CAIRNGORMS

NATURE

Action Plan

2019 — 2024

Final Report

Intro­duc­tion

The largest pro­tec­ted area in the UK, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is one of the best places in the coun­try for nature. Nowhere else in Bri­tain can you find such a col­lec­tion of dif­fer­ent hab­it­ats of such high qual­ity and excep­tion­al size and scale. It is where we find some of our wild­est land, arc­tic-like moun­tain plat­eaux, a quarter of Scotland’s nat­ive wood­lands, the head­wa­ters of four of Scotland’s major rivers, func­tion­ing flood­plains and the some of the last few remain­ing frag­ments of moun­tain wood­land. Half of the Nation­al Park is des­ig­nated as being of European import­ance for nature and over a quarter of the UK’s rare and threatened spe­cies are found here.

Wheth­er you’re a vis­it­or or a res­id­ent, 90% of people who come here feel deeply con­nec­ted to the nature that sur­rounds them. With such an extraordin­ary place comes great respons­ib­il­ity to nur­ture, pro­tect, and pre­serve this unique envir­on­ment for gen­er­a­tions to come.

That’s where Cairngorms Nature steps in — a col­lab­or­at­ive effort which unites a pos­it­ive and highly pro­duct­ive part­ner­ship of over 40 organ­isa­tions to pro­tect and enhance the Nation­al Park’s rich biod­iversity. At the heart of this work is the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, a guid­ing frame­work that helps focus con­ser­va­tion efforts, align­ing with the broad­er Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy.

The Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group, led by the Park Author­ity, plays a vital role in this mis­sion. The team of con­ser­va­tion and land man­age­ment pro­fes­sion­als over­sees the Action Plan’s devel­op­ment, imple­ment­a­tion, and eval­u­ation, ensur­ing that each step we take is informed, impact­ful, and forward-thinking.

We have exper­i­enced sig­ni­fic­ant changes since the 2019 — 2024 Action Plan was pub­lished. To address the cli­mate and nature crises that have emerged in that time, we will need to build on the pro­gress we’ve made over the last 5 years and act at unpre­ced­en­ted speed and scale going for­ward. This Final Report offers an oppor­tun­ity to reflect on the suc­cesses and les­sons we’ve learned and begin look­ing ahead to the future.

Image of a Falls of Tru­im by James Shoot­er Cov­er image of a Kentish Glory moth by Dav­id Whitaker

Land­scape scale conservation

The Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship has been work­ing on large-scale con­ser­va­tion efforts to restore nat­ur­al hab­it­ats and pro­mote sus­tain­able land use, while care­fully bal­an­cing the needs of the envir­on­ment, loc­al com­munit­ies, and the eco­nomy and nav­ig­at­ing our chan­ging cli­mate, which cre­ates chal­lenges bey­ond our control.

High­lights achieved by the partnership

• Over 5,000 hec­tares of peat­land has been restored, trap­ping CO2, aid­ing spe­cies recov­ery, improv­ing water qual­ity and redu­cing flood­ing risk.
• Nat­ive wood­land cov­er has been increased over 6,000 hec­tares, cre­at­ing lar­ger and more nat­ur­al wood­lands bene­fit­ing plants, insects, birds and mammals.
• Enhanced over 750 hec­tares of plant­a­tions on ancient wood­land sites, cre­at­ing more struc­tur­ally diverse and biod­iversity-rich woodlands.
• Over 1,000 hec­tares of hab­it­at pro­act­ively man­aged for farm­land waders, giv­ing these vul­ner­able and cul­tur­ally sig­ni­fic­ant spe­cies more space to thrive.
• Wood­lands and grass­lands enhanced on 27 farms, increas­ing biod­iversity and build­ing resi­li­ence by join­ing up hab­it­ats and ecosystems.
• A net­work of over 50 wet­lands has been cre­ated, enrich­ing eco­sys­tems, provid­ing hab­it­ats for rare inver­teb­rates and help­ing to mit­ig­ate the impacts of cli­mate change.
• Over 100 kilo­metres of river and ripari­an hab­it­ats have been restored, redu­cing flood­ing risk and trans­form­ing water­ways into wild­life corridors.

