Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Draft for pub­lic con­sulta­tion 14 Octo­ber 2026 to 13 Janu­ary 2027

Scan QR code to view and respond to this draft online

Con­tents

Con­sulta­tion Intro­duc­tion Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 in num­bers Our long-term vis­ion Our plan for the future Mis­sion one: nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence Mis­sion two: com­munit­ies Mis­sion three: Nation­al Park for all Gloss­ary of terms

Terms marked with an aster­isk* through­out this doc­u­ment appear in the gloss­ary on page 82

Con­sulta­tion

The pub­lic con­sulta­tion lasts for 13 weeks from 14 Octo­ber 2026 to 13 Janu­ary 2027. Fol­low­ing the con­sulta­tion the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Board will con­sider alter­a­tions to the Plan before sub­mit­ting the Plan to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for final approval.

We would wel­come responses to the fol­low­ing questions:

Mis­sion one: nature and cli­mate resilience a) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with mis­sion one? b) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the tar­gets for mis­sion one? c) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the actions for mis­sion one?

Mis­sion two: communities a) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with mis­sion two? b) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the tar­gets for mis­sion two? c) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the actions for mis­sion two?

Mis­sion three: Nation­al Park for all a) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with mis­sion three? b) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the tar­gets for mis­sion three? c) To what extent do you agree or dis­agree with the actions for mis­sion three?

Over­all Is there any­thing miss­ing that should be included in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2027 – 32?

How to respond

You can respond to the con­sulta­tion through our web­site cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​a​r​t​n​e​r​s​h​i​pplan or by email at enquiries@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Altern­at­ively, you can respond by post to:

Park Author­ity office 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

To request a hard copy of the draft Plan, or to receive the draft Plan in an altern­at­ive format, please call +44 (0) 1479 873 535 or email enquiries@​cairngorms.​co.​uk.

Intro­duc­tion

The pur­pose

There has been great pro­gress in deliv­er­ing the Nation­al Park aims over the last 22 years. Each suc­cess­ive Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan has under­pinned the coordin­ated deliv­ery of actions by pub­lic bod­ies, land man­agers, busi­nesses and communities.

How­ever, the wild­fire in Glen­more and Aber­nethy is a stark remind­er that pro­gress can be lost. The cli­mate is chan­ging in the Cairngorms and how we adapt to increased flood­ing, water scarcity and wild­fire, and the impact of these on com­munit­ies and nature, is at the heart of this Part­ner­ship Plan.

This Part­ner­ship Plan addresses the fun­da­ment­al, under­ly­ing issues that pre­vent the Nation­al Park from reach­ing its full poten­tial. It sets out the case for the changes that will have the biggest pos­it­ive effect on achiev­ing the long-term vis­ion of the Nation­al Park – ensur­ing it is a place where nature and people thrive together.

The Part­ner­ship Plan itself has been rein­forced as the stat­utory man­age­ment plan for the area through the enact­ment of the Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2026. This sets out that all pub­lic bod­ies, as well as Scot­tish Min­is­ters, have a duty to facil­it­ate the imple­ment­a­tion of Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plans.

The basis for deliv­er­ing the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is, of course, vol­un­tary. The desire to work in part­ner­ship with organ­isa­tions, land man­agers, busi­nesses and com­munit­ies to deliv­er this Plan is at the heart of the Park Authority’s approach. From farm­ing and com­munity devel­op­ment to vis­it­or man­age­ment and river res­tor­a­tion, there are great examples that show what can be achieved when we work togeth­er to tackle big issues in the Cairngorms.

How­ever, it is also worth stat­ing that many of the issues out­lined in the 1992 report by the Cairngorms Work­ing Party – Com­mon Sense and Sus­tain­ab­il­ity – A Part­ner­ship in the Cairngorms – are still with us today. There has been sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress but, 35 years after that doc­u­ment was pub­lished, it is clear that this has not been quick enough and that the impacts of cli­mate change and biod­iversity* loss are accelerating.

The issues around cli­mate adapt­a­tion*, biod­iversity* loss and com­munity resi­li­ence are too acute to be tackled at the speed of the slow­est part­ner. So, a new approach is needed in this Part­ner­ship Plan. The Nation­al Park Author­ity was giv­en a series of powers to deliv­er the Part­ner­ship Plan and until now it has, in the main, done this through part­ner­ship, per­sua­sion and incent­ives. That will con­tin­ue to be the basis for much of the work that we do. How­ever, there are also powers around land acquis­i­tion, com­puls­ory pur­chase, man­age­ment agree­ments*, and path orders that the Park Author­ity will look to use if it is not pos­sible to achieve the stated pub­lic policy out­comes of the Part­ner­ship Plan through cur­rent mechanisms.

This Part­ner­ship Plan sets out the pro­posed changes at a stra­tegic level with spa­tial map­ping and tar­geted actions. It out­lines the tools that we have to achieve these and it will be incum­bent upon the Park Author­ity and part­ners to report annu­ally on our col­lect­ive progress.

This is an ambi­tious Part­ner­ship Plan, and the Park Author­ity will look for­ward to work­ing with all our part­ners in the years ahead to deliv­er togeth­er for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The Nation­al Park aims

The Cairngorms is the UK’s largest nation­al park at 4,528 square kilo­metres (6% of Scotland’s land mass) and is home to one-quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered spe­cies. Around 18,000 people live in the Nation­al Park across the areas of Aber­deen­shire, Angus, High­land, Moray, Perth and Kinross, with over two and a half mil­lion vis­it­ors enjoy­ing this spe­cial place every year.

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out by Parliament:

• To con­serve and enhance the area’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al heritage.
• To pro­mote sus­tain­able man­age­ment and use of the area’s nat­ur­al resources.
• To pro­mote pub­lic under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the area’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al heritage.
• To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic, social and cul­tur­al devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

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 (as set out in Sec­tion 9.6 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). This helps ensure con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age under­pin the eco­nom­ic, social and recre­ation value of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2026 also sets out that the four aims include:

• Restor­ing and regen­er­at­ing biod­iversity* in the area.
• Mit­ig­at­ing and adapt­ing to cli­mate change.
• Sup­port­ing access to and with­in the area.
• Encour­aging recre­ation in the area.
• Encour­aging sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive agriculture*.
• Pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism and vis­it­or management.
• Pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth and devel­op­ment activ­ity which:
  • Improves the health and well­being of indi­vidu­als who vis­it, live and work in the area.
  • Sup­ports the prosper­ity of com­munit­ies in the area, includ­ing in rela­tion to the pro­vi­sion of hous­ing for people to live and work in the area.

The Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2026 also sets out that Scot­tish Min­is­ters, a nation­al park author­ity, a loc­al author­ity and any oth­er pub­lic body or office-hold­er must, in exer­cising func­tions so far as affect­ing a Nation­al Park (and only in rela­tion to func­tions exer­cis­able in or as regards Scot­land which do not relate to reserved mat­ters), have regard to the four Nation­al Park aims.

What is the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan?

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan sets out how all those with respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park will co-ordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues. In par­tic­u­lar, this Plan:

• Sets out the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Nation­al Park.
• Guides the work of all pub­lic bod­ies and oth­er part­ners to deliv­er the aims of the Nation­al Park.
• Provides the stra­tegic con­text for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan*.
• Is the Stra­tegic Region­al Land Use Frame­work* and Region­al Spa­tial Strategy* for the Nation­al Park.
• Is the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Plan.
• Is the Eco­nom­ic and Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Strategy for the Nation­al Park.

This Plan also embeds the leg­acy of The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund sup­por­ted Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme to ensure that the work that has been done in the last five years is built upon over the next Plan period.

We are aware that indi­vidu­als read­ing the Part­ner­ship Plan will have dif­fer­ent interests and pri­or­it­ies; how­ever, we would recom­mend con­sid­er­ing the Plan as a whole to see how the four aims of the Nation­al Park will be delivered collectively.

Duty to facil­it­ate imple­ment­a­tion of the Nation­al Park Plans

The Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2026 changed the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 so that ​‘Scot­tish Min­is­ters, a Nation­al Park author­ity, a loc­al author­ity and any oth­er pub­lic body or office-hold­er must, in exer­cising func­tions so far as affect­ing a Nation­al Park, facil­it­ate the imple­ment­a­tion of the Nation­al Park Plan’.

This sig­ni­fic­antly strengthens the stat­utory role of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, and it is our shared respons­ib­il­ity to imple­ment the Plan.

Tools avail­able to the Park Author­ity to deliv­er the Plan

The Park Author­ity has a range of tools that it can use to deliv­er its aims and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. This is set out in the primary legis­la­tion and forms the basis of the work of the Park Author­ity. The tools include:

• Issu­ing grants and loans An author­ity may, with the con­sent of the Scot­tish Min­is­ters, give fin­an­cial assist­ance by way of grant or loan to any per­son in respect of expendit­ure incurred or to be incurred by that per­son in doing any­thing which, in the authority’s opin­ion, is con­du­cive to the attain­ment of the pur­pose set out in sec­tion 9(1).
• Using plan­ning functions A des­ig­na­tion order may make pro­vi­sion for a Nation­al Park Author­ity: (a) to be the plan­ning author­ity for the Nation­al Park for the pur­poses of the plan­ning Acts; (b) to be treated as the plan­ning author­ity for the Nation­al Park, but only for such pur­poses of Part II (devel­op­ment plans) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (c.8) as are spe­cified in the order; or © to have, in rela­tion to the Nation­al Park, such func­tions in rela­tion to plan­ning as the order may specify.
• Acquir­ing land For the pur­poses of its func­tions, an author­ity may: (a) acquire by agree­ment; (b) if author­ised by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters, pur­chase com­pulsor­ily, any land situ­ated with­in the Nation­al Park.
• Mak­ing man­age­ment agreements A Nation­al Park Author­ity may enter into an agree­ment (a ​“man­age­ment agree­ment”) with any per­son hav­ing [a right] in land to do, or secure the doing of, whatever the parties to the agree­ment con­sider neces­sary to achieve, in rela­tion to the Nation­al Park, the Nation­al Park aims.
• Passing byelaws A Nation­al Park Author­ity may make byelaws for the Nation­al Park for the pur­poses of: (a) pro­tect­ing the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park; (b) pre­vent­ing dam­age to the land or any­thing in, on or under it; © secur­ing the public’s enjoy­ment of, and safety in, the Nation­al Park.
• Using man­age­ment rules Sec­tions 112 to 118 (man­age­ment rules) of the Civic Gov­ern­ment (Scot­land) Act 1982 (c.45) have effect as if ref­er­ences to a loc­al author­ity and to the authority’s area included ref­er­ences to a Nation­al Park Author­ity and the Nation­al Park.
• Oth­er powers An author­ity may: (a) enter into con­tracts; (b) carry on any busi­ness or under­tak­ing; © form or pro­mote (wheth­er alone or with oth­ers) com­pan­ies; (d) form part­ner­ships with oth­er per­sons; (e) accept gifts or con­tri­bu­tions; (f) invest sums not imme­di­ately required in rela­tion to the exer­cise of its functions.
• Estab­lish­ing nature reserves Sec­tions 21 and 22 (estab­lish­ment of nature reserves and applic­a­tion of enact­ments to loc­al author­ity reserves) of the Nation­al Parks and Access to the Coun­tryside Act 1949 (c.97) have effect as if ref­er­ences to a loc­al author­ity and the authority’s area included ref­er­ences to a Nation­al Park Author­ity and the Nation­al Park.

