Biodiversity Duty Report 2018-2020

THE BIOD­IVERSITY DUTY REPORT: LEVEL ONE ORGAN­ISA­TIONS SEC­TION 1: INTRO­DUCT­ORY INFORM­A­TION ABOUT YOUR PUB­LIC BODY

Please describe your organisation’s role and pur­pose, includ­ing any par­tic­u­lar envir­on­ment­al responsibilities

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park has 4 stat­utory aims as set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000:

• Con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area
• Pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area
• Pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public
• Pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities

The pur­pose of a Nation­al Park Author­ity is also set out by the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment as being to ensure the four aims are col­lect­ively achieved in a coordin­ated way. If there is a con­flict between the first aim and the oth­er aims, the Author­ity must give great­er weight to that aim. The CNPA has a key role in lead­ing the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The Plan sets the con­text for close cooper­a­tion and part­ner­ship across pub­lic, private and vol­un­tary organ­isa­tions in the Park.

19 Mem­bers make up the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) Board: 7 mem­bers appoin­ted by Scot­tish Min­is­ters, 5 mem­bers are elec­ted loc­ally and 7 mem­bers are nom­in­ated by the 5 coun­cils in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park: High­land (2), Aber­deen­shire (2), Moray (1), Angus (1), Perth & Kinross (1). The Board Stand­ing Orders set out the pro­ced­ures which apply to meet­ings of the Board and its committees.

The Park Author­ity does not own or man­age any of the land in the Nation­al Park. CNPA has two stat­utory func­tions – plan­ning and devel­op­ment and out­door access – and is respons­ible for devel­op­ing and pro­du­cing a Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, Core Paths Plan and Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. A Man­age­ment State­ment and Fin­an­cial Memor­andum has been issued to the Park Author­ity to enable it to dis­charge its functions.

CNPA leads the devel­op­ment of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and co-ordin­ates its deliv­ery and mon­it­or­ing, provid­ing the frame­work for part­ners to co-ordin­ate effort on the big issues. The Part­ner­ship Plan provides stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for key strategies and plans which sup­port its deliv­ery and are developed through close part­ner­ship work­ing with dif­fer­ent sec­tors. The Part­ner­ship Pan focusses on three long term out­comes of Con­ser­va­tion, Vis­it­or Exper­i­ence and Rur­al Development.

Of most rel­ev­ance to deliv­ery of the Biod­iversity Duty are the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, which sets out the con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies; Act­ive Cairngorms, the out­door access strategy, the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, which sets out the policies for land use plan­ning with­in the Nation­al Park; and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy, which provides future dir­ec­tion on the man­age­ment and expan­sion of wood­lands in the Park.

SEC­TION 2: ACTIONS TO PRO­TECT BIOD­IVERSITY AND CON­NECT PEOPLE WITH NATURE

Please describe and explain any actions that your organ­isa­tion has under­taken alone or as part of a part­ner­ship to bene­fit biod­iversity dir­ectly, to tackle the main drivers of biod­iversity loss, or to achieve wider out­comes for nature and people

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is one of the best places in the coun­try for nature. This is where we find some of Scotland’s wild­est land, arc­tic- like moun­tain plat­eaux and Scotland’s most extens­ive semi-nat­ur­al pine forest, home to 80% of our caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion. Half of the Park is des­ig­nated as being of European import­ance for nature through the Natura net­work and over a quarter of the UK’s rare and threatened spe­cies are found here.

The Con­ser­va­tion out­come in the Part­ner­ship Plan sets out the key con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies which will guide the work of part­ners over the Plan peri­od. The Agenda for Action and part­ners’ work under the three pri­or­it­ies of sup­port­ing land­scape-scale col­lab­or­a­tion, deer man­age­ment and moor­land man­age­ment will help to meet the con­ser­va­tion chal­lenges and deliv­er the rel­ev­ant nation­al strategies and pub­lic interest land use priorities.