Image of a grass­land by Mark Hamblin

Achieve­ments against targets

Tar­get	Status
Wood­land expan­sion 5,000ha new wood­land, includ­ing regen­er­a­tion and montane	Green ~ 6,000 ha of new woodland
Wood­land expan­sion 70% of new wood­land to be nat­ive species	Green ~ 95% nat­ive species
Wood­land enhance­ment 750ha PAWS and nat­ive wood­lands under restoration	Green ~ 750ha under restoration
Nature friendly farm­ing 20 farms in wood­land and grass­land projects	Green 27 farms engaged
Nature friendly farm­ing Increase in wader pop­u­la­tions from the 2015 baseline	Red 25% decrease — see overleaf
Peat­land res­tor­a­tion 5,000ha peat­land under res­tor­a­tion management	Green ~ 5,400 ha under restoration
Fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion 150km river and ripari­an restoration	Amber ~ 100 km restored
Fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion 50 ponds cre­ated or restored, includ­ing SUDs ponds	Green ~ 50 ponds created

Image of a con­tract­or and pro­ject staff restor­ing peat­land by Ed Smith

Wader hab­it­at expan­ded over 9,000 hectares

Image of a game­keep­er car­ry­ing our wader sur­vey work by Ed Smith

Farm­land wader con­ser­va­tion remains a pri­or­ity des­pite wader pop­u­la­tions not improv­ing since the 2015 census. The Action Plan tar­get to increase wader pop­u­la­tions was set fol­low­ing a 16% increase in between 2000 and 2015, but from 2015 to 2021 the pop­u­la­tion has decreased by 25%. There are mul­tiple factors affect­ing pop­u­la­tions, for example the impacts of cli­mate change and pred­a­tion. Inter­ac­tions can be dif­fi­cult to pick apart and all or some may have con­trib­uted to the decline in vary­ing degrees. Nev­er­the­less, con­cer­ted efforts con­tin­ue to counter this, with spe­cies includ­ing lap­wing, red­shank, cur­lew, snipe and oyster­catch­er all receiv­ing crit­ic­al, Park-wide sup­port through the Action Plan.

The Strath­spey Wet­lands and Wader Ini­ti­at­ive (SWWI) made sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress work­ing with the farm­ing and croft­ing com­munity to sur­vey over 9,000 hec­tares along 130 km of the River Spey and its trib­u­tar­ies. The sur­vey saw a stand­ard meth­od­o­logy used across 65 sites, ran­ging from 10 to 500 hec­tares, cov­er­ing land man­aged by 66 dif­fer­ent landown­ers across 76 farms. The ini­ti­at­ive saw wide­spread involve­ment, with 69 sur­vey­ors, 50 of whom were volunteers.

Through col­lab­or­at­ive Agri-Envir­on­ment schemes, 950 hec­tares of farm­land in Strath­spey are now pro­act­ively man­aged for waders, includ­ing the cre­ation of 28 new wader scrapes. The work extends from over 70 applic­a­tions for wader-spe­cif­ic man­age­ment sup­por­ted by the RSPB and the Park Author­ity through SWWI collaborations.

Sim­il­arly, the Grampi­an Wet­lands and Wader Ini­ti­at­ive (GWWI) has made sig­ni­fic­ant strides, sur­vey­ing 20 farms and man­aging 150 hec­tares for waders, includ­ing the cre­ation of 11 wader scrapes. From 2018 to 2024, 27 applic­a­tions for wader- spe­cif­ic man­age­ment were sup­por­ted by the RSPB and the Park Author­ity through GWWI collaborations.

In addi­tion, the Park Author­ity dir­ectly con­trib­uted to hab­it­at man­age­ment by sup­port­ing softrak use, scrape cre­ation, and cattle cross­ing install­a­tions, and team­ing up with the High­land Wild­life Park and RSPB, installed 20 oyster­catch­er nest­ing plat­forms and assisted with wader sur­veys in the Angus Glens.

Image of a lap­wing by Mark Hamblin

Over 100km of vital fresh­wa­ter hab­it­ats restored

Image of River Calder res­tor­a­tion work by James Shooter

Excit­ing fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion delivered through the Action Plan over the last 5 years has begun to trans­form the Cairngorms, with work under­way across the Dee, Spey, and South Esk catch­ments, and for the first time, in the Don, restor­ing over 100 kilo­metres of river and ripari­an hab­it­ats and cre­at­ing a net­work of over 50 wetlands.

River and wet­land sys­tems across the Nation­al Park are key to address­ing many envir­on­ment­al issues, from flood­ing to biod­iversity loss. Restor­ing these sys­tems to their nat­ur­al state and recon­nect­ing them with their flood­plains is increas­ing our resi­li­ence to cli­mate change, improv­ing water qual­ity, cre­at­ing lar­ger flood buf­fer zones and help­ing to store excess water, whilst also provid­ing essen­tial hab­it­ats for wild­life to thrive.

The River Dee Trust has embarked on one of its most ambi­tious pro­jects yet — restor­ing both the Clunie Water and its flood­plain. Thanks to sup­port from the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund, the Park Author­ity, Mossy Earth, the Wood­land Trust, and the Cairngorms Trust, the pro­ject installed 97 large wood struc­tures, 24 wader scrapes, 60 debris dams, removed two bridge piers, restruc­tured 0.59 hec­tares of ripari­an wood­land, and planted 10,000 nat­ive trees along the river.