Under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003, the Park Author­ity also has the power to:

• Make byelaws (s12) The Park Author­ity may, in rela­tion to land in respect of which access rights are exer­cis­able, make byelaws provid­ing for: (i) the pre­ser­va­tion of pub­lic order and safety; (ii) the pre­ven­tion of dam­age; (iii) the pre­ven­tion of nuis­ance or danger; (iv) the con­ser­va­tion or enhance­ment of nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al heritage.
• Acquire land (s16) Where it appears to the Park Author­ity to be neces­sary or expedi­ent for the pur­pose of enabling or facil­it­at­ing the exer­cise of access rights in respect of any land to which this sec­tion applies that the land be acquired by them, the author­ity may— (a)acquire it by agree­ment (wheth­er by pur­chase, feu, lease or excam­bion); or (b)with the con­sent of Min­is­ters, acquire it compulsorily.
• Main­tain core paths and provide dir­ec­tions to them (s19) The Park Author­ity may do any­thing which they con­sider appro­pri­ate for the pur­poses of: (a) main­tain­ing a core path; (b) keep­ing a core path free from obstruc­tion or encroach­ment; © provid­ing the pub­lic with dir­ec­tions to, or with an indic­a­tion of the extent of, a core path.
• Make path agree­ments (s21) The Park Author­ity may enter an agree­ment (a ​“path agree­ment”) with a per­son hav­ing the neces­sary power for the delin­eation and main­ten­ance or, as the case may be, for the delin­eation, cre­ation and main­ten­ance of a path with­in land in respect of which access rights are exercisable.
• Issue path orders (s22) Where, in the cir­cum­stances set out, it appears to the Park Author­ity that, hav­ing regard to the rights and interests of the own­er of land in respect of which access rights are exer­cis­able and per­sons likely to exer­cise these rights, it is expedi­ent to delin­eate a path with­in that land, the author­ity may, by order (a ​“path order”), do so.

There is also a range of oth­er powers held by oth­er pub­lic author­it­ies such as SEPA, NatureScot and loc­al author­it­ies etc that can be used to deliv­er the Plan if required.

Pub­lic incentives

There is a huge num­ber of pub­lic incent­ives that can help to deliv­er the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. These include nation­al schemes such as the Scot­tish Forestry Grant Scheme, agri-envir­on­ment pay­ments, the Water Envir­on­ment Fund, the Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Fund, Peat­land Action, the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund, the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund and the Act­ive Travel Infra­struc­ture Fund.

There is also a vari­ety of Cairngorms Nation­al Park spe­cif­ic schemes usu­ally admin­istered by the Park Author­ity, such as the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund, or by the Cairngorms Trust, such as the Com­munity Led Vis­ion Fund. Finally, there is a range of poten­tial sup­port from third parties, such as The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund or phil­an­throp­ic trusts and foundations.

In deliv­er­ing pub­lic incent­ives with­in the Nation­al Park con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en for ​‘cross-com­pli­ance’ related to that fund­ing, where recip­i­ents who have been found in breach of rel­ev­ant reg­u­la­tions may be liable for with­draw­al and recov­ery of fin­an­cial sup­port, and where applic­ants may be deemed ineligible for future support.

The wider policy landscape

There have been sig­ni­fic­ant changes in the policy land­scape since the last Part­ner­ship Plan was pub­lished in 2022. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan weaves all the dif­fer­ent policy goals into a coher­ent approach with­in the Nation­al Park.

Nation­al policy framework

As a whole, this Part­ner­ship Plan is guided by Scot­tish Government’s Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work and by the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals. The fol­low­ing are the key nation­al policy doc­u­ments that under­pin the approach taken in this Plan grouped under each of the pro­posed mis­sions to which the nation­al policies are most relevant.

Mis­sion one: nature and cli­mate resilience

• Cli­mate Change Plan
• Envir­on­ment Strategy
• Flood Resi­li­ence Strategy and Imple­ment­a­tion Plan
• Invas­ive Non-Nat­ive Spe­cies Strategy
• Land Use Strategy for Scotland
• Nation­al Water Scarcity Plan
• River Basin Man­age­ment Plan 4
• Scotland’s Forestry Strategy
• Scotland’s Nation­al Adapt­a­tion Plan
• Scotland’s Land­scape Charter
• Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy
• Vis­ion for Agriculture
• Wild Sal­mon Strategy
• Wild­fires: Stra­tegic Action Plan

Mis­sion two: communities

• Com­munity Plan­ning Part­ner­ship Plans
• Com­munity Wealth Build­ing Act 2026
• Good Food Nation Plans
• Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4
• Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Transformation
• Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies
• Scot­land Food and Drink Strategy
• Scotland’s Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Transformation
• Scotland’s Nation­al Tour­ism Strategy – Out­look 2030

Mis­sion three: Nation­al Park for all

• Equal­ity and Human Rights Main­stream­ing Strategy 2025 – 30
• Nation­al Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan 2023 – 28
• Nation­al Walk­ing Strategy
• Scotland’s pub­lic health strategy, ​‘Togeth­er We Can’
• Scot­tish Lan­guages Act

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park also has a sig­ni­fic­ant role to play in deliv­er­ing the policy ambi­tions of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. The Nation­al Park is a place for innov­a­tion, tri­al­ling new ways of think­ing and show­ing ambi­tion to meet the key chal­lenges of our time.

Pub­lic ser­vice reform

The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has set out its pro­posed approach to pub­lic ser­vice reform in the pro­gramme for gov­ern­ment. This will impact on all pub­lic bod­ies and there are spe­cif­ic pro­pos­als for the nation­al envir­on­ment­al bod­ies, pub­lic land, health boards and loc­al author­it­ies. As the reforms are developed the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan will take account of the changes as the final NPPP is developed next year.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 in numbers

• 7,394ha peat­land restored
• 159 afford­able houses built 2020 – 2026
• 15 up to date com­munity action plans
• 8,518ha nat­ive wood­land created
• £2.54m awar­ded though Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund
• 41 com­pleted or ongo­ing Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund projects
• 8,931 inter­ac­tions with school pupils and juni­or rangers
• £1.2m awar­ded to 100 Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Fund projects
• 92km rivers restored
• 124 volun­teer rangers recruited
• 86 access cases resolved
• over 100 Busi­nesses sup­por­ted each year through GrowBiz

Our long-term vision

An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together.

This long-term vis­ion is under­pinned by a set of prin­ciples about how we want to deliv­er the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. These are:

• Nature based solu­tions should be at the core of our shared approach.
• Deliv­ery should be focussed on achiev­ing mul­tiple bene­fits across the Part­ner­ship Plan.
• Com­munity involve­ment and wealth build­ing should be at the heart of decision making.
• All views and opin­ions should be respec­ted in devel­op­ing the best solu­tions for the Nation­al Park.

An ever-chan­ging landscape

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park land­scape is spe­cial. It is where we live, work and play, and con­trib­utes to our sense of place and iden­tity. It also brings mul­tiple bene­fits to nature, the eco­nomy, and our health and well-being. It is ever­chan­ging: a land­scape in trans­ition, shaped by both nat­ur­al pro­cesses and chan­ging com­munity needs. The Nation­al Park’s land­scape was dom­in­ated by graz­ing, sport­ing estates and to a less­er extent forestry over the past cen­tury but the area is becom­ing much more diverse in the way that land is man­aged. Activ­it­ies such as tour­ism and con­ser­va­tion sit along­side those oth­er prac­tices, reflect­ing a shift toward man­aging the land for mul­tiple benefits.

At the same time, large-scale eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion is trans­form­ing the land­scape and eco­lo­gic­al char­ac­ter of the Nation­al Park. Efforts to expand nat­ive wood­lands, restore peat­lands, and recon­nect nat­ur­al river sys­tems are gradu­ally build­ing more resi­li­ent envir­on­ments. These changes are needed due to the grow­ing threats and impacts of cli­mate change, which is already alter­ing snow cov­er, increas­ing wild­fire risk, and threat­en­ing sens­it­ive habitats.

Tour­ism has also become a major force in shap­ing the Cairngorms, bring­ing around two and a half mil­lion vis­it­ors each year. While this sup­ports loc­al eco­nom­ies, it can place pres­sure on fra­gile envir­on­ments, lead­ing to issues such as path erosion and the need for new infra­struc­ture. Along­side this, devel­op­ments such as hous­ing, A9 dualling and, on the peri­phery, renew­able energy are subtly reshap­ing the Nation­al Park’s visu­al and phys­ic­al character.

The fram­ing of debate around land­scape is often seen as a zero-sum game: if there is more wood­land then there is less moor­land. This misses the key point of what we are try­ing to do in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Park Part­ner­ship Plan is about integ­rated design and man­age­ment that deliv­ers resi­li­ence for com­munit­ies, busi­nesses and people in the face of cli­mate change. It’s about increas­ing biod­iversity* through more com­plex and restored sys­tems, and a land­scape that is pro­tec­ted for future gen­er­a­tions to enjoy and work in.

Ulti­mately, the Cairngorms is a liv­ing land­scape and it does not stand still. It has changed sig­ni­fic­antly over the past cen­tury and will con­tin­ue to do so. These changes present us with both oppor­tun­it­ies and con­straints. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan sets out what the long-term changes should be and how we can design and man­age them to ensure that people and nature thrive together.

Land­scape provides an import­ant lens for the Nation­al Park. Dur­ing this Plan peri­od, we will:

• Devel­op a land­scape toolkit to assist people to assess and under­stand land­scape change.
• Mon­it­or changes to spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies estab­lished through Cairngorms 2030.
• Con­tin­ue com­munity engage­ment to improve under­stand­ing of the import­ance and poten­tial scope of land­scape change, build­ing on work com­pleted through Cairngorms 2030.

Our plan for the future

This doc­u­ment is arranged in three missions:

• Mis­sion one: nature and cli­mate resilience
• Mis­sion two: communities
• Mis­sion three: Nation­al Park for all

In each sec­tion we set out:

• The mis­sion
• Rel­ev­ant context
• Baseline data and indic­at­ors – This part sets out the baseline data and the pro­posed indic­at­ors to meas­ure wheth­er the resources alloc­ated annu­ally to deliv­er the Plan are hav­ing the desired long-term effect.
• Tar­gets — This part sets out the tar­gets against which Plan pro­gress will be meas­ured on an annu­al basis or when data will be col­lec­ted dur­ing the Plan period.
• Actions to deliv­er in the peri­od 2027 – 32

Mis­sion one: nature and cli­mate resilience

The dia­gram on page 18 shows the inter­linked themes: Upland man­age­ment, Sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive farm­ing, Catch­ment resi­li­ence, Land­scape-scale res­tor­a­tion, Spe­cies recov­ery, Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion, all revolving around Nature and cli­mate resilience.

Mis­sion

By sup­port­ing land­scape-scale nature recov­ery, cli­mate adapt­a­tion* and sus­tain­able land man­age­ment, eco­sys­tems, land man­agers and com­munit­ies will become more resi­li­ent. This will lead to biod­iversity* recov­ery, improved eco­sys­tem func­tion­al­ity*, sus­tain­able rur­al employ­ment and reduced cli­mate impacts across the Nation­al Park.

Con­text

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is an incred­ibly import­ant place for nature in Scot­land and the wider Brit­ish Isles. The qual­ity and extent of hab­it­ats is unri­valled and provides huge bene­fits to Scot­land. How­ever, we are not on track to achieve the 2030 goal to halt biod­iversity loss and if we are to regen­er­ate biod­iversity by 2045 then we have to change gears now. In doing this work we need to ensure that the land is man­aged in a way that makes it cli­mate resi­li­ent and nature pos­it­ive, while provid­ing an eco­nom­ic return.

All the mod­els and trends show that the cli­mate will con­tin­ue to change sig­ni­fic­antly over the com­ing years with less snow, increased flood­ing, increased wild­fire risk and water scarcity impact­ing on busi­nesses, res­id­ents and nature. We need to ensure that resi­li­ence is at the heart of what we do. Land can and should deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits, but this will mean align­ing policy, fund­ing and cul­ture to deliv­er change on the ground that also bene­fits the people that live and work in the area. A single pur­pose for land that does not deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits does not meet the Nation­al Park aims. This Plan addresses the found­a­tion­al issues to deliv­er for nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence. It will not use short-term stick­ing plasters that do not deliv­er the long-term changes that are needed.

At the heart of this is try­ing to give long-term cer­tainty to land man­agers so that they can adapt their busi­nesses and devel­op a robust eco­nom­ic mod­el. The Park Author­ity will do this through long-term man­age­ment agree­ments* and by sup­port­ing cer­tain jobs that con­trib­ute to pub­lic bene­fit. This is a sig­ni­fic­ant change from pre­vi­ous Plans. It will take time to nego­ti­ate these agree­ments and put in place the fin­ance needed to make them work. There are, how­ever, sig­ni­fic­ant long-term sav­ings to be made if we need less inter­ven­tion in later years to try and fix under­ly­ing struc­tur­al issues.