The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan fur­ther details the pri­or­it­ies over the next five years and provides a focus for the work of the Cairngorms Nature Part­ner­ship. The Action Plan describes actions and com­mit­ments to wood­land expan­sion, peat­land res­tor­a­tion, river re-nat­ur­al­isa­tion, nature friendly farm­ing, spe­cies con­ser­va­tion and involving and enga­ging people in nature. CNPA co-ordin­ates the work of the Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship, over­see­ing the deliv­ery of the Action Plan. A final report of the Action Plan 2013 – 2018 high­lights some of the partnership’s achievements.

Dur­ing 2020, Cairngorms Nature part­ners have delivered more than £100,000 of hab­it­at improve­ment and spe­cies con­ser­va­tion via the Biod­iversity Chal­lenge Fund and 2,800ha of wood­land expan­sion. Dur­ing the peri­od from the begin­ning of 2018 to the end of 2020 we delivered 1,383 hec­tares of peat­land res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment sup­por­ted by fund­ing from Peat­land Action. Deliv­ery of peat­land res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment was sig­ni­fic­antly impacted by Cov­id-19 restric­tions and the lack of suit­able contractors.

In 2020, CNPA launched a Cairngorms Green Recov­ery Fund to help com­munit­ies and loc­al busi­nesses by sup­port­ing pro­jects to cre­ate eco­nom­ic growth, jobs, pro­tect nature and address cli­mate change. The fund is made up of £100,000 from the CNPA and a fur­ther £30,000 from the Cairngorms Trust and has four guid­ing principles:

1. To sup­port pro­jects that are focused on green solutions.
2. To sup­port the well-being and eco­nom­ic growth of communities.
3. To sup­port employment.
4. To sup­port the long term aims of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan iden­ti­fies the most suit­able sites needed for future devel­op­ment and incor­por­ates guid­ance on any mit­ig­a­tion required for biod­iversity related to those alloc­a­tions. The Plan also con­tains com­pre­hens­ive policies on pro­tec­tion of Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and biod­iversity of inter­na­tion­al to loc­al significance.

• Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age is divided into six sec­tions cov­er­ing all pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats as well as those with­in the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. It requires developers to under­take com­pre­hens­ive assess­ments of nat­ur­al her­it­age interests on all devel­op­ment sites. The policy also includes a pre­sump­tion against remov­al of ancient woodland.
• Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design includes a require­ment for a design state­ment which demon­strates how oppor­tun­it­ies to fur­ther biod­iversity and pro­mote eco­lo­gic­al interest will be achieved.
• Policy 10: Resources expli­citly pro­tects the water envir­on­ment and car­bon sinks and stores includ­ing soils and peat.

The Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy, led ini­tially by Cairngorms LEAD­ER and most recently by the Cairngorms Trust, aims to pro­mote com­munity led loc­al devel­op­ment to sup­port a sus­tain­able rur­al eco­nomy in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. It is designed to tackle some of the chal­lenges faced by people liv­ing, work­ing or vis­it­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Strategy links dir­ectly with the Com­munity Action Plans, Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment strategies. It is about sup­port­ing com­munit­ies in plan­ning for their future needs, tack­ling issues and chal­lenges they face – includ­ing cli­mate emer­gency and biod­iversity crisis — as well as deal­ing with the respons­ib­il­ity it brings.

The object­ive to devel­op thriv­ing and sus­tain­able rur­al com­munit­ies with a strong and resi­li­ent com­munity base, sup­por­ted by a diver­si­fied and com­pet­it­ive loc­al eco­nomy draw­ing on the Cairngorms unique nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al assets is split into six stra­tegic themes. Theme 5, to ​‘Pro­tect and enhance land­scape and her­it­age’, focuses on increas­ing involve­ment of loc­al com­munit­ies in pro­tec­tion and enhance­ment of nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al assets. This includes land, wild­life, hab­it­ats, tra­di­tions, build­ings, crafts, cul­ture and reduc­tion and mit­ig­a­tion of the impact of cli­mate change.