The Del­li­fure Burn Pro­ject in the Spey Catch­ment, delivered through the Action Plan, is a bril­liant example of river recon­nec­tion. By cre­at­ing tar­geted breaches, the river now over­flows onto graz­ing farm­land dur­ing high flows, turn­ing it into thriv­ing wet­land hab­it­at for waders. The farm­er still grazes his Aber­deen Angus cattle on the land, which helps man­age the wet­land. This innov­at­ive pro­ject was co-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity and Mac­al­lan Distillery.

In the Angus Glens, the ​“Restor­ing the Esk” pro­ject, with a £1.4 mil­lion invest­ment, is also begin­ning to restore 10km of river and 40 hec­tares of wet­land in Glen Clova. Coupled with mont­ane scrub res­tor­a­tion, this large-scale effort was inspired by smal­ler demon­stra­tion sites like Allt Lorgy, which paved the way for even bolder land­scape pro­jects. Cru­cially, the suc­cess of these ini­ti­at­ives hinges on the col­lab­or­a­tion and sup­port of loc­al land man­agers and own­ers, mak­ing these ambi­tious res­tor­a­tion works possible.

Image of River Dee by James Shooter

Image of regen­er­at­ing wood­land by Mark Hamblin

Wood­lands expand­ing over 6,000 hectares

Wood­land expan­sion is join­ing up our exist­ing wood­lands, deliv­er­ing biod­iversity and land­scape bene­fits, cap­tur­ing and stor­ing car­bon diox­ide, provid­ing a sus­tain­able source of tim­ber, improv­ing water qual­ity and help­ing to reduce the risk of flooding.

The past 5 years have wit­nessed the expan­sion of wood­land across the Nation­al Park by almost 6,000 hec­tares, sur­pass­ing the ori­gin­al 5,000 hec­tare tar­get. One of the strik­ing aspects of this reaf­for­est­a­tion in the Cairngorms is just how much of it has been achieved using nat­ive spe­cies – around 95%. This focus on nat­ive spe­cies with­in wood­land cre­ation is unpar­alleled else­where in Scot­land and has included the plant­ing of many thou­sands of aspens, an import­ant spe­cies for a range of depend­ent biod­iversity rarely found out­side the Nation­al Park.

Anoth­er dis­tinct­ive fea­ture of the wood­land expan­sion achieved through the Action Plan is the high pro­por­tion, around a third, that has been delivered through nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion, most of it unfenced. This has been made pos­sible by man­aging deer pop­u­la­tions through cull­ing to levels that sig­ni­fic­antly reduce the risk of brows­ing for young trees.

Much of the land­scape in and around the moun­tain­ous core of the Nation­al Park has been man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion in the pres­ence of low deer dens­it­ies for sev­er­al years now. The thou­sands of hec­tares of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion and plant­ing there, not only of Scots pine, but also of vari­ous nat­ive broadleaves, includ­ing pal­at­able spe­cies such as row­an, aspen and wil­lows, is see­ing wood­land expand both out­wards and upwards. The devel­op­ment of moun­tain wood­land and a more nat­ur­al treeline is under­way on land­hold­ings includ­ing Mar Lodge, Wild­land, Aber­nethy and Cairngorm Moun­tain, with Scots pine and juni­per march­ing uphill nat­ur­ally, while under­rep­res­en­ted downy birches and moun­tain wil­lows have been giv­en a help­ing hand by being planted at high­er elevations.

Image of mont­ane wood­land by Mark Hamblin

Focused action for pri­or­ity species

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a strong­hold for nearly 1,200 spe­cies of nation­al or inter­na­tion­al import­ance and spe­cies pro­tec­ted under the Wild­life and Coun­tryside Act. While eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion is vital for long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity, we must also focus on pro­tect­ing vul­ner­able spe­cies now, ensur­ing they get back on a sus­tain­able foot­ing, less reli­ant on tar­geted action and recov­er­ing with­in a net­work of inter­con­nec­ted habitats.

Over the past 5 years, the Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship has been driv­ing tar­geted action to help some of our rarest spe­cies make mean­ing­ful strides toward recovery.

High­lights achieved by the partnership

• Pion­eer­ing rein­force­ment and rein­tro­duc­tion pro­grammes for pine hov­er­fly, dark bordered beauty, wild­cat and beaver, restor­ing biod­iversity in the Nation­al Park.
• Suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Rare Plants Pro­ject and the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, tak­ing action to pro­tect the rarest of our plant and bird species.
• River res­tor­a­tion improv­ing hab­it­at for endangered fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel pop­u­la­tions in all catch­ments in the Nation­al Park.
• Cur­lew hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion at a net­work of key sites, help­ing these icon­ic birds to recov­er across the Cairngorms.
• Pro­tec­tion and expan­sion of aspen, safe­guard­ing one of our rarest trees which oth­er endangered spe­cies also depend on.
• Co-ordin­ated mon­it­or­ing of moun­tain hare pop­u­la­tions, enabling sus­tain­able man­age­ment at a land­scape scale.
• Rap­tor Officer recruited to drive for­ward the Cairngorms Rap­tor Pro­ject and increase the home ranges and breed­ing suc­cess of our pro­tec­ted raptors.

