Programme Board meeting notes - Capercaillie Emergency Plan 250325

Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pro­gramme Board meeting

Tues­day 25 March | Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey and Teams

Attendees Grant Moir: Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, Park Author­ity (Chair) Car­o­lyn Robertson: Cairngorms Nature Man­ager, Park Author­ity Chris Don­ald: Head of Oper­a­tions Cent­ral High­lands, NatureScot John Risby: High­land and Islands Con­ser­vat­or, Scot­tish Forestry Alex Macleod: North Region Man­ager, Forestry and Land Scotland

1. Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Group A Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Group will be respons­ible for devel­op­ing and deliv­er­ing a research and mon­it­or­ing plan to meas­ure the impact of the activ­it­ies in the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan and inform adapt­ive man­age­ment, and to sup­port the spe­cif­ic research actions with­in the plan. It was agreed that a Terms of Ref­er­ence for the group should be draf­ted and sent to the pro­posed mem­bers iden­ti­fied in the pre­vi­ous meeting.

2. Updat­ing stake­hold­ers A dis­cus­sion was had about the need to update stake­hold­ers about the activ­it­ies that are under­way with­in the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan. It was agreed that an inform­al update should be sent via email to the stake­hold­er group for the plan.

3. Recruit­ing a Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pro­ject Man­ager A draft role descrip­tion was reviewed for a Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pro­ject Man­ager to be employed by the Park Author­ity. It was agreed that forestry / wood­land man­age­ment exper­i­ence should be lis­ted as a desir­able cri­ter­ia. A dis­cus­sion was had about fund­ing the post and it was agreed that NatureScot, the Park Author­ity, FLS and Scot­tish Forestry would invest­ig­ate wheth­er funds could be made avail­able from each organ­isa­tions core budget. The RSPB have also offered to contribute.

4. Budget and fun­drais­ing Con­ver­sa­tions are ongo­ing about poten­tial fund­ing from the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund that will enable deliv­ery of ele­ments of the plan. Fur­ther fun­drais­ing will be needed and the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pro­ject Man­ager will be respons­ible for this. To inform fun­drais­ing, it was agreed that it would be use­ful to pri­or­it­ise activ­it­ies out­lined in the plan based on evid­ence and oppor­tun­it­ies for quick wins.

5. Live risks and issues It was agreed that the major­ity of cur­rent risks and issues extend from a lack of capa­city to pro­act­ively pro­gress activ­it­ies with­in the plan and the solu­tion is to recruit a Pro­ject Man­ager ded­ic­ated to driv­ing deliv­ery of the plan. A dis­cus­sion was had about the need to ensure pos­it­ive stake­hold­er engage­ment with the plan and the role Board mem­bers can play. It was also noted that due to staff changes in GWCT there is a risk that com­par­able pro­ductiv­ity data to help meas­ure the impact of the Emer­gency Plan may not be available.

Actions

1. Car­o­lyn to set the next meet­ing date (online meet­ing) in late April / early May.
2. Car­o­lyn to update the role descrip­tion for the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan Pro­ject Man­ager to include forestry / wood­land man­age­ment exper­i­ence as a desir­able criteria.
3. John to pri­or­it­ise activ­it­ies out­lined in the plan based on evid­ence and oppor­tun­it­ies for quick wins.
4. Car­o­lyn to draft a Terms of Ref­er­ence for the Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Group.
5. Car­o­lyn to share the Terms of Ref­er­ence with the pro­posed mem­bers of the Sci­entif­ic Advis­ory Group and invite them to join the group.
6. Car­o­lyn to recir­cu­late for com­ment the draft update for stake­hold­ers re pro­gress to date deliv­er­ing the Emer­gency Plan.
7. Car­o­lyn to sup­port, where needed, all involved in con­duct­ing brood count­ing with dogs in tan­dem with trail cameras.