SEC­TION 3: MAIN­STREAM­ING BIODIVERSITY

Please out­line any steps your organ­isa­tion has taken to incor­por­ate biod­iversity meas­ures into its wider policies, plans or strategies. This should include decision-mak­ing struc­tures and staff and organ­isa­tion­al roles and responsibilities.

Plan­ning with­in the CNP is delivered through the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This includes spe­cif­ic polices on pro­tec­tion of Nat­ur­al her­it­age (Policy 4) and sus­tain­able design (policy3) which requires eco­lo­gic­al interests to be included with­in applications.

The Eco­nom­ic Action Plan for the Nation­al Park states ​“The Nation­al Park’s out­stand­ing nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age attracts around 1.9 mil­lion vis­it­ors each year, under­pin­ning many jobs. There is increas­ing interest in Scot­land in the concept of ​‘nat­ur­al cap­it­al’ which describes the stocks of nat­ur­al assets on which our lives depend and which aims to high­light the con­nec­tions between nat­ur­al resources and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. If ever there was a place where these con­nec­tions are both obvi­ous and import­ant then it must be in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park…. …The need to tackle cli­mate change and biod­iversity loss will have implic­a­tions for the Nation­al Park and spe­cific­ally land use, man­aging increased flood risk, hous­ing, trans­port and tour­ism. We need to ensure that growth in the Park eco­nomy is sus­tain­able and helps to meet the tar­get of net zero emis­sions and the biod­iversity tar­gets. The col­la­tion of evid­ence to influ­ence the next Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan will take place in 2020 but, giv­en the urgency of cli­mate risks, some sig­ni­fic­ant actions require to be taken now. ” The Cairngorms Trust acts as the Loc­al Action Group (LAG) for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. This includes the decision mak­ing on the use of European Uni­on LEAD­ER funds alloc­ated to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park LAG. The Trust aims to inspire com­munit­ies and vis­it­ors to sup­port the land­scapes, wild­life, loc­al cul­ture and eco­nom­ic health and to encour­age sus­tain­able and com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Trust sup­ports pro­jects which main­tain and enhance the land­scapes, wild­life, hab­it­at, loc­al cul­ture and the access with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Trust admin­is­ters the Green Recov­ery Fund which has to date sup­por­ted 13 pro­jects in the Park focussed on green solu­tions, access to nature and com­munity empowerment.

The CNPA green­ing com­mit­tee drawn from mem­bers of staff and man­age­ment. This group over­sees the office activ­ity and facil­it­ies and recom­mends improve­ments to way the author­ity work. The Green­ing Policy includes meas­ures for enhanced biod­iversity. The have included — green roof on the new build­ing, bird boxes around the site as well as bat boxes incor­por­ated into the build­ing. The front of the build­ing has recently been planted with an insect friendly herb­aceous plant­ing to encour­age nat­ive spe­cies and pollinators.

SEC­TION 4: NATURE-BASED SOLU­TIONS, CLI­MATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY

How has your organ­isa­tion integ­rated biod­iversity into nature based solu­tions to the cli­mate emer­gency and oth­er socio- eco­nom­ic outcomes?

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park rep­res­ents 6% of Scotland’s land­mass and is well placed to help tackle the cli­mate emer­gency chal­lenges through nature-based solutions.

A board paper ​‘Net Zero with Nature’ out­lines where the Nation­al Park should focus its efforts to lead the way to a low car­bon future that sup­ports a nature-rich Park, bene­fit­ting resi­li­ent loc­al com­munit­ies. The CNPA has star­ted to set out an ambi­tious vis­ion and pro­gramme of action to tackle cli­mate change which is set to be at the core of the next Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

In March 2020, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) hos­ted the ​‘Net Zero with Nature’ con­fer­ence to address the cli­mate crisis and what needs to hap­pen in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to tackle the issues.

The Cairngorms are ideally placed to cap­it­al­ize on the country’s require­ment for nature-based solu­tions such as peat­land res­tor­a­tion, nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment and wood­land cre­ation work­ing on a land­scape scale.