Image of a moun­tain hare by Mark Hamblin

Fig­ure 1: Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve

Pop­u­la­tion Mon­it­or­ing D1 Dia­gnos­is D2 D3 T1 T2 S3 Solu­tion test­ing T3 S2 R1 R2 R3 Deploy­ment of solu­tion Sus­tain­able man­age­ment S1 Time

Achieve­ments against targets

Pri­or­ity spe­cies, actions and tar­gets	Pro­gress and over­all status
Wild­cat Actions: Pro­mote TNVR, reduce hybrid­isa­tion, dis­ease and misid­en­ti­fic­a­tion, and tri­al cap­tive-bred wild­cat releases. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Amber (sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress toward tar­get) All actions under­way, includ­ing cap­tive- bred wild­cat releases. Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress along recov­ery curve from T1 to R1 with work ongoing.
Moun­tain hare Actions: Col­lab­or­a­tion on pop­u­la­tion mon­it­or­ing and man­age­ment across own­er­ship bound­ar­ies. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D3 Tar­get pos­i­tion: S1	Green (tar­get achieved) Col­lab­or­at­ive pop­u­la­tion sur­veys and mon­it­or­ing now in place to enable sus­tain­able man­age­ment at a land­scape scale. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from D3 to S1.

Beaver Action: Plan pro­act­ively for beaver pop­u­la­tions in the Nation­al Park. No recov­ery curve tar­get.	Green Rein­tro­duc­tion under­way and year 1 com­plete. Cur­rent spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion R2.
Caper­cail­lie Actions: Coordin­ate man­age­ment solu­tions and deliv­er NLHF fun­ded Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject to reduce impact of recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 – T3 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Amber NLHF pro­ject delivered redu­cing impact of recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance at key sites and great­er coordin­a­tion of man­age­ment. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from T1 to R1 with deploy­ment of solu­tions ongoing.
Cur­lew Actions: Assess upland breed­ing pro­ductiv­ity, mon­it­or nests, and cre­ate sens­it­iv­ity maps for cur­lew sites. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T1	Green Upland sur­veys and hot­spot map­ping under­taken to inform ongo­ing hab­it­at improve­ment. Exceeded tar­get, pro­gress­ing from D2 to T2.
Rap­tors (all spe­cies) Actions: Col­lab­or­a­tion on pop­u­la­tion mon­it­or­ing and pos­it­ive man­age­ment, wild­life crime enforce­ment and wild­life tour­ism oppor­tun­it­ies. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Amber Rap­tor Officer recruited. Work under­way to estab­lish baseline pop­u­la­tions, identi­fy unoc­cu­pied ter­rit­or­ies, under­take col­lab­or­at­ive map­ping and mon­it­or­ing and reduce illeg­al killing. All spe­cies of rap­tor remain at T2 as work ongoing.
Kentish Glory Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at and work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R1	Amber The Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms (RIC) Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all rel­ev­ant actions. Pro­gress made from T1 to T2 with work ongoing.
Dark bordered beauty Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at, cap­tive breed­ing and trans­lo­ca­tion pro­grammes, work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R1	Green The RIC Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all actions, achiev­ing sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress along the recov­ery curve from T1 to R1.

Pine hov­er­fly Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at, cap­tive breed­ing and trans­lo­ca­tion pro­grammes, work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: R1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R2	Amber The RIC Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all actions includ­ing a tri­al cap­tive breed­ing and release pro­gramme. The pro­gramme is still ongo­ing, so the cur­rent pos­i­tion on the recov­ery curve is T3 (solu­tion testing).
North­ern sil­ver stiletto fly Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at and work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R1	Amber The RIC Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all rel­ev­ant actions. Pro­gress made from D2 to D3 with work ongoing.
Shin­ing guest ant Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at and work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R2	Amber The RIC Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of rel­ev­ant all actions. Pro­gress made from D2 to D3 with work ongoing.
Sca­bi­ous min­ing bee Actions: Sur­vey­ing and map­ping hab­it­at and work­ing with land­man­agers and volun­teers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Amber The RIC Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all rel­ev­ant actions. Pro­gress made from D2 to T1 with work ongoing.
North­ern dam­sel­fly Actions: Sur­vey­ing new and his­tor­ic sites with volun­teer sup­port, and hab­it­at man­age­ment advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T2 – T3	Green Nation­al Park-wide sur­vey under­taken and hab­it­at man­age­ment and cre­ation ongo­ing at key sites. Pro­gressed from D2 to T3.
North­ern Feb­ru­ary red stone­fly Actions: Nation­al Park-wide sur­vey and aware­ness rais­ing aware­ness of spe­cies’ needs. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: D3	Green Nation­al Park-wide sur­vey under­taken and aware­ness rais­ing ongo­ing with land man­agers and plan­ning author­it­ies. Pro­gressed from D2 to D3.