Terms marked with an aster­isk* through­out this doc­u­ment appear in the gloss­ary on page 82

1. Upland management

The Cairngorms are often ima­gined as wild and untouched, but much of the land­scape has been heav­ily influ­enced by intens­ive graz­ing, sport­ing man­age­ment, pol­lu­tion caused by air­borne depos­ition*, and his­tor­ic­al land use.

Our aim is to bring nat­ur­al pro­cesses back into bal­ance while pro­tect­ing live­li­hoods and heed­ing traditions.

Activ­ity in this area falls into five main cat­egor­ies: (a.) peat­land res­tor­a­tion; (b.) deer man­age­ment; (c.) moor­land man­age­ment; (d.) fire man­age­ment. and (e.) gamebirds.

1a. Peat­land restoration

Large-scale res­tor­a­tion is under­way across private, pub­lic and char­it­able land. Drain­age ditches are being blocked and bare peat is being stabilised.

Restored peat­lands in the Cairngorms con­tain sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of car­bon while also slow­ing water run­off, redu­cing flood risks in com­munit­ies down­stream such as Aviemore or Bal­later, and redu­cing wild­fire risk in their imme­di­ate area. They also provide sig­ni­fic­ant bene­fits for nature recov­ery with good evid­ence show­ing that peat­land res­tor­a­tion bene­fits down­stream aquat­ic hab­it­ats and spe­cies like threatened sal­mon and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, and increases the num­ber of breed­ing waders, dragon­flies and damselflies.

Baseline data and indicators

• Hec­tares of degraded peat in the Nation­al Park.
• Hec­tares of peat­land under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment since 2022.

Tar­gets

• A fur­ther 6,500 hec­tares of peat­land is under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment by 2032 con­trib­ut­ing towards an over­all tar­get of 38,000 hec­tares by 2045 (based on 2022 baseline).

Actions

• Max­im­ise the use of Peat­land ACTION fund­ing for peat­land res­tor­a­tion, mon­it­or­ing and skills devel­op­ment through the Park Authority’s peat­land programme.
• Tar­get peat­land res­tor­a­tion spa­tially, com­ple­ment­ing land­scape-scale eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion and the deliv­ery of mul­tiple benefits
• Devel­op mech­an­isms to enable multi-year pro­grammes sup­por­ted by blen­ded fin­ance* (pub­lic, private, charitable).
• Build capa­city in estates, com­munit­ies and the private sec­tor to sup­port long-term plan­ning and delivery.

Fig­ure one: Com­pleted peat­land res­tor­a­tion sites in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (Map show­ing loc­a­tions of com­pleted peat­land res­tor­a­tion sites with­in the Nation­al Park boundary.)

Fig­ure two: Peat­land in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (Map illus­trat­ing peat­land con­di­tion and pres­ence of drains with­in the Nation­al Park. Legend indic­ates: Degraded ground (dark­er col­our means more erosion fea­tures), Drains present (dark­er col­our means great­er dens­ity of drains), Excluded — agri­cul­ture or wood­land, Car­bon rich soils and peat in agri­cul­ture or woodland.)

1b. Deer management

One of the most press­ing chal­lenges in the Cairngorms is ensur­ing that herb­i­vore impacts and in par­tic­u­lar red deer num­bers in the south of the Nation­al Park are reduced to allow nature recovery.

Red deer man­aged at sig­ni­fic­antly lower num­bers with­in the Nation­al Park could impact on sport stalk­ing rev­en­ue. How­ever, the need for stalk­ers will not be reduced as they will be needed to keep pop­u­la­tions lower. The key issue is find­ing the bal­ance between pub­lic reg­u­la­tion and incent­ive on the one hand and private fund­ing on the oth­er to main­tain stalk­er jobs in the future to deliv­er con­tin­ued deer management.

The Park Author­ity is explor­ing a stalk­er sup­port scheme and long-term man­age­ment agree­ments* for those estates that wish to reduce deer below five deer per square kilometre.

The Park Author­ity and NatureScot will work with Deer Man­age­ment Groups* (DMG) to reduce deer dens­it­ies to meet the 2030 tar­get. If it appears by 2028 that this tar­get will not be met by an indi­vidu­al DMG on a vol­un­tary basis, NatureScot will take for­ward reg­u­lat­ory action to ensure com­pli­ance by 2030.

Baseline data and indicators

• Deer counts and densities.

Tar­gets

• Aver­age open range red deer dens­it­ies in each deer man­age­ment group are a max­im­um of five to eight per square kilo­metre by 2030.
• No indi­vidu­al estate or beat to be over 10 deer per square kilo­metre by 2030 with the excep­tion of peri­ods of severe winter weath­er when deer are neces­sar­ily concentrated.
• Non-nat­ive sika and fal­low deer will be con­tained with­in their cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion in the Nation­al Park by 2030.

Actions

• Intro­duce a deer stalk­er sup­port scheme for those estates below five deer per square kilo­metre by 2028, linked to long-term man­age­ment agreements*.
• All Deer Man­age­ment Groups* to do a heli­copter count or drone count in winter 2029 – 30.
• Sup­port reduc­tions in deer dens­it­ies in key eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion areas where nature net­works* exist and areas of the mont­ane core*.
• Con­tin­ue sup­port for the devel­op­ment of a com­munity deer lar­der network.

Fig­ure three: Deer dens­it­ies by deer / land man­age­ment group (Map show­ing deer dens­ity cat­egor­ies (≤ 5, 5 – 9, 10 – 21 deer per km square) across dif­fer­ent land man­age­ment groups with­in the Nation­al Park.)

1c. Moor­land management

The way moor­land has been, and in the major­ity of cases still is, man­aged for sheep graz­ing, stalk­ing and grouse shoot­ing defines how much of our upland land­scapes look and the biod­iversity* they contain.

There has been a reduc­tion in the area primar­ily man­aged for red grouse in the last 20 years, espe­cially the last 10 years, and an increase in re-wet­ting bogs, redu­cing herb­i­vore dens­it­ies and allow­ing scattered trees to recolonise.

In 2024, new legis­la­tion for muir­burn* was intro­duced by the Wild­life Man­age­ment & Muir­burn (Scot­land) Act. It is now an offence to carry out muir­burn in Scot­land without a licence. The aim of the licence is to help ensure that muir­burn is car­ried out safely and appro­pri­ately as per the updated Muir­burn Code. Licens­able pur­poses include burn­ing on peat­land and non-peat­land for the pur­poses of pre­vent­ing, or redu­cing the risk of, wild­fire. It is a con­di­tion of the licence that any­one car­ry­ing out muir­burn must have regard for the Muir­burn Code and where con­tra­ven­tion is deemed to be unjus­ti­fied, non-com­pli­ance could res­ult in a loss of licence.

Moor­land (heath­land and peat­land) is by far the most extens­ive and con­tinu­ous hab­it­at type in the Cairngorms, cov­er­ing 58% of the Nation­al Park. It is there­fore crit­ic­al that it is man­aged in a way to provide mul­tiple bene­fits and to ensure that the like­li­hood and impact of a fire get­ting out of con­trol in this type of land­scape is mit­ig­ated through a range of measures.

Struc­tur­al hab­it­at diversity under­pins spe­cies diversity and enhances the resi­li­ence of moor­lands to cli­mate change impacts like flood­ing, droughts and wild­fire. There is a need for a mosa­ic of hab­it­ats, break­ing up extens­ive areas of moor­land sim­il­ar in struc­ture, com­pos­i­tion or char­ac­ter, and to con­sider dif­fer­ent man­age­ment tech­niques that might be applic­able across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Baseline data and indicators

• Incid­ents and types of non-com­pli­ance with the Muir­burn Code.
• Num­ber of estates demon­strat­ing exem­plary practice.
• Loss of muir­burn licences and gen­er­al licence restrictions.

Tar­gets

• Down­ward trend in non-com­pli­ance with the Muir­burn Code across the Nation­al Park.
• Increas­ing num­ber of estates deliv­er­ing exem­plary prac­tice in moor­land management.

Actions

• Ensure com­pli­ance with the Muir­burn Code and muir­burn* licencing.
• Cre­ate exem­plar prac­tice advis­ory note on moor­land management.
• Devel­op a wider moor­land part­ner­ship to foster, demon­strate and cre­ate a com­munity of exem­plar practice.
• Map trees and shrub on moor­land and moor­land fringe.
• Max­im­ise the use of nat­ur­al and re-wet­ted land­scapes along­side pre­scribed burn­ing to min­im­ise risk of wildfire.

See busi­ness and enter­prise devel­op­ment on page 54 for fur­ther train­ing / skills actions. See spe­cies recov­ery on page 43 for fur­ther actions.

1^d. Fire management

The Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan provides a good frame­work for tack­ling the issue of wild­fires in the Nation­al Park. It will be updated on an annu­al basis, as we learn from wild­fires like Glen­more / Aber­nethy, to ensure that it is com­pre­hens­ive and up to date. The focus over the com­ing years will be on the deliv­ery of the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan and con­duct­ing a form­al review by 2030.

Baseline data and indicators

• Num­ber of wild­fires in the Nation­al Park and extent of area burnt.
• Num­ber of live fires and bar­be­cues coun­ted through ranger data.

Tar­gets

• All estates over 1,000 hec­tares have fire man­age­ment plans as part of their wider land man­age­ment plans.
• All rel­ev­ant com­munit­ies have a fire evac­u­ation plan.
• Down­ward trend in num­ber of recre­ation­al live fires and barbecues.

Actions

• Imple­ment the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan and form­ally review it by 2030.
• All estates and com­munit­ies will have fire man­age­ment plans in place and sub­mit these to the Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice (SFRS) and the Park Author­ity to encour­age com­mon­al­ity by 2030.
• Fire man­age­ment plans must demon­strate how fuel loads will be broken up to reduce the risk of fire spread­ing and to enable fires that do occur to be tackled.
• Identi­fy areas of high risk and pro­duce plan for stra­tegic fire breaks across Cairngorms Nation­al Park by sum­mer 2027.
• Sup­port deliv­ery of envir­on­ment­al recov­ery and mon­it­or­ing plan for wild­fire affected areas in Aber­nethy and Glenmore.
• Pro­mote con­ser­va­tion graz­ing for fire sup­pres­sion purposes.
• Devel­op, deliv­er and sup­port region­al wild­fire groups across the Nation­al Park, enabling a loc­al response encom­passing a wide range of skills and equipment.
• Retain wild­fire fight­ing skills, exper­i­ence, equip­ment and capa­city with­in the Nation­al Park.

1^e. Gamebirds

Aver­aged across the three sea­sons from 2022 to 2025, almost 54,000 pheas­ants and over 24,000 red-legged part­ridges were released by 10 estates across the Nation­al Park. Good prac­tice guid­ance on non-nat­ive gamebird releases is based on the prin­ciple of min­im­ising neg­at­ive effects and max­im­ising pos­it­ive ones, so that the over­all bal­ance is a net gain for biod­iversity. We need to under­stand what this means in the con­text of the Cairngorms, and how gamebirds inter­act with the unique and nation­ally sig­ni­fic­ant mosa­ic of hab­it­ats and species.

More research is needed to under­stand the bal­ance of impacts, to help us con­tin­ue to build a sci­ence-led evid­ence base in part­ner­ship with research organ­isa­tions, prac­ti­tion­ers and estates and to con­sider wheth­er there is a need for action on non-nat­ive gamebird releases in the Nation­al Park.

Baseline data and indicators

• Game and Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust Report 2025.

Tar­gets

• Met­rics of gamebird impacts spe­cif­ic to the Cairngorms agreed by 2028 and assessed by 2029.

Actions

• Work with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to carry out research on gamebird impacts in the Nation­al Park.
• Depend­ing on the evid­ence gathered, con­sider wheth­er the Park Author­ity takes for­ward action on non-nat­ive gamebird releases by 2030.

2. Sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive farming

Sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive farm­ing not only pro­duces food, but it also restores and renews nat­ur­al assets, par­tic­u­larly soils and eco­sys­tem health, through prin­ciples-based, eco­lo­gic­al improve­ment. In the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive farm­ing gen­er­ates numer­ous bene­fits: bet­ter soil health, more biod­iversity, improved car­bon reten­tion, effect­ive water man­age­ment, increased resi­li­ence to cli­mate change, a reduc­tion or remov­al of inputs, and the pro­mo­tion of health and vital­ity in farm­ing communities.

At the heart of this approach is soil. Farm­ers are mov­ing away from intens­ive prac­tices and toward grass­lands and diverse plant mixes that build organ­ic mat­ter, retain water, and store car­bon. This not only sup­ports pro­ductiv­ity but also pro­tects water­ways like the Rivers Spey, Dee or Esk.

Live­stock still plays a cent­ral role, but graz­ing is man­aged more care­fully, with rota­tion to allow veget­a­tion to recov­er and to avoid over­use. This helps improve biod­iversity* and aligns with wider efforts to restore peat­lands and nat­ive woodlands.

Sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive farm­ing also means integ­rat­ing food pro­duc­tion with nature recov­ery. Less pro­duct­ive land is allowed to re-wet, while chem­ic­al input use like fer­til­isers and impor­ted feed is reduced to build more resi­li­ent, self-sus­tain­ing systems.

Over­all, the Cairngorms are see­ing a gradu­al trans­ition towards farm­ing that not only pro­duces food but act­ively restores the land­scape it depends on. This Park Plan includes meas­ures to con­tin­ue to sup­port this transition.

Baseline data and indicators

• Agri­cul­ture census data.
• Farms using regen­er­at­ive practices.
• Hec­tares of land in Scot­tish Government’s Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme (AECS) or fol­low on schemes.
• Car­bon audit data.

Tar­gets

• Reduc­tion of chem­ic­al inputs like fer­til­isers and impor­ted feed across the Nation­al Park.
• Increas­ing trend in num­ber of farms adopt­ing regen­er­at­ive farm­ing practices.

Actions

• Deliv­er nature-friendly farm­ing pro­jects as part of the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, such as, spe­cies rich-grass­land and waders (see spe­cies recov­ery on page 43).
• Work with the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to make the Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme more region­ally rel­ev­ant and increase uptake.
• Expand the Cairngorms 2030 future farm­ing pro­gramme to sup­port sus­tain­able farm­ing to improve farm busi­ness resi­li­ence and profitability.
• Map and sta­bil­ise flood banks with nature-based solu­tions* where appropriate.
• Sup­port high-qual­ity loc­al food pro­duc­tion and explore brand­ing sup­port for loc­al food producers.
• Deliv­er land­scape-scale activ­it­ies includ­ing regen­er­at­ive farm­ing through devel­op­ment of farm clusters and long-term man­age­ment agreements*.

See busi­ness and enter­prise devel­op­ment on page 54 for fur­ther train­ing / skills actions.

3. Catch­ment resilience

Catch­ment* resi­li­ence is a key issue for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Cairngorms has the head­wa­ters for five major river sys­tems: the Spey, Dee, Don, North and South Esk, and Tay. Decisions taken in this area have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on com­munit­ies and busi­ness both with­in and bey­ond the bound­ar­ies of the Nation­al Park and over large parts of Scotland.

As pre­dicted by cli­mate change mod­els, we have seen increas­ing peri­ods of drought impact­ing on farm­ers, busi­nesses, com­munit­ies and wild­life like sal­mon and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels. We have also seen chan­ging snowpacks, an increase in large storms and rivers in the Nation­al Park strug­gling with the volume of water, lead­ing to sig­ni­fic­ant flood­ing in Aviemore, Bal­later and Brechin. Catch­ments in the Nation­al Park are increas­ingly unable to cope with the pres­sures of cli­mate change and meet pub­lic needs. In most cases grey infra­struc­ture does not provide long-term sus­tain­able solu­tions without com­men­sur­ate invest­ment at a catch­ment* scale. These impacts and their asso­ci­ated costs are increas­ing every year.

There are also issues with the cur­rent approach to water man­age­ment. It is import­ant to acknow­ledge that the bene­fit of water man­age­ment in the upper catch­ment tends to accrue to those who live or have busi­nesses in the lower catch­ment. Con­versely, the cost of water man­age­ment is accrued by those in the upper catchment.

Exist­ing water man­age­ment mech­an­isms do not provide the longev­ity of com­mit­ment needed for land man­agers to change sys­tems. Pub­lic invest­ment and oth­er levers influ­en­cing land use are often siloed and not tar­geted in a place-based man­ner which some­times leads to over­lap­ping lay­ers of com­pet­ing and con­tra­dict­ory objectives.

We need to change our approach to water man­age­ment by bet­ter align­ing and tar­get­ing pub­lic invest­ment around agreed, geo­graph­ic­ally spe­cif­ic out­comes that can deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits. We need to re-nat­ur­al­ise and build catch­ment resi­li­ence with nature-based solu­tions*. These will be an effi­cient use of pub­lic sec­tor resource and fin­ance in the long term, as resources required to deal with the site-spe­cif­ic impacts of cli­mate change will increase over time.

There are also oppor­tun­it­ies to explore blen­ded fin­ance* mod­els where water resource man­age­ment is part of private busi­ness sup­ply chain and risk man­age­ment. Pay­ments and long-term agree­ments with land man­agers are neces­sary to secure man­age­ment for desired water man­age­ment outcomes.

Baseline data and indicators

• Cairngorms Nature Index* value of over­all health.
• Mor­pho­lo­gic­al health, or naturalness.
• Num­ber of metres3 of extra water stor­age created.
• Kilo­metres of river restored to nat­ur­al or near nat­ur­al state.

Tar­gets

• Down­ward trend in spring extreme low flows and winter extreme high flows, com­pared against mod­elled future predictions.

Actions

• Deliv­er Pub­lic Ser­vice Reform and catch­ment* resi­li­ence pro­gramme in the Dee and Esk catchments.
• Devel­op a long-term plan for the effi­cient and equit­able man­age­ment of water in the Nation­al Park.
• Carry out oppor­tun­ity map­ping, cost­ing and deliv­ery of nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment where appro­pri­ate in col­lab­or­a­tion with land managers.
• Offer long-term man­age­ment agree­ments* to secure land being man­aged for water retention.
• Sup­port for river res­tor­a­tion pro­jects to improve biod­iversity, con­serve the Atlantic sal­mon, slow the flow*, and real­ise wider bene­fits for communities.
• Remove all arti­fi­cial bar­ri­ers to fish pas­sage where practicable.

Fig­ure four: Map of north­east Scot­land high­light­ing head­wa­ters of the Spey, Dee, Don, North and South Esk and Tay catch­ments in the Nation­al Park and com­munit­ies affected downstream. (Map illus­trat­ing river catch­ments ori­gin­at­ing in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and down­stream settlements.)

4. Land­scape-scale eco­sys­tem restoration

Land­scape-scale eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion is about recon­nect­ing a frag­men­ted sys­tem, mak­ing it lar­ger by con­nect­ing wood­land, fresh­wa­ter, restored peat­lands and hab­it­at mosa­ics in the uplands and help­ing it to func­tion bet­ter as a whole.

4a. Nature networks

The focus of this area of work is to rebuild con­nectiv­ity between hab­it­ats through nature net­works*, to improve func­tion­al­ity and enable spe­cies to move, adapt, and recov­er. Nat­ive wood­land and open hab­it­ats con­nect­ing catch­ments*, health­i­er river and wet­land sys­tems, restored peat­lands and a mosa­ic of diversity in the uplands are begin­ning to form an inter­con­nec­ted eco­lo­gic­al fab­ric across the Nation­al Park.

Baseline data and indicators

• Nature Net­works maps.
• Hec­tares and con­nectiv­ity of wood­land in nature networks.
• Extent of trees and shrubs in mont­ane core*.
• Hec­tares and con­nectiv­ity of spe­cies rich grassland.
• Num­ber and con­nectiv­ity of new ponds.

Tar­gets

• 1,000 hec­tares of wood­land cre­ation is in nature net­work corridors.
• Increased extent of wil­lows, birch, juni­per and shrubs in the mont­ane core.
• Increased con­nectiv­ity of woodland.
• Increased num­ber and con­nectiv­ity of ponds.
• Improved extent and con­nectiv­ity of spe­cies rich grass­land network.

Actions

• Pri­or­it­ise fund­ing and resources to deliv­er eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion in the core mont­ane area and in nature net­works in the Nation­al Park.
• Max­im­ise the use of Scot­tish Forestry Grant Scheme and blen­ded fin­ance* to cata­lyse wood­land cre­ation in nature networks*.
• Cre­ate a net­work of spe­cies and struc­tur­al diversity* in the man­aged uplands, break­ing up big areas of homo­gen­eity and cre­at­ing a mosa­ic of habitats.
• Extend and scale up plant­ing of upland / mont­ane trees and shrubs.
• Cre­ate nat­ur­al firebreaks through the deliv­ery of a wet­land and fresh­wa­ter nature network.
• Spa­tially pri­or­it­ise and tar­get the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund and inward invest­ment towards key eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion areas like nature net­works and the core mont­ane area.

Fig­ure five: Wood­land con­nectiv­ity corridors (Map show­ing wood­land con­nectiv­ity cor­ridors with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.)

Fig­ure six: Over­all water qual­ity of fresh­wa­ter water­bod­ies in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (Map illus­trat­ing the over­all water qual­ity of fresh­wa­ter bod­ies with­in the Nation­al Park, with a legend indic­at­ing High, Good, Mod­er­ate, Poor, and Bad status.)

Fig­ure sev­en: Mont­ane core (Map high­light­ing the mont­ane core area with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.)

4b. Eco­sys­tem restoration

Eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion under­pins nature net­works*. Degraded land is being re-wet­ted, nat­ive spe­cies are return­ing, and nat­ur­al pro­cesses are being allowed to shape the land­scape again, par­tic­u­larly in areas like Cairngorms Con­nect and Mar Lodge Estate.

Des­ig­na­tions have provided an import­ant frame­work for identi­fy­ing, pro­tect­ing and mon­it­or­ing what was felt to be import­ant spe­cies and hab­it­ats. How­ever, we are at a time of chan­ging approaches to con­ser­va­tion, re-align­ing pri­or­it­ies and out­comes towards mit­ig­at­ing for and adapt­ing to the effects of the twin crises (nature and cli­mate emer­gency*). As we look to deliv­er what we need in the future as well as what we need to pro­tect now, there are some instances where the way des­ig­na­tions are set up, or com­monly inter­preted, is act­ing as a bar­ri­er to deliv­er­ing these out­comes. A more mobile, adapt­ive frame­work would enable flex­ib­il­ity as part of nat­ur­al pro­cesses whilst main­tain­ing exist­ing com­mit­ments at a landscape-scale.

More struc­tur­al and spe­cies diversity in the mont­ane core* and more wood­land net­works will deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits for nature, cli­mate and people. They will also increase fuel load. Wild­fire resi­li­ence plan­ning will there­fore play a crit­ic­al part in achiev­ing these object­ives and pro­tect­ing the net­works. This will involve con­sid­er­ing a range of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, includ­ing stra­tegic firebreaks in wood­land cor­ridors, both nat­ur­al and man-made, and re-wet­ting (see fire man­age­ment on page 27).

Baseline data and indicators

• Per­cent­age of the Nation­al Park cur­rently man­aged for eco­sys­tem restoration.

Tar­gets

• At least 50% of the Nation­al Park to be man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion by 2045.