Two reports detail­ing research on how cli­mate change affects snow cov­er in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park have been pub­lished and are avail­able to down­load — Snow Cov­er and Cli­mate Change on Cairngorm Mountain

There are 18,000 res­id­ents in the Nation­al Park and 2 mil­lion people vis­it each year. The CNPA has inves­ted con­sid­er­ably in devel­op­ing Act­ive Travel to sup­port walk­ing and cyc­ling with­in and between com­munit­ies. Encour­aging people to use green modes of trans­port will reduce CO2 emis­sions while also improv­ing our health and well­being and mak­ing our com­munit­ies more sustainable.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) has always strived to be as ​‘green’ as pos­sible has mon­itored its car­bon foot­print since ²⁰⁰⁷⁄₀₈. In a dec­ade, the organ­isa­tion has man­aged to reduce its car­bon emis­sions by 40% from 150 tCO2e to 90 tCO2e in ²⁰¹⁷⁄₁₈. This has been achieved by a reduc­tion in vehicle use and switch­ing to more envir­on­ment­ally friendly pool cars, a reduc­tion in elec­tri­city usage, cut­ting down on paper use, the install­a­tion of a bio­mass boil­er, buy­ing only eco-friendly clean­ing products and mak­ing recyc­ling easi­er around the office. View the CNPA’s Green­ing Policy & emis­sions report

What steps has your organ­isa­tion taken to incor­por­ate biod­iversity out­comes into part­ner­ship ini­ti­at­ives, wider strategies or ini­ti­at­ives of rel­ev­ance to cli­mate change?

CNPA work with part­ners, busi­ness, land-own­ers, and com­munit­ies to devel­op long term plans for the Park. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is the over­arch­ing man­age­ment plan which sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Park will coordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues. It focuses on three long-term outcomes:

• Con­ser­va­tion
• Vis­it­or Experience
• Rur­al Development

CNPA’s mis­sion is to lead the way in deliv­er­ing for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park by bring­ing people togeth­er toward a com­mon pur­pose; enhan­cing the Park for every­one and inspir­ing new gen­er­a­tions to be Park cham­pi­ons. Designed to be an enabling organ­isa­tion, pro­mot­ing part­ner­ship work­ing and giv­ing lead­er­ship to all those involved in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, the Park Author­ity does not duplic­ate the work of oth­er organ­isa­tions, such as the enter­prise agen­cies or NatureScot. It ensures there’s a joined-up approach to pro­jects and ini­ti­at­ives that help to meet the four aims of the Park. Our Com­mu­nic­a­tions & Engage­ment Strategy sets out how we will achieve this.

CNPA leads the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group as a group­ing of pro­fes­sion­als from a range of organ­isa­tions with an act­ive role in the deliv­ery of biod­iversity gain in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Strategy Group comes togeth­er to provide guid­ance to, and col­lect­ively over­see the imple­ment­a­tion of, the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan and wider Cairngorms Nature part­ner­ship. The object­ives and func­tions of the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group are:

• To provide stra­tegic lead­er­ship of Cairngorms Nature to make a meas­ur­able dif­fer­ence to biod­iversity in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park
• To inspire and provide sup­port to indi­vidu­al and com­munity involve­ment in loc­al con­ser­va­tion projects
• To co-ordin­ate and main­tain an over­view of pro­gress in biod­iversity man­age­ment across the whole Park.

In 2018 CNPA estab­lished the Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group (CUAG) which draws its mem­ber­ship from organ­isa­tions and groups which have an interest in upland man­age­ment issues in and around the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Its main func­tions are:

1. To pro­mote bet­ter com­mu­nic­a­tion and under­stand­ing between all organ­isa­tions with an interest in upland man­age­ment in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.
2. To advise the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity on upland man­age­ment and, in par­tic­u­lar, integ­ra­tion of the dif­fer­ent land man­age­ment sec­tors with­in the Park
3. To share examples of good prac­tice and strengthen the skills base in the sector
4. To share latest research, rel­ev­ant to upland man­age­ment in the Cairngorms to inform future land-use strategy