Aspen hov­er­fly Actions: Sus­tain­able man­age­ment suit­able for pop­u­la­tion expan­sion and integ­rate with wider work for aspen wood­land. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Amber Sur­vey work under­taken, engage­ment with land own­ers and integ­rated into beaver mon­it­or­ing pro­gramme. Pro­gress made from T2 to R1 with work ongoing.
Wood ants Actions: Safe­guard exist­ing pop­u­la­tions, integ­rate with wider wood­land work and invest­ig­ate trans­lo­ca­tion oppor­tun­it­ies. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R2	Amber Data col­lec­tion and trans­lo­ca­tion feas­ib­il­ity work under­way. Pro­gress made from T1 to T3 with work ongoing.
Pine­wood mason bee Actions: Devel­op strategy for incor­por­at­ing spe­cies’ needs into forestry man­age­ment. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T2	Red (tar­get not achieved) Tar­geted sur­vey work under­taken to under­stand spe­cies dis­tri­bu­tion and status. No move­ment from D2 but work ongoing.
Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel Actions: Improve ripari­an man­age­ment, sur­vey suit­able hab­it­at and sup­port a rein­tro­duc­tion / trans­lo­ca­tion pro­ject. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: R1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R2	Amber Tar­geted hab­it­at improve­ment and extens­ive sur­vey work under­taken. Sur­vey data informed recov­ery plan includ­ing pop­u­la­tion rein­force­ment pro­ject. Pos­i­tion remains R1 with work ongoing.
Aspen Actions: Man­age and improve con­di­tions of key sites, improve con­nectiv­ity, cre­ate new aspen stands and devel­op a Deeside Aspen Man­age­ment Plan. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: R1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Green Sur­vey work and map­ping under­taken to identi­fy extent of aspen wood­land. Tar­geted man­age­ment at pri­or­ity sites ongo­ing. Aspen Officer in post to devel­op stra­tegic aspen net­work plan. Pro­gressed from R1 to R3.
Marsh saxi­frage Actions: Mon­it­or exist­ing pop­u­la­tions and provide advice and sup­port for land man­agers. No recov­ery curve tar­get. Mon­it­or­ing only.	Green The Cairngorms Wild Plants Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all actions. Cur­rent spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion T3.

Wax­caps Actions: Mon­it­or exist­ing pop­u­la­tions and provide advice and sup­port for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D3 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T2	Green The Cairngorms Wild Plants Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all rel­ev­ant actions. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from D3 to T2 with work ongoing.
One-flowered win­ter­green Actions: Mon­it­or exist­ing pop­u­la­tions, provide advice and sup­port for land man­agers, and identi­fy trans­lo­ca­tion sites in the Nation­al Park. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T1 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Green The Cairngorms Wild Plants Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all actions, includ­ing a suc­cess­ful trans­lo­ca­tion. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from T1 to T3 with work ongoing.
Twin­flower Actions: Mon­it­or exist­ing pop­u­la­tions, provide advice and sup­port for land man­agers, and identi­fy trans­lo­ca­tion sites in the Nation­al Park. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Green The Cairngorms Wild Plants Pro­ject enabled deliv­ery of all actions. Tar­get exceeded. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from T2 to R3.
Alpine blue sow thistle Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: T2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Green Pop­u­la­tions mon­itored and research con­duc­ted as required. Trans­lo­ca­tions and work with land man­agers ongo­ing. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from T2 to R3.
Oblong wood­sia Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Green Pop­u­la­tions mon­itored and research con­duc­ted as required. Trans­lo­ca­tions and work with land man­agers ongo­ing. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from D2 to T3.
Small cow wheat Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D3 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Green Pop­u­la­tions mon­itored and research con­duc­ted as required. Trans­lo­ca­tions and work with land man­agers ongo­ing. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from D3 to T3.

Wooly wil­low Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: R2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: R3	Amber Work begun to mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, trans­lo­ca­tions under­taken, and fur­ther recept­or sites iden­ti­fied. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from R2 to T3 with work ongoing.
Alect­or­ia ochro­leuca Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Red Work begun to mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions with fur­ther work needed. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion remains D2.
Her­telidea botrvosa Actions: Mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, research causes of decline, under­take trans­lo­ca­tions, and provide sup­port and advice for land man­agers. 2019 spe­cies recov­ery curve pos­i­tion: D2 Tar­get pos­i­tion: T3	Amber Work begun to mon­it­or pop­u­la­tions, dis­pers­al and identi­fy oppor­tun­it­ies for trans­lo­ca­tions. Recov­ery curve pos­i­tion pro­gressed from D2 to T2 with work ongoing.

