands have struc­tur­al diversity and link hab­it­ats togeth­er sym­path­et­ic­ally. A nat­ur­al trans­ition from wood­land to mont­ane scrub to upland heath is devel­op­ing through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The con­tri­bu­tions it makes to eco­sys­tem ser­vices are widely recog­nised. Rap­tor per­se­cu­tion ended dec­ades ago and a full com­ple­ment of nat­ive rap­tors lives and breeds across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Pro­duct­ive grouse moors and high qual­ity stalk­ing remains a main­stay of life, con­trib­ut­ing envir­on­ment­ally, eco­nom­ic­ally and socially.

19 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

2063 VIS­ION A patch­work of pro­duct­ive land uses is good for wild­life. It sup­ports thriv­ing com­munit­ies and reflects cen­tur­ies of tra­di­tion. Deliv­er­ing biod­iversity bene­fit is an integ­ral part of high qual­ity food pro­duc­tion and does not impact on prof­it­ab­il­ity. High qual­ity grass­lands sup­port a healthy range of nation­ally and loc­ally import­ant spe­cies. Farm­land wader pop­u­la­tions have recovered and increased through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, and the area is nation­ally recog­nised as a mod­el of farm­land man­age­ment for con­ser­va­tion on pro­duct­ive land.

20 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

AIM: Land­scape scale conservation

Pri­or­ity	Action	Part­ners (lead in bold)
Wood­land expan­sion and enhancement	Engage with, encour­age and sup­port land man­agers in cre­at­ing new wood­land plant­ing and regen­er­a­tion in pri­or­ity and stra­tegic areas, pri­or­it­ising nat­ive wood­land where feasible	SF & CNPA
	Quanti­fy the extent of nat­ive wood­land regen­er­a­tion in the Park and map exist­ing nat­ive wood­land remnants	CNPA, SF, FLS, WTS and TfL
	Invest­ig­ate, devel­op and deliv­er mod­els for fund­ing wood­land expan­sion and enhance­ment to work in addi­tion to, or along­side, Forest Grant Schemes eg Forest Carbon	CNPA, SF
	Enhance wood­land hab­it­at qual­ity to bene­fit caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion and oth­er species	RSPB, SLE, CNPA, FLS, SNH
	Enhance wood­land hab­it­at qual­ity for Plant­a­tions on Ancient Wood­land Sites and degraded nat­ive and semi nat­ur­al woodlands	WTS & TfL
	Engage volun­teers in hab­it­at assess­ments of wood­lands to inform man­age­ment advice and ensure plants are taken into account in wood­land management	Plant­life, Volun­teer Cairngorms
	Reduce and/​or main­tain graz­ing dens­it­ies that cre­ate con­di­tions suit­able for the nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion of a mont­ane wood­land / nat­ur­al treeline	CC, MLE & DMGS
	Plant high alti­tude, moun­tain wood­land spe­cies, from a suit­able stock and in suit­able loc­a­tions, to act as a seed source in the core of the Park	CC & MLE
	Devel­op mod­els of how wood­land can be accom­mod­ated in des­ig­nated sites with open ground qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures (using spe­cif­ic examples such as Glen Tilt and Glenavon)	SNH, CNPA, SF, estates

21 AIM: Land­scape scale conservation 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

Pri­or­ity	Action	Part­ners (lead in bold)
Moor­land and peatland	Modi­fy graz­ing and muir­burn on moor­land to allow nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion of trees and shrubs, espe­cially in gul­lies, on steep slopes and around exist­ing remnants	ECMP, CNPA, DMGS
	Pilot new approaches in the ECMP to estab­lish, deliv­er and then pro­mote across the Park a shared under­stand­ing of sus­tain­able moor­land management	ECMP, CNPA, Moor­land For­um, SLE, DMGs, estates
	Work with a range of land man­agers across the Nation­al Park to deliv­er res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment of peat­lands at a sub-catch­ment level to improve eco­sys­tem bene­fits such as car­bon, water qual­ity and biodiversity	Peat­land Action, IUCN, estates
	Work with the IUCN Peat­land Pro­gramme to source fund­ing through the Peat­land Code to sup­port a peat­land res­tor­a­tion project	Peat­land Action, estates
Nature friendly farming	Through wet­lands and waders ini­ti­at­ives, sup­port land man­agers, agents, farm­ers and crofters with equip­ment, fund­ing and man­age­ment advice to man­age hab­it­at so that it is suit­able for farm­land waders	RSPB, SNH, CNPA, agents and land managers
	Pro­mote Park-wide coordin­a­tion of activ­ity for the con­ser­va­tion of farm­land waders	RSPB, SNH, CNPA
	Identi­fy pri­or­ity areas and work with land man­agers to sym­path­et­ic­ally man­age spe­cies-rich grasslands	Plant­life, NFUS, SAC
	Work with farm­ers, crofters and agents to encour­age integ­rated wood­land devel­op­ment on farms for eco­lo­gic­al and eco­nom­ic benefit	CNPA, WTS, NFUS, Soil Assoc, agents

