Cairngorms Peatland ACTION - Herbivore impact assessment guidance v1.0

This document contains guidance from the Cairngorms National Park Authority on how they assess herbivore impact for grant applications to the Cairngorms Peatland ACTION programme. It explains that too much grazing by animals can slow down the recovery of peatland restoration projects. Therefore, applicants need to show that the grazing pressure in their project area is at sustainable levels, typically less than 0.02 Livestock Units (a standard measure for grazing animals) per hectare (an area of land) each year. This means providing details like livestock and deer numbers, and plans from a Deer Management Group (DMG) or a Herbivore Impact Assessment (HIA). The Park Authority uses this information to decide if a project is too risky to fund, and if approved, projects are monitored for 10 years to ensure grazing levels don't increase.