Image of a golden eagle by Mark Hamblin

Image of twin­flower by Mark Hamblin

Rare plants accel­er­ated towards recovery

Recog­nised as an Import­ant Plant Area, the Cairngorms are glob­ally sig­ni­fic­ant for their wild plant pop­u­la­tions, but these cru­cial hab­it­ats and spe­cies are rap­idly dis­ap­pear­ing, put­ting the Cairngorms’ unique plant her­it­age at ser­i­ous risk.

In response, Plant­life launched the Cairngorms Rare Plants and Wild Con­nec­tions pro­ject in part­ner­ship with the Park Author­ity and NatureScot. With £360,000 secured from the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund, this ambi­tious pro­ject tar­geted three rare spe­cies with­in the Action Plan — wax­cap, one-flowered win­ter­green, and twin­flower along with spe­cies-rich grass­lands. Over the last 5 years, the pro­ject has sig­ni­fic­antly advanced the recov­ery of twin­flower and one- flowered win­ter­green, far exceed­ing ini­tial expect­a­tions and bol­ster­ing their resilience.

At the heart of the ini­ti­at­ive was empower­ing people to take action. By har­ness­ing the enthu­si­asm of volun­teers and cit­izen sci­ent­ists, Plant­life aimed to restore the rarest plant pop­u­la­tions across the Cairngorms and improve under­stand­ing and man­age­ment of vul­ner­able hab­it­ats. The pro­ject provided dir­ect con­ser­va­tion sup­port to landown­ers and com­munit­ies, help­ing restore wax­cap hab­it­ats and spe­cies-rich grass­lands, while also build­ing volun­teer capa­city for sur­vey work and fos­ter­ing deep­er com­munity engagement.

Numer­ous part­ners, includ­ing the Roy­al Botan­ic Gar­dens Edin­burgh and sig­ni­fic­ant landown­ers, con­trib­uted to the pro­ject. Volun­teers played a crit­ic­al role, gain­ing skills, shar­ing know­ledge, and bene­fit­ing from the exper­i­ence while con­trib­ut­ing to the over­all success.

Des­pite chal­lenges, includ­ing the pan­dem­ic, the pro­ject adap­ted flex­ibly, evolving from its ori­gin­al plans to remain effect­ive and fit-for- pur­pose. Key achieve­ments included the world’s first suc­cess­ful intro­duc­tion of one-flowered win­ter­green, ground-break­ing research on its fungal asso­ci­ations, and the cre­ation of ten new twin­flower pop­u­la­tions. Volun­teers also pion­eered innov­at­ive tech­niques to gath­er data from remote moun­tain hab­it­ats, lead­ing to the dis­cov­ery of a new fungal spe­cies and two new UK fungi records.

The pro­ject has left a last­ing leg­acy, improv­ing plant and fungi pop­u­la­tions, rais­ing aware­ness of the Cairngorms’ nat­ur­al her­it­age, and advan­cing the recov­ery of its most pre­cious spe­cies and habitats.

Image of grass­land plants by Louise Took

Image of a male beaver by Elli­ot McCandless

Lost spe­cies returned to their environment

Once a nat­ive spe­cies, beavers were hunted to extinc­tion in the UK over 400 years ago, but now, they are mak­ing a remark­able comeback. Their rein­tro­duc­tion to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant step in the ongo­ing efforts to restore bal­ance to the land­scape, provid­ing bene­fits to both nature and people.

Beavers are often referred to as ​“nature’s engin­eers” for their abil­ity to trans­form eco­sys­tems. By build­ing dams and cre­at­ing wet­lands, they improve water qual­ity, reduce flood­ing, and increase biod­iversity. Their activ­it­ies cre­ate hab­it­ats that sup­port a wide range of wild­life, includ­ing fish, birds and inver­teb­rates. In the Nation­al Park, the indus­tri­ous mam­mals are already play­ing a vital role in enhan­cing the health and resi­li­ence of river systems.

The beaver rein­tro­duc­tion pro­gramme in the Cairngorms is not just about con­ser­va­tion but also about inspir­ing and involving loc­al com­munit­ies. Land man­agers, farm­ers, and res­id­ents have been act­ively engaged in the pro­ject, ensur­ing that beaver rein­tro­duc­tion is car­ried out in a way that sup­ports sus­tain­able land use and addresses any con­cerns. This col­lab­or­at­ive and award-win­ning approach is cru­cial to ensur­ing that beavers become a pos­it­ive force in the land­scape, bene­fit­ting both the envir­on­ment and the people who live there.

