Formal board meeting - paper 7 - Environment and Land Use Strategy consultation - 26 September 2025

Form­al Board Paper 7 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 1 of 4

For Inform­a­tion Title: Envir­on­ment Strategy and Land Use Strategy con­sulta­tions Pre­pared by: Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change

Pur­pose Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment are cur­rently con­sult­ing on the draft Envir­on­ment Strategy and Scotland’s Fourth Land Use Strategy, to be pub­lished March 2026. The paper presents the key points the Park Author­ity wishes to make in order for pub­lic policy and strategy to best sup­port deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

Recom­mend­a­tions The Board is asked to: α) Note the key points the Park Author­ity wishes to make as part of the con­sulta­tion responses

Stra­tegic context

1. The Envir­on­ment Strategy is the over­arch­ing, high-level frame­work for deliv­er­ing Scotland’s com­mit­ments to tack­ling the glob­al crises of biod­iversity loss, cli­mate change and pol­lu­tion in the wider con­text of nation­al soci­et­al and eco­nom­ic needs.
2. The Strategy brings togeth­er exist­ing policies and strategies from across areas of Gov­ern­ment such as biod­iversity, cli­mate change, food, energy, trans­port, out­door learn­ing, cir­cu­lar eco­nomy and plan­ning, to ensure that Scot­land can play its full role in tack­ling the twin crises, that the country’s con­sump­tion does not exceed what can be sus­tained, and that soci­ety and the eco­nomy thrive as part of change.
3. The Land Use Strategy focusses on the land use ele­ment of deliv­ery of the Envir­on­ment Strategy. It sets out the vis­ion and dir­ec­tion for integ­rated land use, and the sup­port­ing policies and activ­it­ies to deliv­er it. There is a com­mit­ment to pro­duce a land use strategy every five years. It has been ref­er­enced in vari­ous land use policies, includ­ing plan­ning, and has been cent­ral in guid­ing work on the

Form­al Board Paper 7 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 2 of 4

Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ships (RLUPs) and Region­al Land Use Frame­works (RLUFs).

1. The Nation­al Park is a RLUP, with the NPPP as the RLUF: the spa­tial, nat­ur­al cap­it­al-based approach to dir­ect­ing resource towards a set of agreed region­al pri­or­it­ies for integ­rated land management.
2. The four aims of the Nation­al Park are: α) To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area; b) To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area; c) To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the pub­lic; and d) To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.
3. These aims are to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim. This helps ensure the envir­on­ment under­pins the eco­nom­ic, social and recre­ation­al value of the Nation­al Park.

Stra­tegic align­ment with the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan

1. The vis­ion and out­comes for Scotland’s envir­on­ment are well rep­res­en­ted in a broad, over­arch­ing frame­work. The breadth of exist­ing policies and strategies the frame­work points to as mech­an­isms for achiev­ing the out­comes are com­pre­hens­ive and take full recog­ni­tion of the need for a multi-sec­tor­al, cross- Gov­ern­ment approach.
2. It is encour­aging to see the envir­on­ment and our actions to tackle nature loss, cli­mate change and pol­lu­tion as inter­twined and integ­ral to deliv­er­ing pos­it­ive soci­et­al change and thriv­ing, nature pos­it­ive and net zero cir­cu­lar economies.
3. The Land Use Strategy makes a pos­it­ive move from pre­vi­ous iter­a­tions describ­ing the dif­fer­ent land use sec­tors towards an integ­rated land use mod­el that recog­nises the dif­fer­ent demands on the same area of land and the need for dis­cus­sion around pri­or­it­isa­tion and trade-offs.

Form­al Board Paper 7 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 3 of 4

1. Baselines for cur­rent land cov­er are help­ful. Fur­ther data and map­ping will be cru­cial as an evid­ence base for future dis­cus­sions around tar­gets and ambi­tions and how they inter­act. It would also be good to see some descrip­tions of land use as well as land cov­er. Sport­ing, a sig­ni­fic­ant land use in the Cairngorms is not recognised.
2. Acknow­ledging the com­pet­ing demands on land from a pub­lic policy, fund­ing and reg­u­la­tion per­spect­ive high­light the need for a more coordin­ated approach and that not all out­comes are com­pat­ible eg herb­i­vore impacts can­not be main­tained, or increased, where wood­land expan­sion and peat­land res­tor­a­tion are con­sidered to be pri­or­it­ies. Themes may help struc­ture the con­ver­sa­tions around how dif­fer­ent sec­tors fit with each oth­er. More pre­cise, spe­cif­ic prin­ciples could guide or inform land use decision mak­ing as best as possible.
3. Activ­it­ies such as river res­tor­a­tion, peat­land res­tor­a­tion and wood­land expan­sion deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits eg slow­ing the flow, improv­ing water qual­ity, car­bon stor­age and biod­iversity. The Land Use Strategy could give clear­er lead­er­ship on land use and the deliv­ery of mul­tiple bene­fits, includ­ing sup­port­ing land-based busi­nesses through chan­ging policy, incentiv­isa­tion and sup­port schemes.

Con­clu­sion

1. The recog­ni­tion of the pos­it­ive and inter­linked role the envir­on­ment plays in deliv­er­ing for a wealth­i­er, fairer, and green­er Scot­land is wel­comed. Nation­al Parks play a vital role in demon­strat­ing a hol­ist­ic approach to people and nature thriv­ing together.
2. Policy and incent­ive schemes align­ment, map­ping and data are cru­cial tools to aid land use decision mak­ing and integ­rated land use, and sub­sequently to the deliv­ery of the NPPP. It is good to see this point reflec­ted in the Fourth Land Use Strategy and the Park Author­ity looks for­ward to the next stage of the Strategy devel­op­ment where it goes on to provide these functions.

Form­al Board Paper 7 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 4 of 4

Sup­port­ing information

1. Draft Envir­on­ment Strategy con­sulta­tion https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft- environment-strategy/
2. Fourth Land Use Strategy con­sulta­tion https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-fourth-land-use-strategy- consultation/

Andy Ford andyford@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 09 Septem­ber 02025