CNPA plays an act­ive role in sup­port­ing and co-ordin­at­ing the work of many region­al land use part­ner­ships and ini­ti­at­ives, encour­aging Park- wide col­lab­or­a­tion and col­lect­ive work­ing at a land­scape-scale towards the joint out­comes of meet­ing the twin chal­lenges of biod­iversity loss

and cli­mate emer­gency. These include Deer Man­age­ment Groups, Catch­ment Man­age­ment Part­ner­ships, Loc­al Biod­iversity Action Plans and the CNPA-led East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship look­ing to deliv­er moor­land man­age­ment that meets both the pub­lic and private interest.

The Park’s rich biod­iversity and fant­ast­ic nat­ur­al assets under­pin a strong vis­it­or offer­ing. CNPA plays a lead­ing role in deliv­er­ing the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan work­ing with the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship, which brings togeth­er tour­ism busi­nesses and organ­isa­tions with key pub­lic sec­tor part­ners. The Cairngorms is the first Nation­al Park in the UK to be awar­ded the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas, based on 5 Prin­ciples that gov­ern how tour­ism is developed and managed:

1. Giv­ing pri­or­ity to protection
2. Con­trib­ut­ing to sus­tain­able development
3. Enga­ging all stakeholders
4. Plan­ning sus­tain­able tour­ism effectively
5. Purs­ing con­tinu­ous improvement

Look­ing ahead, what do you think will be the main cli­mate change related chal­lenges for biod­iversity over the next three years?

Cli­mate change related chal­lenges for biod­iversity in the Cairngorms:

• Changes to hab­it­at cov­er and com­pos­i­tion and spe­cies diversity, dis­tri­bu­tion and abundance;
• Increas­ing eco­sys­tem resi­li­ence: improv­ing eco­lo­gic­al net­works to cre­ate oppor­tun­it­ies for spe­cies to dis­perse, increas­ing spe­cies and struc­tur­al diversity
• Main­stream­ing and incentiv­ising land man­age­ment for nat­ur­al pro­cesses and eco­sys­tem functionality
• Tak­ing an adapt­ive approach to land and con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment, encour­aging and sup­port­ing chan­ging object­ives and man­age­ment meas­ures in response to new information.

Tar­gets and Key Per­form­ance Indic­at­ors in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan include hec­tares of new wood­land, hec­tares of peat­land restored, des­ig­nated site con­di­tion, deer dens­it­ies, caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion estim­ates and num­bers of wild­life crime incid­ents in the Park.

Tar­gets in the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan also include wood­land expan­sion and enhance­ment, peat­land res­tor­a­tion, fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion, ripari­an plant­ing and spe­cies’ recovery.

CNPA is cur­rently devel­op­ing the Cairngorms Nature Index, a baseline assess­ment of eco­sys­tem func­tion­al­ity, hab­it­at cov­er and con­di­tion and pri­or­ity and/​or indic­at­or spe­cies dis­tri­bu­tion and abundance

SEC­TION 5: PUB­LIC ENGAGE­MENT AND WORK­FORCE DEVELOPMENT

Pub­lic Engagement

The Park Author­ity under­takes many meth­ods to engage the wider pub­lic and com­munit­ies in biod­iversity and the envir­on­ment. These include