22 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

AIM: Land­scape scale conservation | Pri­or­ity | Action | Part­ners (lead in bold) | | — -| — -| — -| | Fresh­wa­ter and wet­land res­tor­a­tion | Con­duct spa­tial tar­get­ing exer­cise to identi­fy pri­or­ity and stra­tegic areas for a fresh­wa­ter and wet­land hab­it­at net­work and nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment which will deliv­er max­im­um eco­sys­tem ser­vice bene­fit | CMPS, CNPA, SNH, SEPA, FBs | | | Recon­nect rivers to flood­plains to restore hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity and nat­ur­al flood­ing cycles, for biod­iversity and Nat­ur­al Flood Man­age­ment gain | CMPS, FBs, SEPA, SNH | | | Re-nat­ur­al­ise rivers using tech­niques such as remov­ing arti­fi­cial bar­ri­ers, car­ry­ing out river bank pro­tec­tion / res­tor­a­tion and recon­nect­ing and rewa­ter­ing or cre­at­ing some back chan­nels | | | | Plant ripari­an wood­land to enhance aquat­ic eco­sys­tems, strengthen wood­land hab­it­at net­works, and help man­age flood­ing | | | | Seek oppor­tun­it­ies, includ­ing through devel­op­ment and Sus­tain­able Drain­age sys­tems, to restore or cre­ate new ponds for wild­life | CNPA, SNH, Loc­al Authorities |

Tar­gets

• 5,000ha new wood­land (includ­ing regen­er­a­tion and montane)
• 70% of new wood­land to be nat­ive species
• 750ha PAWS and nat­ive wood­lands under act­ive restoration
• 20 farms in wood­land & grass­land projects
• 5,000ha peat­land under res­tor­a­tion management
• 150km river and ripari­an restoration
• 50 ponds cre­ated or restored, includ­ing SUDs ponds
• Increase in farm­land wader pop­u­la­tions from the exist­ing 2015 baseline

23 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

24 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2019 – 2024

AIM Deliv­er focused action to improve the con­ser­va­tion status of threatened or declin­ing species

25 4. Aims, Pri­or­it­ies and Action

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is home to almost 1,200 spe­cies con­sidered to be nation­ally or inter­na­tion­ally import­ant. By vir­tue of their size, rar­ity and/​or appeal, some of these spe­cies have a much high­er pub­lic pro­file than oth­ers, includ­ing prom­in­ent con­ser­va­tion ​‘flag­ship’ spe­cies like the osprey and red squir­rel. Yet the bulk of the nation­ally import­ant spe­cies are made up of plants, fungi, lichens, bry­ophytes and insects. These nation­ally import­ant spe­cies are mainly asso­ci­ated with wood­lands (39% of spe­cies), rock (20%) and mont­ane hab­it­ats (15%), and most will bene­fit sig­ni­fic­antly from the land­scape scale con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies. How­ever, there are some pri­or­ity spe­cies with very spe­cif­ic and some­times urgent man­age­ment needs that demand focused con­ser­va­tion action.

Rap­tor con­ser­va­tion is per­haps the most high pro­file for all the pri­or­ity spe­cies and is fre­quently a con­ten­tious and impas­sioned issue. Land man­agers in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park play a key role in the nation­al debate. Cairngorms Nature part­ners are com­mit­ted to increas­ing home range (re)occupancy and breed­ing suc­cess of golden eagle, hen har­ri­er and per­eg­rine falcon.

These are the three Sched­ule 1/​Annex I spe­cies whose status and trends in the Nation­al Park are unfa­vour­able. We are also com­mit­ted to work­ing with Police Scot­land to elim­in­ate illeg­al per­se­cu­tion of all raptors.

Ulti­mately, spe­cies recov­ery must be integ­rated with land­scape scale con­ser­va­tion. In order to reach that point we must under­stand the species’