Actions

• Cre­ate and sup­port land­scape-scale partnerships.
• Increase amount of land in Nature30* agreements.
• Offer long-term man­age­ment agree­ments* to secure land being man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem restoration.
• Redesign our approach to con­ser­va­tion des­ig­na­tions* in the Nation­al Park by 2030 to help deliv­er eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion and con­trib­ute to eco­lo­gic­al net­works in line with new Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy.
• Provide a report by 2028 on the data and evid­ence of com­munity and wider socio-eco­nom­ic bene­fits gen­er­ated by land man­aged prin­cip­ally for eco­sys­tem restoration.
• All Land Man­age­ment Plans required through the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2025 to show their con­tri­bu­tion to the imple­ment­a­tion of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

4c. Wood­land expan­sion and management

The ancient wood­lands of the Nation­al Park are some of the most import­ant in the UK. Nat­ive wood­land expan­sion is an import­ant part of eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion. The expan­sion of Cale­do­ni­an pine forests and mixed broadleaved wood­lands through reduced graz­ing and nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion* is cre­at­ing a more nat­ur­al land­scape of trees and open hab­it­ats, improv­ing biod­iversity, increas­ing shade, and sta­bil­ising soils. Wood­land expan­sion in the Cairngorms is about deliv­er­ing mul­tiple bene­fits for nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence, whilst also provid­ing a long-term eco­nom­ic resource for the Nation­al Park. In the right place there are also car­bon stor­age bene­fits although this is not the primary driver for wood­land expan­sion in the Nation­al Park.

Increas­ing the amount of wood­land through plant­ing and nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion will pro­duce many bene­fits for biod­iversity, the eco­nomy and cli­mate resi­li­ence. It will also increase field lay­er veget­a­tion in some areas for a sig­ni­fic­ant peri­od of time. Large areas of mature wood­land and re-wet­ted areas will help cre­ate a more fire resi­li­ent land­scape in the future. How­ever, these hab­it­ats will take many years to devel­op and dur­ing the inter­ven­ing peri­od fuel loads will increase, as will the cor­res­pond­ing need for fire risk mit­ig­a­tion. The Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan encour­ages land man­agers to con­sider how they might reduce the risk of wild­fire and increase wild­fire resi­li­ence in this chan­ging landscape.

Man­age­ment of exist­ing wood­lands is also cru­cial. The exist­ing wood­lands are dom­in­ated by areas of pro­duct­ive nat­ive wood­lands, pre­dom­in­ately Scots pine. These wood­lands deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits for nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence, whilst also provid­ing a long-term eco­nom­ic resource includ­ing a source of qual­ity tim­ber. The sus­tain­able man­age­ment of these wood­lands includ­ing deer man­age­ment, res­tor­a­tion and man­age­ment of Plant­a­tions on Ancient Wood­land Sites, safe­guard­ing and enhan­cing the integ­rity of exist­ing ancient wood­lands, chan­ging spe­cies diversity, pos­it­ive man­age­ment of field lay­er and a move towards more con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry* will improve cli­mate and wild­fire resilience.

Baseline data and indicators

• Cairngorms Nature Index* wood­land con­di­tion value.
• Cur­rent wood­land area.
• Cur­rent nat­ive wood­land area.
• Nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion* area.

Tar­gets

• Upward trend in wood­land condition.
• A min­im­um of 7,000 hec­tares cre­ated between 2027 and 2032 as a con­tri­bu­tion towards the long-term tar­get of 35,000 hec­tares between 2022 and 2045.
• Min­im­um of 80% of new wood­land will be nat­ive woodland.
• Min­im­um of 2,500 hec­tares of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion by 2032 towards the long-term tar­get of 10,000 hec­tares by 2045.
• Increase in area man­aged as con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry*.

Actions

• Max­im­ise use of the Scot­tish Forestry Grant Scheme to encour­age a pipeline of new schemes.
• Pro­mote and provide sup­port for the use of con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry where suitable.
• All new wood­land cre­ation schemes and Long-Term Forest Plans will include an assess­ment of wild­fire risk and plans to mitigate.
• Pro­duce forest wild­fire risk map by 2028.
• Focus on deer man­age­ment as part of forestry pro­pos­als to sup­port con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry, encour­age nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion and min­im­ise fencing.
• Increase wood­land graz­ing with cattle.
• Review Cairngorms Nation­al Park Forest Strategy by 2030 and sup­port imple­ment­a­tion with train­ing and advice.
• Map sitka spruce seeded out­with plant­a­tions and take action to reduce.

5. Spe­cies recovery

Spe­cies recov­ery is linked closely with eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion but there is a need to give some of our most threatened and icon­ic spe­cies a help­ing hand whilst hab­it­ats recover.

Man­age­ment for cer­tain key­stone or flag­ship spe­cies* also provides bene­fits for oth­er spe­cies. If wood­lands have healthy caper­cail­lie and wood ant pop­u­la­tions, they will also have cas­cad­ing bene­fits for the entire eco­sys­tem. Sim­il­arly, a healthy aspen net­work will sup­port a suite of pri­or­ity spe­cies. The con­verse also applies: recov­er­ing moor­land rap­tor pop­u­la­tions are an indic­at­or of sus­tain­ably and less intens­ively man­aged uplands. There is also a need to ensure a bal­ance between access man­age­ment and spe­cies dis­turb­ance which is set out in the man­aging for vis­it­ors section.

Spe­cies recov­ery plans focus on spe­cies where action will have mul­tiple bene­fits for oth­er species.

The Cairngorms Nature Action Plan* will also include actions on oth­er spe­cies to be delivered through part­ner­ship work­ing, includ­ing Scot­tish wild­cat, rare inver­teb­rates and rare plants projects.

Baseline data and indicators

• Cairngorms Nature Index* con­di­tion for:
  • Caper­cail­lie
  • Waders
  • Aspen
  • Beavers
  • Fresh­wa­ter pearl mussels
  • Rap­tors
  • Wood ants
• Num­ber of beaver mit­ig­a­tion incid­ents resolved.

Tar­gets

Indic­at­ors show­ing a pos­it­ive trend towards sus­tained pop­u­la­tion increase by 2045 for:

• Caper­cail­lie
• Waders
• Aspen
• Beavers
• Fresh­wa­ter pearl mussels
• Rap­tors
• Wood ants

Actions

Devel­op­ment of and / or con­tin­ued imple­ment­a­tion of spe­cies recov­ery plans, emer­gency plans and man­age­ment plans for:

• Caper­cail­lie
  • Key action: deliv­er emer­gency plan.
• Waders
  • Key action: tri­al tech­niques to man­age the impacts of predation.
• Aspen
  • Key action: plant 10,000 trees in key locations.
• Beavers
  • Key action: deliv­er man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion plan.
• Fresh water pearl mussels
  • Key action: trans­lo­ca­tion pro­gramme sup­por­ted by con­ser­va­tion breed­ing facility.
• Rap­tors
  • Key action: elim­in­ate rap­tor persecution.
• Wood ants
  • Key action: trans­lo­ca­tion pro­gramme to rein­force and expand populations.

6. Cli­mate mitigation

The deliv­ery of cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion is an import­ant by-product of the actions in all the sec­tions of this Plan and will guide the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan* and oth­er work. The aim is to cre­ate a nature rich and cli­mate resi­li­ent Nation­al Park. This will help to reduce our emis­sions and store more car­bon, as part of Scotland’s over­all jour­ney to decar­bon­ise. It is import­ant that we con­tin­ue to play our part in redu­cing emis­sions and seques­ter­ing car­bon as the neg­at­ive impacts of high­er tem­per­at­ures on nature, people and sys­tems will be con­sid­er­able over the com­ing decades.

Baseline data and indicators

• Small World Con­sult­ing car­bon audit mod­el and baseline data.

Tar­gets

• Con­tinu­al reduc­tion in emis­sions from the Nation­al Park.

Actions

• Green­house gas emis­sion audit car­ried out on a bi-annu­al basis.

Policy pos­i­tions: nature and cli­mate resilience

Policy one Pol­luter pays prin­ciple will under­pin the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, whereby those respons­ible for pol­lu­tion should bear the costs of remediation.

Policy two The man­age­ment and use of land in the Nation­al Park should deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits in line with the Park’s aims and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Policy three Nature and cli­mate fund­ing from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment should be tar­geted on the deliv­ery of the stat­utory Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Policy four Private invest­ment in eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion should be trans­par­ent and the com­munity bene­fits asso­ci­ated with it should be spe­cif­ic and aligned with best practice.

Policy five No whole­sale con­ver­sion of enclosed, in-bye agri­cul­tur­al land* to forestry. In-bye agri-cul­tur­al land is defined as any land which is or has been enclosed or delin­eated by fences, dykes, hedges etc (includ­ing appor­tioned land) and which has been used for cul-tiv­a­tion, pro­duc­tion of for­age or closely con­trolled graz­ing by stock.

Policy six Adhere at a min­im­um to the Muir­burn Code and cease burn­ing on deep peat except for pur­poses as agreed through muir­burn* licence pro­cess, includ­ing for pre­vent­ing, or redu­cing the risk of, wild­fires where appropriate.

Policy sev­en Reduce the impacts of red deer and oth­er herb­i­vores (roe deer, fal­low deer, sheep, rab­bits, brown and moun­tain hare) in areas focussed on the deliv­ery of nature recov­ery objectives.

Policy eight Main­tain dark skies.

Policy nine Con­serve and enhance the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park.

Policy ten Pre­sump­tion against new con­struc­ted tracks in open moor­land but, where agreed through the plan­ning pro­cess, new tracks should be con­struc­ted to a high stand­ard, and con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en to how they might con­trib­ute to stra­tegic firebreaks.

Policy elev­en Wood­land cre­ation and man­age­ment should be primar­ily achieved through nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion* with the min­im­um amount of fen­cing. No wood­land cre­ation schemes or Long-Term Forest Plans will be sup­por­ted without an appro­pri­ate fire plan.

Policy twelve All land hold­ings over 1,000 hec­tares must have a fire man­age­ment plan.

Policy thir­teen Pro­pos­als for biod­iversity* enhance­ment asso­ci­ated with new devel­op­ment will be sup­por­ted where they con­trib­ute to nature net­works*, catch­ment* resi­li­ence and eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion in the mont­ane core*.

Policy four­teen Dis­turb­ance to sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats will be min­im­ised through act­ive management.

Policy fif­teen The Cairngorms Nation­al Park will con­trib­ute to the deliv­ery of net zero for Scot­land by 2045 and the regen­er­a­tion and res­tor­a­tion of biod­iversity by 2045.

Policy six­teen The over­all integ­rity of the des­ig­na­tion sys­tem in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will be main­tained where it deliv­ers for eco­sys­tem restoration.

Policy sev­en­teen Spe­cies con­ser­va­tion will focus on mul­tiple bene­fits and the con­text of wider, land­scape-scale eco­sys­tem res­tor­a­tion tak­ing place.

Policy eight­een All form­al con­sulta­tions includ­ing the Forestry Grant Scheme, plan­ning and licences to include a con­sid­er­a­tion of slow­ing the flow* and catch­ment* resilience.

---

Mis­sion two: communities

The dia­gram on page 49 shows the inter­linked themes: Afford­able hous­ing, Com­munity devel­op­ment, Busi­ness and enter­prise devel­op­ment, Cul­tur­al her­it­age, Trans­port, all revolving around Communities.

Mis­sion

By put­ting loc­al res­id­ents at the heart of decision-mak­ing and sup­port­ing a loc­al eco­nomy that works for every­one, people and busi­nesses will become more resi­li­ent, lead­ing to thriv­ing com­munit­ies across the Nation­al Park.

Con­text

The 18,000 people who live and work in the Nation­al Park are cru­cial for its long-term suc­cess. There is a need to sup­port com­munity devel­op­ment organ­isa­tions and busi­nesses to help cre­ate the sort of places where people want to live and busi­nesses want to loc­ate in and grow. The deliv­ery of afford­able hous­ing* is a key part of mak­ing the Nation­al Park work for res­id­ents and busi­nesses. There has been sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress over the past five years, with 159 afford­able houses built in the Nation­al Park between April 2020 and March 2026 and a short-term let con­trol area intro­duced in Badenoch and Strath­spey. Fin­ance for afford­able hous­ing is the cru­cial issue with increased con­struc­tion costs mean­ing that many of the sites in rur­al areas of the Nation­al Park are dif­fi­cult to devel­op without sig­ni­fic­ant pub­lic intervention.