• Cairngorms Nature BIG week­end — an annu­al three day event provid­ing inform­a­tion and activ­it­ies across the nation­al park. In 2019 there were more than 100 event over the week­end and more than 2,500 people par­ti­cip­ated. In 2020 this was on line and reached an audi­ence of more than 3,500 though our on line events, talk and activities.
• Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject — this is a large pro­ject work­ing with com­munit­ies close to caper­cail­lie wood­lands. It seeks to empower com­munit­ies to engage with the con­ser­va­tion of the spe­cies whilst ensur­ing that recre­ation in the wood­land does not effect the birds.
• Volun­teer Cairngorms — a pro­gramme to sup­port and devel­op envir­on­ment­al volun­teer­ing in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park through coordin­at­ing envir­on­ment­al and com­munity volun­teer­ing oppor­tun­it­ies and dir­ectly man­aging 30 volun­teer rangers who give sev­er­al week­ends each year to under­take engage­ment work. Volun­teers have been selec­ted and trained to per­form a vari­ety of task and in turn sup­port efforts of com­munit­ies to pro­tect nature.
• Cairngorms Photo-posts — is a long term cit­izen sci­ence pro­ject mainly to show the effect of land­scape change and engage people in land­scape monitoring
• CNPA sup­ports the 16 Health Walk Groups act­ive in the Park
• CNPA employs a Con­ser­va­tion Engage­ment Officer to dir­ectly sup­port sev­er­al com­munity groups around the CNP to pro­act­ively con­serve nature through hab­it­at improve­ments. This officer also coordin­ates a range of social media posts and news let­ters high­light­ing the biod­iversity with­in the Nation­al Park.
• Con­ser­va­tion with volun­teers is also achieved through the sup­port of the CNPA to a num­ber of sci­ence pro­jects includ­ing Cairngorms Wild Plant and the Rare Inver­teb­rates of the Cairngorms. Both pro­ject recruit volun­teers to help with the record­ing and con­ser­va­tion of par­tic­u­lar species.

Work­force skills and training

CNPA sup­ports the devel­op­ment of staff in skills rel­ev­ant to biod­iversity in sev­er­al ways:

Pro­fes­sion­al con­ser­va­tion staff are encour­aged to under­take addi­tion­al train­ing on spe­cif­ic skills for their roles. They are encour­aged to join pro­fes­sion­al organ­isa­tions such as CIEEM and fol­low the CPD require­ments. The staff are also encour­aged to par­ti­cip­ate in con­fer­ences and workshops.

All CNPA staff are giv­en the oppor­tun­ity to engage in con­ser­va­tion work on volun­teers days.

Identi­fy any oppor­tun­it­ies that are avail­able to your staff to take part in prac­tic­al actions

Staff volun­teer­ing days — each mem­ber of staff may under­take two days per annum in core time to assist in com­munity and con­ser­va­tion events. In the past this has included work­ing with­in loc­al wood­land, path main­ten­ance and lit­ter picking.

Bio­lo­gic­al record­ing — staff are encour­aged to under­take this activ­ity and are giv­en guid­ance from con­ser­va­tion staff. This includes large scale sur­vey of wild­life such as the Strath­spey Wet­lands and Waders Ini­ti­at­ive record­ing of farm­land waders run by the RSPB and CNPA.

SEC­TION 6: RESEARCH AND MONITORING

Describe any research activ­it­ies that your organ­isa­tion has under­taken to help devel­op under­stand­ing and aware­ness of biodiversity

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Research Strategy aims to con­nect research and man­age­ment in the Park. It sets out research pri­or­it­ies and encour­ages col­lab­or­a­tion across research dis­cip­lines that will help inform man­age­ment chal­lenges in the Park. Research pri­or­it­ies include invest­ig­at­ing how des­ig­nated hab­it­ats and spe­cies can be main­tained and enhanced in a chan­ging con­text of cli­mate, devel­op­ment, recre­ation and land use; and determ­in­ing what is the nat­ur­al cap­it­al of the Nation­al Park and the implic­a­tions of man­age­ment choices on eco­sys­tem ser­vice delivery.

Cur­rent, spe­cif­ic pieces of biod­iversity related research and mon­it­or­ing, to sup­port deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, include genet­ic ana­lys­is of caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tions, sur­veys of aspen wood­lands, wood ants and spe­cies rich grass­land, mon­it­or­ing of wader pro­ductiv­ity, col­lab­or­a­tion with rap­tor study groups, deer dens­it­ies and hab­it­at impact assess­ments, map­ping of ancient wood­land rem­nants and wader hot­spot mod­el­ling CNPA is cur­rently work­ing with the Nor­we­gi­an Insti­tute for Nature Research to devel­op a Cairngorms Nature Index, based on the Nor­way Nature Index, as a baseline and frame­work for future ana­lys­is of the state of the Park’s biod­iversity, nat­ur­al cap­it­al and eco­sys­tem functionality.