As beavers settle into the Cairngorms, they are becom­ing a sym­bol of Scotland’s bold vis­ion for a wilder, more resi­li­ent future. Their pres­ence brings hope that, with the right care and stew­ard­ship, we can restore the bal­ance between human activ­ity and the nat­ur­al world, leav­ing a last­ing leg­acy for gen­er­a­tions to come.

Image of a beaver by Laurie Campbell

Involving people

Over the last 5 years, activ­it­ies delivered through the Action Plan have been 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.

High­lights achieved by the partnership

• 86 volun­teer rangers have been recruited and are work­ing across the Nation­al Park, enabling more res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to learn about and enjoy nature responsibly.
• Over 7,000 res­id­ents and vis­it­ors have been engaged in out­door, nature-related events, build­ing know­ledge, under­stand­ing and con­nec­tions with nature in the Nation­al Park.
• 7 com­munit­ies and nearly 400 res­id­ents and vis­it­ors have been shap­ing decision-mak­ing pro­cesses about land use in the Nation­al Park, to enable wider involve­ment in future.

Image of moths being recor­ded by Ed Smith

Achieve­ments against targets

Tar­get	Status
Oppor­tun­it­ies to get involved Over 50 volun­teer rangers work­ing in Cairngorms Nation­al Park.	Green 86 volun­teer rangers recruited.
Com­munity engage­ment 5 com­munit­ies fully engaged in land­scape val­ues pro­ject and land-use decision making	Green 7 com­munit­ies engaged as part of the Cairngorms 2030 devel­op­ment phase.
Com­munity engage­ment 20 land man­agers trained in com­munity engagement.	Amber Work super­seded by nation­al pro­gramme of activ­ity led by Scot­tish Land Commission.
Pub­lic engage­ment 15,000 people atten­ded out­door, nature- related events.	Amber 7,000 people atten­ded. Restric­ted due to Cov­id- 19 pandemic.

Image of a volun­teer at work by Will Hall

Image of a volun­teers mon­it­or­ing rap­tors by Char­lotte Milburn

Empowered over 7,000 people to play their part

The Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al 2023 was a vibrant, 10- day event in May that engaged a wide range of people and part­ners, sig­ni­fic­antly build­ing on its pre­vi­ous iter­a­tions. Involving 165 activ­it­ies across 86 dis­tinct events, the fest­iv­al cel­eb­rated the Nation­al Park’s unique nat­ur­al her­it­age, bring­ing people togeth­er through cul­ture, arts, and nature-based exper­i­ences. It suc­cess­fully engaged 62 part­ners, a 24% increase from 2022, show­cas­ing strong col­lab­or­a­tion across a broad spec­trum of part­ners, includ­ing con­ser­va­tion organ­isa­tions busi­nesses and com­munity groups.

A key fea­ture of the 2023 fest­iv­al was its broadened scope, designed to pre­vent clashes and enable wider attend­ance. Not­ably, it exten­ded across two week­ends and a reg­u­lar work­ing week. This allowed for a focus on pub­lic events dur­ing the week­ends, while mid-week activ­it­ies were dir­ec­ted towards his­tor­ic­ally excluded groups, schools, and visitors.

The fest­iv­al drew diverse audi­ences with a mix of fam­ily- friendly and adult events, 51% of which were free, mak­ing the fest­iv­al highly access­ible. There was a con­cer­ted effort to accom­mod­ate vari­ous needs, includ­ing provid­ing 31 wheel­chair-access­ible events.

The fest­iv­al hos­ted a suc­cess­ful art com­pet­i­tion, involving 15 schools and cul­min­at­ing in a Grand Prize­giv­ing Cere­mony atten­ded by over 110 people at Mar Lodge Ball­room. Oth­er key flag­ship events included volun­teer­ing activ­it­ies and a Moun­tain Bothy Film Fest­iv­al, which fur­ther boos­ted the festival’s profile.

The Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al 2023 was a sig­ni­fic­ant step toward achiev­ing its vis­ion of becom­ing a glob­ally recog­nised fest­iv­al, con­nect­ing people with the unique nature of the Cairngorms and fos­ter­ing a strong com­munity around con­ser­va­tion efforts in the Nation­al Park.

Image of volun­teer rangers work­ing by Becky Wilson

Reflec­tions

What have we learnt?

1. Adapt­ab­il­ity and pro­gress Most actions in the plan (79%) were com­pleted, with sev­er­al oth­ers near­ing com­ple­tion. In many cases, those nearly com­pleted actions still rep­res­ent sig­ni­fic­ant and hard-won pro­gress. For example, when new know­ledge sur­faced about some of our elu­sive rare spe­cies this made the agreed actions imprac­tic­al, but swift adapt­a­tion of the work still ensured con­tin­ued pro­gress along the recov­ery curve.