There are many out­stand­ing com­munity organ­isa­tions across the Nation­al Park under­tak­ing sig­ni­fic­ant work for their com­munit­ies. It is import­ant that we con­tin­ue to sup­port these organ­isa­tions to deliv­er the aspir­a­tions set out in Com­munity Action Plans. It’s also vital that com­munit­ies have the right tools to deliv­er on the ground. Capa­city-build­ing is import­ant to sup­port com­munit­ies and busi­nesses to become more fin­an­cially sus­tain­able, redu­cing reli­ance on pub­lic fund­ing in the medi­um to long term.

Com­munity wealth build­ing* will be at the heart of deliv­er­ing the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, in line with the Com­munity Wealth Build­ing (Scot­land) Act 2026. Work­ing togeth­er, pub­lic bod­ies are required to sup­port an approach where more of the money spent by pub­lic bod­ies cir­cu­lates loc­ally and stim­u­lates new oppor­tun­it­ies. This includes oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al busi­nesses to access pub­lic pro­cure­ment, for private busi­ness and social enter­prise to start up and grow, and to sup­port flows of invest­ment into the loc­al economy.

Terms marked with an aster­isk* through­out this doc­u­ment appear in the gloss­ary on page 82

1. Afford­able housing

Afford­able hous­ing* in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is essen­tial to sus­tain­ing our com­munit­ies as well as the land­scape. The Nation­al Park is a liv­ing, work­ing area, but high house prices com­pared to wages is mak­ing it very dif­fi­cult for young people and key work­ers to get on the hous­ing lad­der. This is a prob­lem exper­i­enced in many areas across Scot­land and the United Kingdom.

Provid­ing afford­able homes sup­ports loc­al ser­vices, busi­nesses, and year-round pop­u­la­tions, help­ing main­tain vibrant rur­al com­munit­ies. At the same time, new hous­ing has to be care­fully designed to respect the Nation­al Park’s spe­cial envir­on­ment, focus­ing on exist­ing set­tle­ments and using low-impact, sus­tain­able approaches.

The pre­vi­ous Park Plan peri­od saw the intro­duc­tion of the short-term let con­trol area in Badenoch and Strath­spey. The ini­tial inform­a­tion on this policy is that it is hav­ing the desired effect of stop­ping houses being lost to the short-term let mar­ket. The increase in second home coun­cil tax will also have an impact on the second home market.

Baseline data and indicators

• Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan* evid­ence base.
• Cur­rent num­ber of homes.
• Cur­rent num­ber of short-term lets and trend.
• Cur­rent num­ber second homes and trend.
• Hous­ing com­ple­tions per annum and per­cent­age of afford­able hous­ing on alloc­ated sites or over five dwellings.
• Bien­ni­al res­id­ent and work­er sur­vey data.

Tar­gets

• No more than 15% of all hous­ing stock in the Nation­al Park will be second homes, vacant or short-term let prop­er­ties by 2040.
• By 2030, 75% of new hous­ing is for social rent­al, mid-mar­ket rent­al or oth­er afford­able cat­egor­ies that provide afford­ab­il­ity in perpetuity.

Actions

• Main­tain short-term let con­trol area for Badenoch and Strath­spey, estab­lish a short-term let con­trol area for High­land Perth­shire and con­sider the poten­tial for a fur­ther con­trol area in Deeside.
• Use the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan* (LDP) to alloc­ate deliv­er­able land for a Loc­al Hous­ing Land Require­ment* (LHLR) exceed­ing the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4* (NPF4) 10-year min­im­um all ten­ure require­ment of 850 units.
• Hous­ing deliv­ery pipeline on track to meet LHLR for first five years of LDP peri­od. Ensure that at least 75% of new homes are built as afford­able and / or mid-mar­ket rent homes through loc­al author­ity Stra­tegic Hous­ing Invest­ment Plans and afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery programmes.
• Loc­al author­it­ies should ring-fence second home coun­cil tax addi­tion­al charges (above the ini­tial 100%) col­lec­ted in the Nation­al Park for invest­ment in afford­able hous­ing options in the area of the Loc­al Author­ity with­in the Nation­al Park or estab­lish equi­val­ent fund­ing streams of equi­val­ent value to deliv­er afford­able hous­ing options needed to sup­port their com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park. This should be in addi­tion to fund­ing from the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Afford­able Hous­ing Sup­ply Programme.

Fig­ure eight: Short-term let con­trol areas, estab­lished and pro­posed, cov­er­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (Map show­ing estab­lished and pro­posed short-term let con­trol areas with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Legend indic­ates ​“Estab­lished” and ​“Await­ing Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment approv­al” areas.)

2. Busi­ness and enter­prise development

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is home to more than 1,000 busi­nesses, most of which are small or micro-busi­nesses employ­ing few­er than 10 people. Addi­tion­ally, social enter­prises or com­munity enter­prises* are an estab­lished part of the economy.

These busi­nesses span sec­tors such as:

• Tour­ism and hospitality
• Food and drink
• Agri­cul­ture and land management
• Retail
• Con­struc­tion
• Man­u­fac­tur­ing
• Cre­at­ive industries

Two sec­tors under­pin the eco­nomy of the Nation­al Park in dif­fer­ent ways.

Firstly, tour­ism is espe­cially import­ant to the loc­al eco­nomy, dir­ectly or indir­ectly sup­port­ing a large share of long-term employ­ment in the area and provid­ing con­stant oppor­tun­it­ies to start and grow new busi­nesses. Since the Nation­al Park was estab­lished, the length of the tour­ism sea­son has been exten­ded into pre­vi­ously quieter months, allow­ing busi­nesses to oper­ate over more of the year and to provide more secure employ­ment. Grow­ing the value of those quieter months fur­ther will make tour­ism busi­nesses more resi­li­ent as well as increase and improve employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies for those dir­ectly and indir­ectly employed by the invest­ment that vis­it­ors bring.

One type of tour­ism busi­ness has already been affected by the chan­ging cli­mate, in par­tic­u­lar win­ters with less snow, is ski­ing. The Nation­al Park has three of Scotland’s five main ski centres, each oper­at­ing under dif­fer­ent busi­ness mod­els, but all with a need to diver­si­fy and invest in products for vis­it­ors that don’t require snow if they are to con­tin­ue to oper­ate in the long term.

Secondly, land-based busi­nesses are crit­ic­ally import­ant to the deliv­ery of the nature and cli­mate sec­tion of this Part­ner­ship Plan and play a vital role in sup­port­ing the employ­ment in and vibrancy of remoter rur­al com­munit­ies. Much land man­age­ment is chan­ging to sup­port nature recov­ery and to adapt to cli­mate change. This is chan­ging the costs of man­aging the land and the sources of income that main­tain jobs. There is a need to sup­port sus­tain­able busi­ness models.

Baseline data and indicators

• The gross value of tour­ism, employ­ment in the sec­tor and sea­son­al trends are estim­ated annu­ally through Scot­tish Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Impact Mod­el (STEAM).
• Num­ber of people employed in land-based roles.

Tar­gets

• Increase the annu­al value of tour­ism to the Nation­al Park by more than the Scot­tish aver­age rate of increase.
• Increase the rate of value increase in tour­ism to the Nation­al Park in autumn, winter and spring by more than the sum­mer sea­son increase.
• Main­tain or increase the num­ber of people employed in land-based roles in the Nation­al Park.

Actions

Tour­ism

• Deliv­er a spe­cif­ic winter mar­ket­ing cam­paign to tar­get off-peak sea­son visits.
• Devel­op an events strategy for Nation­al Park to sup­port year-round events for com­munit­ies and vis­it­ors by 2028.
• Renew the Nation­al Park’s accred­it­a­tion with the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas and deliv­er a revised Tour­ism Action Plan.
• Ensure any Vis­it­or Levy schemes intro­duced that cov­er the Nation­al Park sup­port invest­ment in vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and ser­vices with­in the Nation­al Park to sup­port deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Ski-centres

• Each ski centre should be sup­por­ted to review their long-term busi­ness plan to take account of less reli­able win­ters and any need to diver­si­fy activ­it­ies or ration­al­ise infrastructure.

Land-based

• Provide sup­port for land-based busi­nesses to trans­ition busi­ness mod­els, sup­port their work­force to adapt skills, and devel­op train­ing and oppor­tun­it­ies for new entrants.
• Sup­port skills and train­ing to deliv­er con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry*.
• Roll out of agri­cul­ture advice / best prac­tice and train­ing from the Cairngorms 2030 future farm­ing project.
• Devel­op the use of brand­ing for high-qual­ity loc­al food producers.

Oppor­tun­it­ies for young people

• Devel­op the ​‘Your Future Here’ pro­gramme to show­case the oppor­tun­it­ies for young people to work in the Nation­al Park or devel­op careers here.

Entre­pren­eur­ship

• Estab­lish a small busi­ness loan scheme to sup­port small and micro enter­prise start up or grow, com­ple­ment­ing exist­ing grant schemes.

Enter­prise support

• Main­tain and refine the sup­port sys­tems avail­able to busi­ness in the Nation­al Park through pub­lic sec­tor agen­cies and busi­ness col­lab­or­a­tion, mem­ber organ­isa­tions and social enter­prise sup­port networks.

3. Com­munity development

Com­munit­ies and the people liv­ing in them are cent­ral to the vibrancy and suc­cess of the Nation­al Park. People make a place, and the com­munit­ies of the Cairngorms are no exception.

Over 18,000 people live in the Nation­al Park, spread across five loc­al author­ity areas and over 20 dis­tinct com­munit­ies. From Atholl in the south to Grant­own-on-Spey in the north, Lag­gan in the west to Bal­later and Strath­don in the east, each of these com­munit­ies has its own dis­tinct char­ac­ter and iden­tity. What unites them is a pride in their loc­al area and a com­mit­ment to deliv­er on the ground for their res­id­ents and visitors.

Every com­munity with­in the Nation­al Park has a Com­munity Action Plan or equi­val­ent developed by loc­al res­id­ents, which sets out their key pri­or­it­ies over the next five years. The Park Author­ity and its part­ners will con­tin­ue to sup­port the deliv­ery and renew­al of these plans, ensur­ing loc­al pri­or­it­ies are achieved.

Baseline data and indicators

• Assets under com­munity own­er­ship or management.
• Bien­ni­al res­id­ent and work­er survey.
• Com­munit­ies with up-to-date Com­munity Action Plans or Loc­al Place Plans.
• Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Fund­ing level.

Tar­gets

• The num­bers of assets in com­munity own­er­ship or man­age­ment increases year on year.
• All com­munit­ies have Com­munity Action Plans or equi­val­ent in place that are no more than five years old.
• Increased num­ber and vari­ety of grantees.

Actions

• Pro­mote Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion Guid­ance and mon­it­or compliance.
• Sup­port com­munit­ies to acquire and man­age assets.
• A refreshed pro­gramme of sup­port for com­munity action plan­ning and loc­al place plans
• Devel­op and admin­is­ter a new com­munity-led devel­op­ment fund­ing stream, apply­ing best prac­tice in com­munity involve­ment and design of funds where possible.
• Review of cur­rent meth­od­o­logy for Com­munity Action Plans to sup­port com­munit­ies to apply best prac­tice in com­munity par­ti­cip­a­tion and adapt to any wider pub­lic sec­tor reforms of loc­al governance.

4. Cul­tur­al heritage

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is rich in his­tor­ic­al and con­tem­por­ary culture.

People have lived and worked in the area for thou­sands of years, and the Nation­al Park’s her­it­age is cared for by and cel­eb­rated in com­munit­ies across the Cairngorms, through events, inter­pret­a­tion, storytelling and music.

Part­ner organ­isa­tions safe­guard and pro­mote the Nation­al Park’s cul­ture and her­it­age and provide oppor­tun­it­ies for people to exper­i­ence and learn about our out­stand­ing his­tor­ic envir­on­ment, his­tory and culture.

The Cairngorms also has a long and rich asso­ci­ation with Gael­ic, Scots and Dor­ic, from our place names to tra­di­tion­al music, poetry and song. Pub­lic author­it­ies have a stat­utory duty to sup­port the con­tin­ued use of Gael­ic by main­tain­ing it as an act­ive lan­guage and cul­ture and the Scot­tish Lan­guages Act (2025) is likely to provide a sim­il­ar frame­work for Scots and Doric.