What fol­low-up actions or mon­it­or­ing have you under­taken to assess the impacts of the actions you have taken? How have you meas­ured this? If you do not carry out any mon­it­or­ing activ­it­ies, please explain why.

Cairngorms Nature is the prin­cip­al deliv­ery mech­an­ism for deliv­er­ing the Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy and the Six Big Steps for Nature in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Biod­iversity Deliv­ery Agree­ment (PDF – 161KB), out­lines the role that CNPA plays as a focus for col­lab­or­a­tion, shar­ing effort and resources on a num­ber of key, pri­or­ity areas.

• Land­scape-scale con­ser­va­tion, includ­ing the expan­sion of wood­land and the res­tor­a­tion of peat­lands and wetlands
• Focused action to improve the status of threatened or declin­ing species
• Involving people

Mon­it­or­ing and deliv­ery of the cur­rent Action Plan (2019 — 2024) is over­seen by the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group. An inter­act­ive report describes the actions taken, impacts and tar­gets achieved over the life of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2013 – 2018.

Does your mon­it­or­ing show any sig­ni­fic­ant trends or high­light any areas of concern?

CNPA is not dir­ectly respons­ible for mon­it­or­ing and works closely with NatureScot, Scot­tish Forestry and SEPA to mon­it­or des­ig­nated site con­di­tion and water qual­ity issues. The Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group reviews deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, which includes pro­gress along the Spe­cies Recov­ery Curve for pri­or­ity spe­cies, informed by input from mul­tiple part­ners and SEWeb data.

Have you added any data col­lec­ted to the Nation­al Biod­iversity Net­work or your Loc­al Records Centre?

CNPA dir­ectly sup­ports the work of North East Scot­land Bio­lo­gic­al Records Centre to col­lect and col­late bio­lo­gic­al records for the whole of the Nation­al Park. Pro­jects in the Nation­al Park are all encour­aged to sub­mit records to the NBN and where CNPA is a fun­der, this is a con­di­tion of fund­ing. CNPA is a mem­ber of Scot­tish Biod­iversity Inform­a­tion For­um and sup­ports the pro­pos­als for the nation­al co-ordin­a­tion of bio­lo­gic­al records

SEC­TION 7: BIOD­IVERSITY HIGH­LIGHTS AND CHALLENGES

Describe your organisation’s main achieve­ments for biod­iversity over the report­ing peri­od and what you are most proud of (this can include pro­cesses, plans, pro­jects, part­ner­ships, events and actions).

Deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan 2012 – 2018 and achieve­ment of tar­gets for wood­land expan­sion, peat­land res­tor­a­tion, river re- nat­ur­al­isa­tion and spe­cies con­ser­va­tion are detailed in the final report. Over the last two rounds of Scot­tish Government’s Biod­iversity Chal­lenge Fund, Cairngorms Nature part­ners have attrac­ted approx­im­ately £200,000 of con­ser­va­tion fund­ing tar­geted at deliv­er­ing the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. These include river res­tor­a­tion and ripari­an plant­ing, wet grass­land man­age­ment for waders, pine hov­er­fly cap­tive breed­ing and rein­tro­duc­tion, hab­it­at cre­ation for rare inver­teb­rates, aspen plant­ing and pro­tec­tion from graz­ing, and fresh water pearl mus­sel trans­lo­ca­tion In 2020 CNPA was suc­cess­ful in draw­ing down £2.9 mil­lion of fund­ing for caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion. The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject is a multi-part­ner, Nation­al Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund pro­ject to involve a wider range of people in in sav­ing a genu­inely icon­ic spe­cies from extinc­tion in Scot­land. The £3.6 mil­lion NLHF fun­ded Tomin­toul & Glen­liv­et Land­scape Part­ner­ship comes to end in 2020, bene­fits for biod­iversity include:

