241122Paper5ActiveCairngorms

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 5 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 4

For inform­a­tion Title: Act­ive Cairngorms and end of sea­son vis­it­or report Pre­pared by: Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel, Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Man­ager and Lucy Ford, Ranger Manager

Stra­tegic context

1. The Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan is one of a series of plans that sit below the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and describe in more detail spe­cif­ic activ­it­ies that will be under­taken by the Park Author­ity to sup­port the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives. In par­tic­u­lar this is the plan that describes the main activ­it­ies that will be under­taken by the Park Author­ity to achieve the fol­low­ing Park Plan object­ives: a) Nature i. A7: Fire Man­age­ment ii. A13: Spe­cies Recov­ery b) People i. B9. Men­tal and phys­ic­al health ii. B10. A Park for All iii. B11. Volun­teer­ing and out­door learn­ing c) Place i. C5. Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park ii. C7. Trans­port to and around the Park iii. C8. Access­ible path and cycle net­work iv. C9. High-qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence V. C10. Cul­tur­al Heritage

Pur­pose

1. The Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan com­ple­ments the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism and Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plans, which col­lect­ively describe the Park Author­ity and part­ners work in rela­tion to the tour­ism industry and the man­age­ment of vis­it­or impacts on the Park. This report is inten­ded to give Board mem­bers over­sight of pro­gress towards the plan’s object­ives while also provid­ing an over­view of vis­it­or related activ­ity over the pre­ced­ing sum­mer season.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 5 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 2 of 4

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Board is asked to: a) Note the pro­gress towards deliv­ery of the object­ives con­tained with­in the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan b) Note the report on the vis­it­or focussed activ­it­ies of the Park Author­ity and part­ner ranger ser­vices dur­ing the 2024 sum­mer season

Stake­hold­er engagement

1. A num­ber of the actions with­in the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan are delivered in part­ner­ship with loc­al stake­hold­ers. In recog­ni­tion of the Park Authority’s stat­utory role as access author­ity, a num­ber of actions which relate to out­door access are con­sidered by the Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um pri­or to and dur­ing imple­ment­a­tion. In addi­tion, a num­ber of the actions that relate to vis­it­or impacts and the man­age­ment of vis­it­ors are con­sidered by the Park Author­ity led ​“Man­aging for Vis­it­ors” group. This group meets fort­nightly through the main sea­son and monthly in winter and includes a range of stake­hold­ers from the land man­age­ment, Non- Gov­ern­ment­al Organ­isa­tion (NGO) and pub­lic sectors.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. The activ­ity described in this report assists in mit­ig­at­ing stra­tegic risk no. 11 – ​“Unreal­ist­ic expect­a­tions of what the Park Author­ity and its part­ners can achieve in the face of the sig­ni­fic­ant risks…”.

Implic­a­tions

1. There are no stra­tegic resource implic­a­tions arising from this report as it describes past activ­ity. How­ever, the con­tinu­ation of those activ­it­ies and deliv­ery of many of the tar­gets in the lifespan of the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan (2024−2028) does have resource implic­a­tions. These are con­sidered as part of the annu­al budget set­ting process.

Suc­cess measures

1. This report and the accom­pa­ny­ing appen­dices provide Board mem­bers with details on pro­gress towards deliv­er­ing the activ­it­ies in the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 5 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 3 of 4

Back­ground

1. The Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan 2023 — 2028 was approved by the Board in Novem­ber 2023. The Plan aims to make it easi­er and safer for people to enjoy the Nation­al Park, be more phys­ic­ally act­ive, learn about, care for and appre­ci­ate the Nation­al Park and includes actions related to both res­id­ents and visitors.

Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan Progress

1. Annex 1 provides an update on pro­gress towards each of the object­ives included with­in the plan. Fol­low­ing the struc­ture of the plan itself, these updates are sep­ar­ated into sec­tions reflect­ing the sev­en pri­or­ity areas for action: a) Man­aging for vis­it­ors b) Min­im­ising impacts on sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats c) Ranger ser­vices d) Pub­lic health in the out­doors e) Volun­teer Cairngorms f) Youth and out­door learn­ing g) Paths, trails and out­door access duties

End of sea­son vis­it­or report

1. Reflect­ing changes in vis­it­or pat­terns and in a change from pre­vi­ous sim­il­ar plans, Act­ive Cairngorms also saw the intro­duc­tion of a series of actions around influ­en­cing vis­it­or beha­viour such as fur­ther devel­op­ment of ranger ser­vices and actions to reduce the risk of dis­turb­ance of sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats. These form the first three pri­or­it­ies of the in the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan and so stand­ard pro­gress report­ing is covered in Annex 1. How­ever, through the Park Author­ity ranger ser­vice and part­ner ranger ser­vices that make up a wider ​“fam­ily of ranger ser­vices”, much rich­er data is col­lec­ted on the engage­ment activ­ity they under­take and a sum­mary of this is also included to give Board mem­bers a more detailed pic­ture of this area of activity.

Park Author­ity Ranger Patrols

1. The Park Author­ity cur­rently employ five per­man­ent rangers (three based in Badenoch and Strath­spey and two based in Deeside) but for the sum­mer 2024 sea­son employed a fur­ther 11 sea­son­al rangers mainly from April to the end of Octo­ber and four train­ee rangers from June to Septem­ber. These included rangers based loc­ally who covered the Angus Glens area while Badenoch and Strathspey

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Form­al Board Paper 5 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 4 of 4

based rangers also patrolled in Moray and Perth and Kinross ensur­ing all areas of the Park were covered. 1398 patrols were under­taken by the Park Author­ity rangers in 2024 an increase of 13% over 2023.

Part­ner Ranger Services

1. In addi­tion to the dir­ect employ­ment of rangers, the Park Author­ity also sup­port 14 ranger ser­vices with activ­it­ies such as train­ing to assist in the con­sist­ency of ranger pro­vi­sion and mes­saging. Six part­ners who oper­ate in some of the most highly pres­sured areas of the Park also receive fin­an­cial sup­port towards their ranger ser­vices – Atholl Estate, Rothiemurchus Estate, Roy­al Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds (RSPB) Aber­nethy, Bal­mor­al Estate, Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust and Angus Alive (Glen Doll). Across the full fam­ily of ranger ser­vices around 50 rangers were employed dur­ing sum­mer 2024 although num­bers at any one-time var­ied due dif­fer­ing recruit­ment and employ­ment patterns.

2. Those part­ner ranger ser­vices, as well as the Park Authority’s own rangers gath­er patrol data using a nation­ally agreed frame­work that assists in quan­ti­fy­ing the level of resource being inves­ted as well as identi­fy­ing any vis­it­or beha­viour issues and any emer­ging trends. Sum­mar­ies of patrol data from both the Park Author­ity ranger patrols and part­ner ranger ser­vice patrols are giv­en in Annex 2.

Colin Simpson, 06 Novem­ber Adam Streeter-Smith 06 Novem­ber Lucy Ford 06 Novem­ber colinsimpson@​cairngorms.​co.​uk adamstreetersmith@​cairngorms.​co.​uk lucyford@​cairngorms.​co.​uk