Baseline data and indicators

• Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Fund grantee num­bers and range of projects.
• Census data inform­a­tion on Gael­ic, plus num­ber of Gael­ic learners, form­ally and informally.

Tar­gets

• An increas­ing num­ber of com­munity-led cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­jects delivered.
• Increased oppor­tun­it­ies for indi­vidu­als and com­munit­ies to engage with Gael­ic lan­guage and cul­ture, linked to Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan com­mit­ments, as well as Dor­ic and Scots.

Actions

• Inform­al cul­tur­al her­it­age net­work meets regularly.
• Deliv­ery of Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Fund, sup­port­ing com­munity her­it­age pro­jects that deliv­er on pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied by the cul­tur­al her­it­age network.
• All pub­lic bod­ies imple­ment their Gael­ic Lan­guage Plans and equi­val­ents in full.
• Devel­op a suite of sup­port tools for Gael­ic, in col­lab­or­a­tion with loc­al busi­nesses and com­munity / cul­tur­al groups and look at options for Dor­ic and Scots.

5. Trans­port connectivity

Trans­port con­nectiv­ity is fun­da­ment­al to cre­at­ing a Nation­al Park that works for res­id­ents, busi­nesses and visitors.

The dis­persed nature of com­munit­ies, long travel dis­tances, trans­port poverty and lim­ited pub­lic trans­port options can make it dif­fi­cult for people to access employ­ment, edu­ca­tion, health­care, recre­ation and services.

A more con­nec­ted Nation­al Park will reduce reli­ance on private car travel, improve access for those who do not drive and sup­port Scotland’s cli­mate ambitions.

Act­ive travel* routes, pub­lic trans­port ser­vices, com­munity trans­port and integ­rated travel hubs all have a role to play.

Improv­ing con­nectiv­ity is not solely about mov­ing people. It is about increas­ing access to oppor­tun­ity, redu­cing social isol­a­tion, sup­port­ing loc­al busi­nesses and enabling more people to enjoy the Nation­al Park without increas­ing pres­sure on sens­it­ive locations.

Baseline data and indicators

• Num­ber of loc­a­tions with integ­rated trans­port information.
• Num­ber of cycle hubs*, ebike char­ging facil­it­ies and bike hire facilities.
• Vis­it­or and res­id­ent sat­is­fac­tion with sus­tain­able travel options.
• Num­ber of com­munity-led organ­ised rides to school, known as bike buses.

Tar­gets

• Com­munity cycle hubs at appro­pri­ate scales in all main com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park.
• The Aviemore Hi-Bikes scheme is fully oper­a­tion­al, well main­tained and sup­por­ted by a long-term part­ner­ship agreement.

Actions

• Devel­op an Aviemore park and ride mobil­ity hub.
• New off-road act­ive travel* route from Aviemore to Car­rbridge delivered and more coher­ent Kin­gussie to Aviemore route com­pleted, as the A9 dualling work continues.
• Devel­op Grant­own to Dul­nain act­ive travel* route.
• Com­ple­tion of Cairngorms 2030 act­ive com­munit­ies’ projects.
• Deliv­ery of fur­ther act­ive travel* improve­ments reflect­ing Act­ive Travel Plan priorities.
• Com­plete cycle hubs strategy with new hubs at an appro­pri­ate scale in all main com­munit­ies in Nation­al Park.
• Install and main­tain HITRANS Hi-Bikes in Aviemore, with HITRANS and Trans­port Scot­land con­firm­ing long-term part­ner­ship for oper­at­ing and main­tain­ing the scheme.
• Identi­fy a long-term sup­port mod­el for Cairngorms 2030 beha­viour change work on bikes to school and work­place act­ive travel.
• Loc­al author­it­ies to review bus ser­vice pro­vi­sion oppor­tun­it­ies when con­tracts are reviewed.

Fig­ure nine: Key trans­port infra­struc­ture and travel improvements (Map show­ing exist­ing and pro­posed trans­port infra­struc­ture and act­ive travel improve­ments, includ­ing: A9 trunk road, High­land Main Line rail­way, Rail­way sta­tion, Pro­posed new path, Act­ive travel improve­ments, Bike hub invest­ment projects.)

Policy pos­i­tions: communities

Policy one Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of the Nation­al Park and main­tain or grow the pro­por­tion of the work­ing-age population.

Policy two All grant and pub­lic con­tracts from the pub­lic sec­tor expect those receiv­ing to pay the Real Liv­ing Wage, encour­aging fair employ­ment and just labour markets.

Policy three Max­im­ise the pro­por­tion of new hous­ing devel­op­ment that is afford­able in per­petu­ity, using short-term let con­trol areas where needed and licens­ing of short-term let properties.

Policy four Provide a hous­ing land sup­ply and asso­ci­ated policies in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan* that meet the Loc­al Hous­ing Land Require­ment* and sup­port the level of afford­able hous­ing* need iden­ti­fied in the Hous­ing Need and Demand Assessments*.

Policy five Con­sol­id­ate the role of the stra­tegic set­tle­ments iden­ti­fied in the cur­rent and future Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans as the most sus­tain­able places for future growth and the focus for the major­ity of hous­ing land sup­ply in line with infra­struc­ture first prin­ciples, whilst enabling an appro­pri­ate level of growth in inter­me­di­ate and rur­al settlements.

Policy six Sup­port sens­it­ively designed improve­ments to the A9 and oth­er trunk roads and the main rail­way line as an integ­ral part of enhan­cing the con­nectiv­ity of the Highlands.

Policy sev­en Sup­port improve­ments to the mobile com­mu­nic­a­tions net­work that improve access to next gen­er­a­tion tech­no­logy only where it does not have a sig­ni­fic­ant visu­al impact on the Nation­al Park or is in the core wild land area of the Nation­al Park.

Policy eight Increase renew­able elec­tri­city and heat gen­er­a­tion, espe­cially bio­mass, hydro, sol­ar and small-scale wind tur­bines primar­ily where those have a com­munity bene­fit. Large-scale wind tur­bines are not com­pat­ible with the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. They are inap­pro­pri­ate with­in the Nation­al Park, or in areas out­side the Nation­al Park where they adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies and com­prom­ise its over­all integ­rity and object­ives for designation.

Policy nine A high stand­ard of sus­tain­able design, energy and water effi­ciency and sus­tain­ably sourced mater­i­als will be required in new development.

Policy ten Rehab­il­it­a­tion and renov­a­tion of redund­ant rur­al build­ings will be supported.

Policy elev­en Archae­olo­gic­al sites and their set­tings will be protected.

Policy twelve Pro­mote Gael­ic lan­guage and cul­ture along­side Dor­ic and Scots.

Policy thir­teen Sup­port com­munity and social enter­prises* to devel­op sus­tain­able fin­an­cial mod­els and reduce reli­ance on ongo­ing pub­lic sec­tor funding.

Policy four­teen Sup­port innov­a­tion and entre­pren­eur­ship to help busi­nesses and social enter­prises start up and grow in the Nation­al Park includ­ing altern­at­ive busi­ness mod­els, employ­ee-owned busi­nesses, tar­geted fin­ance and reten­tion of value in pub­lic sec­tor spend­ing. In gen­er­al, exist­ing com­mer­cial prop­er­ties should remain so and con­ver­sion to altern­at­ive uses should only be con­sidered where a com­mer­cial use is no longer viable.

Policy fif­teen Sup­port bring­ing vacant and derel­ict land back into use in a way that provides fin­an­cial, social or envir­on­ment­al bene­fit to the community.

---

Mis­sion three: Nation­al Park for all

The dia­gram on page 64 shows the inter­linked themes: Man­aging for vis­it­ors, Out­door access and recre­ation, Health and well­being, Inclu­sion and access­ib­il­ity, Volun­teer­ing, Out­door Learn­ing, all revolving around Nation­al Park for all.

Mis­sion

By increas­ing access­ib­il­ity for all to the Nation­al Park and sus­tain­ably man­aging vis­it­or pres­sure, people will bene­fit from nature and the out­doors, lead­ing to bet­ter phys­ic­al and men­tal health.

Con­text

The Nation­al Park wel­comes over two and a half mil­lion vis­it­ors each year with over four mil­lion vis­it­or days. Tour­ism is the main employ­er in the Nation­al Park sup­port­ing more than 6,000 full-time equi­val­ent jobs. It is also the key eco­nom­ic driver of the Nation­al Park con­trib­ut­ing £522 mil­lion in 2025 to the loc­al eco­nomy. There is a need to ensure that loc­al com­munit­ies bene­fit from this, and that invest­ment is made in the right places to ensure that vis­it­ors are sup­por­ted to pro­tect the envir­on­ment of the Nation­al Park.

This mis­sion focuses on ensur­ing that the Nation­al Park is genu­inely a Park for all. By improv­ing access, sup­port­ing pub­lic health, pro­mot­ing equal­ity and cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for volun­teer­ing and learn­ing, we can ensure that more people bene­fit from the Nation­al Park while pro­tect­ing the spe­cial qual­it­ies that make it unique.

1. Man­aging for visitors

Annu­al vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park have increased from over one mil­lion to two and a half mil­lion people since the Nation­al Park was estab­lished. Whilst this has provided a wel­come boost to the loc­al eco­nomy, it has increased pres­sure on infra­struc­ture, ser­vices and the envir­on­ment dur­ing peak peri­ods. The avail­ab­il­ity of hous­ing for people work­ing in the Nation­al Park is stretched and this is impact­ing on the poten­tial of busi­nesses to meet cus­tom­er demands and provide high-qual­ity services.

Vis­it­ors will remain an essen­tial part of the eco­nomy of the Nation­al Park. Our ambi­tion is to see the bene­fits of the vis­it­or eco­nomy being real­ised more widely across the Nation­al Park and pres­sures eased, with more focus on the off-peak seasons.

Over the past few years, a winter mar­ket­ing cam­paign has encour­aged vis­it­ors to come to the Cairngorms in quieter peri­ods. This has led to a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in vis­it­ors between Octo­ber and March each year, help­ing loc­al businesses.

Baseline data and indicators

• Scot­tish Tour­ism Eco­nom­ic Activ­ity Mon­it­or (STEAM) data
• Vis­it­or survey
• Ranger patrol data

Tar­gets

• Growth in vis­it­or num­bers is con­cen­trated at off-peak times of year and in areas with capacity.
• Length of vis­it­or stays increase.
• Vis­it­or sat­is­fac­tion levels remain high.
• Num­ber of pub­licly avail­able toi­lets with­in the Nation­al Park is maintained.
• Num­ber of pub­lic toi­let facil­it­ies for people with addi­tion­al needs increases.
• Num­ber of man­aged facil­it­ies for camper­vans and motorhomes increases.
• Num­ber of rangers employed with­in the Nation­al Park is stable or increasing.

Actions

• Review Fire Man­age­ment Byelaw by 2031.
• Review Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan in ²⁰²⁷⁄₂₈.
• Review ranger ser­vices in the Nation­al Park to ensure align­ment with Park Plan objectives.
• Map access­ible facil­it­ies, so people can identi­fy in advance of their jour­ney avail­able access­ib­il­ity support.
• Pro­mote the range of camper­van and motorhome facil­it­ies to man­age impacts from this grow­ing market.

Terms marked with an aster­isk* through­out this doc­u­ment appear in the gloss­ary on page 82

Fig­ure 1: Vis­it­or infra­struc­ture invest­ment 2023 – 2026 (Map illus­trat­ing vis­it­or infra­struc­ture invest­ments by pro­ject year (2023÷2024, 2024/2025, 2025/2026) with­in the Nation­al Park, includ­ing vari­ous paths, car parks, and toilets.)

2. Out­door access and recreation

Vis­it­or sur­vey data tells us that a major­ity of vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park either come spe­cific­ally to under­take out­door activ­it­ies or par­ti­cip­ate in out­door activ­it­ies dur­ing their vis­it even if this was not the main reas­on for vis­it­ing. Data also shows sig­ni­fic­ant levels of use of the Nation­al Park by loc­al communities.