• the cre­ation of 3 new fish passes to open up 9km of sal­mon spawn­ing ground,
• 17 ha nat­ive wood­land planting,
• 13 suc­cess­ful applic­a­tions to the Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) for hab­it­at man­age­ment cov­er­ing a total of 750 ha,
• farm­ers col­lab­or­at­ing to restore c. 50 ha of wetland,
• wet­land man­age­ment train­ing and demon­stra­tion events,
• a new bird hide for observing wad­ing birds created,
• 180m of innov­at­ive green-engin­eer­ing on river banks using tree trunk revet­ments, wil­low-spil­ing and tree planting,
• a new com­munity wild­life group and grant scheme developed stim­u­lat­ing more than 20 loc­ally led biod­iversity projects.

Deliv­ery of 1,383 hec­tares of peat­land under act­ive res­tor­a­tion across 8 dif­fer­ent land hold­ings. This work was sup­por­ted by grant-aid of £1.77 mil­lion from Peat­land ACTION and land owner’s con­tri­bu­tions of £0.19 mil­lion. and 2,800ha of wood­land expansion

The Cairngorms Nature BIG week­end is an annu­al three day cel­eb­ra­tion of the nature in the Cairngorms with events, activ­it­ies, walks and talks aimed at mak­ing the nature of the Cairngorms access­ible to a wide range of people. In 2019 there were more than 100 event over the week­end and more than 2,500 people par­ti­cip­ated. In 2020 this was on line and reached an audi­ence of more than 3,500 though our on line events, talk and activ­it­ies. CNPA’s Green Recov­ery Plan sets out how the nat­ur­al and social cap­it­al of the area are pro­tec­ted and replen­ished as the eco­nomy is rebuilt to deliv­er a fairer, green­er and more equal society.

Look­ing ahead, what do you think will be the main chal­lenges over the next three years?

The big con­ser­va­tion chal­lenges iden­ti­fied in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan are: Enhan­cing hab­it­ats on a land­scape scale

• Improv­ing the con­di­tion of exist­ing wood­land and cre­at­ing a more extens­ive, con­nec­ted forest net­work resi­li­ent to chan­ging cli­mate, pest and dis­ease risks, includ­ing restor­ing the largely miss­ing mont­ane wood­land habitat.
• Restor­ing func­tion­ing river and wet­land sys­tems, improv­ing water qual­ity, fresh­wa­ter hab­it­ats and flood management.
• Restor­ing degraded peat­land and act­ively man­aging the car­bon and water func­tions of the uplands.
• Enhan­cing the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. Pro­tect­ing and enhan­cing species
• Address­ing declin­ing and fra­gile pop­u­la­tions of key spe­cies includ­ing caper­cail­lie, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and oth­er Cairngorms Nature priorities.
• Elim­in­at­ing the illeg­al killing of rap­tors and increas­ing rap­tor populations.
• Tack­ling spe­cies man­age­ment con­flicts by com­bin­ing know­ledge from all sec­tors to devel­op shared solu­tions to com­pet­ing object­ives. Build­ing sup­port and engagement
• Enga­ging people in the land use choices and find­ing new ways to invest in and sup­port the act­ive land man­age­ment required.
• Increas­ing com­munity involve­ment in land man­age­ment planning.
• Enga­ging and inspir­ing people through recre­ation, volun­teer­ing and learn­ing oppor­tun­it­ies that con­nect them with the nature of the Cairngorms. Tack­ling these chal­lenges will require tak­ing an adapt­ive approach to land and con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment, encour­aging and sup­port­ing chan­ging object­ives and man­age­ment meas­ures in response to new inform­a­tion, resource and fin­an­cial com­mit­ment, col­lab­or­a­tion at a land­scape scale and a clear under­stand­ing of the status and require­ments of pri­or­ity spe­cies through sur­veys, mon­it­or­ing and research.