2. Align­ment and ambi­tion The suc­cess­ful achieve­ment of 75% of the land­scape-scale con­ser­va­tion tar­gets, many of which were sur­passed, indic­ates that there is poten­tial to be more ambi­tious in the next Action Plan. The next plan will be a key mech­an­ism for deliv­er­ing the new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy. Both strategies are aimed at tack­ling the twin crises of cli­mate change and biod­iversity loss and offer oppor­tun­it­ies to set appro­pri­ately chal­len­ging targets.

3. Spe­cies cohort approach The new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan aims to drive sys­tem­ic change. Group­ing spe­cies into cohorts in the next Action Plan, instead of con­tinu­ing to focus on indi­vidu­al tar­get spe­cies may bet­ter sup­port this aim. For example, com­bin­ing all farm­land spe­cies could facil­it­ate out­comes and big­ger ambi­tions like recov­er­ing spe­cies abund­ance and diversity with­in the farmed land­scape. Imple­ment­ing actions in the plan for indi­vidu­al tar­get spe­cies often relied on small teams of tech­nic­al staff where absences, for example due to ill­ness, dis­pro­por­tion­ately affected pro­gress. Group­ing spe­cies into cohorts could help mit­ig­ate these impacts.

Image of farm­land and moor­land by Dami­an Shields

1. Recov­ery met­rics Of the 27 tar­get spe­cies in the plan, 12 (44%) have made pro­gress along the recov­ery curve (Fig. 1). In com­par­is­on, England’s ​‘Back from the Brink’ joint spe­cies recov­ery pro­gramme tar­geted 112 spe­cies. By the end of the five-year pro­gramme in 2022, pro­gress along the recov­ery curve was repor­ted for 96 spe­cies (85%), with informed estim­ates sug­gest­ing that 33 more spe­cies will show fur­ther pro­gress in the next five years. The ​‘Back from the Brink’ pro­gramme brought togeth­er 100 organ­isa­tions, led by Nat­ur­al Eng­land and the sev­en NGOs that com­prise Rethink Nature. A key recom­mend­a­tion from the pro­gramme is to com­bine spe­cies recov­ery curves with appro­pri­ate out­come meas­ures to assess range-level recov­ery pro­gress and over­all suc­cess. The Cairngorms Nature Index offers an oppor­tun­ity to imple­ment this approach in future.

2. Meas­ur­ab­il­ity Assess­ing pro­gress against some tar­gets in the plan required large amounts of com­plex data, or com­plex ana­lys­is, whilst oth­ers were more for­giv­ing. As this presen­ted chal­lenges for some part­ners, there is an oppor­tun­ity in the next plan to ensure all tar­gets are meas­ur­able rel­at­ive to the resource available.

3. Pro­gress eval­u­ation Report­ing the extent to which each pri­or­ity spe­cies action has been achieved, rather than just not­ing a single point on the recov­ery curve, could be more effect­ive for a short-term plan, espe­cially for tar­get spe­cies with com­plex life cycles or sig­ni­fic­ant know­ledge gaps, but where pro­gress in 5 years is still pos­sible. Includ­ing a sup­port­ing nar­rat­ive and an assess­ment of con­fid­ence in the scor­ing — par­tic­u­larly when not based on quant­it­at­ive pop­u­la­tion data — would also be a valu­able addition.

4. Adapt­ive man­age­ment Des­pite deliv­er­ing sig­ni­fic­ant pos­it­ive con­ser­va­tion actions, some tar­gets in the plan were not met due to shift­ing baselines. For instance, the cur­rent caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion estim­ate is 52% lower than the estim­ate used to set the ori­gin­al tar­get. This high­lights the need for a more dynam­ic and adapt­ive approach in the next plan to incor­por­ate new know­ledge and inform­a­tion as it becomes available.

Image of Aber­nethy Forest by James Shooter

1. Empower­ing com­munit­ies The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject, delivered as part of the plan, has demon­strated that enga­ging and empower­ing a large and diverse part­ner­ship of groups and indi­vidu­als not nor­mally engaged with con­ser­va­tion per se is a power­ful way and more sus­tain­able approach to con­ser­va­tion than reli­ance on land man­agers, char­it­ies and pub­lic agen­cies. An oppor­tun­ity exists to explore ways in which more com­munit­ies could be empowered to deliv­er actions in the next plan.

2. Part­ner­ship work­ing The suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of actions in the plan hinged on effect­ive col­lab­or­a­tion with a wide range of part­ners. Eval­u­at­ing this part­ner­ship work­ing — what went well and what could be improved — would help inform the devel­op­ment of the next plan.

Image of pro­ject staff work­ing in the field by RZSS

RZSS

CON­SER­VA­TION