A key pri­or­ity of the Plan, there­fore, is to ensure that we con­tin­ue to offer an access­ible and high-qual­ity net­work of paths and trails in the Nation­al Park. This involves invest­ment in paths and related infra­struc­ture, includ­ing facil­it­ies that make paths more access­ible to a wider range of users. We must also deliv­er on stat­utory duties to enable respons­ible pub­lic access and lim­it any impacts on sens­it­ive hab­it­ats and species.

Baseline data and indicators

• Kilo­metres of core paths in good condition.
• Kilo­metres of core paths suit­able for all abil­ity access.

Tar­gets

• Increase the num­ber of kilo­metres of safe and inclus­ive off-road routes.
• The core path net­work is in good con­di­tion and access­ible to the widest pos­sible range of users.

Actions

• Review the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan in 2028.
• Com­plete the exten­sion of Deeside Way to Brae­mar by 2030.
• Enhance the access­ib­il­ity and con­di­tion of the Spey­side Way and improve options for cycling.
• Devel­op path link from Loch Mor­lich to Cairngorm Mountain.
• Dis­turb­ance of key spe­cies and recre­ation­al impacts are reduced through advice from rangers, sig­nage, select­ive pro­mo­tion of routes and tar­geted initiatives.
• Ensure young people in and around the Cairngorms are edu­cated about the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code (SOAC) through ranger activ­ity in schools.
• Con­sider where recre­ation routes may provide fire breaks where appropriate.

Fig­ure 2: Long dis­tance paths and act­ive travel* routes (Map dis­play­ing long dis­tance paths, pro­posed new paths, and Nation­al Cycle Routes with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.)

3. Health and wellbeing

The Nation­al Park is a sig­ni­fic­ant pub­lic health asset. Access to nature, out­door recre­ation and social con­nec­tion can improve both phys­ic­al and men­tal well­being, reduce loneli­ness and sup­port pre­vent­at­ive healthcare.

Evid­ence demon­strates that time spent out­doors con­trib­utes to improved health out­comes, par­tic­u­larly for people exper­i­en­cing poor men­tal health, long-term health con­di­tions, demen­tia and social isol­a­tion. The Cairngorms can play an import­ant role in sup­port­ing pre­vent­at­ive approaches that reduce pres­sure on health and social care services.

Green health pro­grammes, out­door activ­ity, volun­teer­ing and nature-based inter­ven­tions provide oppor­tun­it­ies for people of all ages and back­grounds to improve their well­being. These bene­fits are par­tic­u­larly import­ant in rur­al com­munit­ies where access to ser­vices can be challenging.

The Park Author­ity and part­ners will con­tin­ue to strengthen green health refer­ral path­ways, sup­port com­munity-based health ini­ti­at­ives and ensure that the Nation­al Park con­trib­utes pos­it­ively to Scotland’s pub­lic health ambitions.

Baseline data and indicators

• Key pub­lic health indicators.
• Num­ber of green health referrals.
• Num­ber of Out­door Brain Health and Demen­tia Resource Centre referrals.

Tar­gets

• Increase par­ti­cip­a­tion in nature-based health programmes.
• Increase the num­ber of green health refer­rals each year.
• Extend health walks pro­vi­sion to all Nation­al Park communities.
• Increase the range of health walks avail­able to suit vary­ing abilities.
• Increase use of the Out­door Brain Health and Demen­tia Resource Centre.

Actions

• Extend green health refer­ral oppor­tun­it­ies to Grampi­an and Tay­side Health Board areas.
• Extend the health walks pro­gramme to every com­munity in the Nation­al Park.
• Make great­er use of green health dir­ect­or­ies to sup­port self-led green health activities.
• Extend the num­ber of demen­tia friendly walks.

4. Inclu­sion and accessibility

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park strives to be a Park for all, and a place where every­one is and feels safe, wel­come and able to thrive.

Though the bene­fits of con­nect­ing to nature and the out­doors are well known, access to these bene­fits is not yet equal and many people are unfairly held back from par­ti­cip­a­tion and enjoy­ing all that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park has to offer. There are lots of reas­ons for this, from a lack of rep­res­ent­a­tion to the afford­ab­il­ity of things like cloth­ing, kit, accom­mod­a­tion and trans­port, to exper­i­ences of dis­crim­in­a­tion. In a time when there are pres­sures on the cost of liv­ing for many people it is imper­at­ive that there is a focus on afford­ab­il­ity with­in the Nation­al Park.

Work in this area is sup­por­ted and guided by val­ued part­ner­ships and expert­ise. The extern­al Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el brings togeth­er experts from across the pub­lic, private and the third sec­tor to provide evid­ence-based feed­back, guid­ance and advice, groun­ded wherever pos­sible in lived experience.

Baseline data and indicators

• Inform­a­tion from vis­it­or sur­vey and res­id­ents survey.
• SPANS 2026 inter­im report.
• Num­ber of tar­geted low cost / dis­coun­ted tick­ets sold by vis­it­or attrac­tions to encour­age afford­able visits.
• Num­bers of minor­ity eth­nic groups vis­it­ing the Nation­al Park who are hos­ted or sup­por­ted by the Park Authority.

Tar­gets

• Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park will more closely resemble the over­all demo­graphy of Scotland.
• Increase the avail­ab­il­ity and uptake of lower cost tick­ets for vis­it­or attrac­tions and activ­it­ies by lower income groups.
• Increase the num­ber of minor­ity eth­nic groups vis­it­ing the Nation­al Park who are hos­ted or sup­por­ted by Park Authority.

Actions

• Estab­lish a fund to sup­port under-rep­res­en­ted com­munit­ies, both inside and out­side the Nation­al Park, to access the Park.
• Grow the role, remit and influ­ence of the Cairngorms Youth Action Team.
• Con­duct reg­u­lar sur­veys of res­id­ents’ and vis­it­ors’ val­ues and atti­tudes to key issues in the Nation­al Park.
• Through part­ner­ships, includ­ing those with Roy­al Nation­al Insti­tute of Blind People (RNIB), Black Pro­fes­sion­als UK (BPUK) and Cairngorms Pride, identi­fy bar­ri­ers to access for under-rep­res­en­ted groups and work to over­come those barriers.
• Work in part­ner­ship to deliv­er tar­geted and innov­at­ive engage­ment oppor­tun­it­ies with key audi­ences focus­sing on depth of engage­ment for the bene­fit of the Nation­al Park.
• Devel­op low-cost itin­er­ar­ies to provide oppor­tun­it­ies for more people to enjoy the Park.

5. Volun­teer­ing

Volun­teer­ing deliv­ers tan­gible bene­fits to the man­age­ment of the Nation­al Park and the deliv­ery of loc­al ini­ti­at­ives. It provides excel­lent train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies and exper­i­ence for future employ­ment as well as con­trib­ut­ing to the phys­ic­al and men­tal well­being of those par­ti­cip­at­ing in volun­teer­ing. We want to see an expan­sion of the oppor­tun­it­ies avail­able for volun­teer­ing in the Nation­al Park, ensur­ing they are open to people from all backgrounds.

Baseline data and indicators

• Num­ber of volunteers.
• Num­ber of volun­teer rangers.

Tar­gets

• At least 200 volun­teer rangers to help look after the Nation­al Park by 2030.
• Increase the num­ber of Nation­al Park volun­teer days every year.

Actions

• Devel­op and expand the Volun­teer Cairngorms programmes.
• Sup­port com­munit­ies in main­tain­ing and improv­ing their loc­al envir­on­ment includ­ing path net­work, lit­ter col­lec­tion, open spaces, spe­cies and hab­it­at work.

6. Out­door learning

Out­door learn­ing con­tin­ues to be an import­ant com­pon­ent in cre­at­ing a last­ing con­nec­tion between people and nature in the Nation­al Park whatever their age, back­ground or cir­cum­stances. We will work with oth­er nation­al parks, part­ners and com­munit­ies to provide mean­ing­ful oppor­tun­it­ies for people to exper­i­ence and care for nature in the Cairngorms, and sup­port com­munit­ies in main­tain­ing and improv­ing their loc­al environment.

There will be a par­tic­u­lar focus on young people, help­ing them to under­stand and care for the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park while gain­ing skills and exper­i­ence to help them into employ­ment par­tic­u­larly in the land-based sector.

Baseline data and indicators

• Num­ber of edu­ca­tion activ­it­ies delivered.
• Num­ber of Dùthchas Awards completed.
• Num­ber of schools involved in out­door learn­ing pro­grammes with ranger service.
• Num­ber of juni­or rangers.

Tar­gets

• Scot­tish Out­door Access Code activ­it­ies delivered in every school in the Nation­al Park.
• Juni­or Ranger pro­gramme delivered in every sec­ond­ary school that includes a Nation­al Park catchment.

Actions

• Devel­op and expand the Dùthchas Award programme.
• Deliv­er Scot­tish Out­door Access Code edu­ca­tion to schools includ­ing dir­ect deliv­ery to pupils by rangers and Con­tinu­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment for teachers.

Policy pos­i­tions: Nation­al Park for all

Policy one Ensure high-qual­ity facil­it­ies and infra­struc­ture are in place at key vis­it­or des­tin­a­tions in the Nation­al Park.

Policy two Ensure Ranger Ser­vice pro­vi­sion is com­pre­hens­ive across the Nation­al Park.

Policy three Reduce fire risk by imple­ment­ing the Fire Man­age­ment Byelaw.

Policy four Pro­mote the health bene­fits of out­door recre­ation and GP-led green health referrals.

Policy five Ensure a high-qual­ity func­tion­al net­work of act­ive travel, core paths and long-dis­tance routes.

Policy six Ensure green health refer­ral sys­tem is main­tained with­in the Nation­al Park.

Policy sev­en Pro­mote respons­ible beha­viour in the Nation­al Park.

Policy eight Sup­port the deliv­ery of the Cur­riculum for Excel­lence and edu­ca­tion through out­door learning.

Policy nine Pro­mote and enhance volun­teer opportunities.

Policy ten Pro­mote tar­geted oppor­tun­it­ies to sup­port people from under-rep­res­en­ted groups to vis­it and enjoy the Nation­al Park.

Policy elev­en Ensure that the access infra­struc­ture of the Nation­al Park is designed and main­tained to be as access­ible as pos­sible to people with the widest range of abilities.

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Com­ple­ment­ary strategies

Cap­it­al investment

There is a need for sus­tained invest­ment in the cap­it­al infra­struc­ture of the Nation­al Park to aid the trans­ition to a net zero eco­nomy and to ensure that the Park is able to man­age effect­ively the two and a half mil­lion vis­it­ors that come each year. This sec­tion sets out the high-level stra­tegic approach to cap­it­al invest­ment over the next five years.

We have iden­ti­fied six guid­ing prin­ciples for cap­it­al invest­ment in the Nation­al Park:

• Green — invest­ment will con­trib­ute to deliv­er­ing cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion and strength­en­ing nature recov­ery in the Nation­al Park.
• Cairngorms — invest­ment will focus on the needs of the Nation­al Park and will con­trib­ute to the long-term out­comes as set out in the Part­ner­ship Plan.
• Employ­ment – invest­ment will max­im­ise loc­al employ­ment and sup­port the devel­op­ment of a vibrant economy.
• Long-term — invest­ment will be focused on long-term solu­tions to key issues includ­ing vis­it­or man­age­ment, trans­port and cli­mate resilience.
• Com­munity wealth build­ing* – invest­ment will ensure more resources are kept with­in the Nation­al Park for the bene­fit of busi­nesses and com­munit­ies with­in the area.
• Equal­it­ies, diversity and inclu­sion – invest­ment will help to ensure that the Cairngorms is a Nation­al Park for all.

Region­al Spa­tial Strategy

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is the Region­al Spa­tial Strategy* for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park that is required by the Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 2019. It sets out the long-term spa­tial strategy for devel­op­ment, in the con­text of the wider range of pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied to deliv­er the aims of the Nation­al Park in a col­lect­ive and coordin­ated way. The dia­gram below sum­mar­ises the stra­tegic devel­op­ments that will be required in the Nation­al Park to con­trib­ute to the long-term vis­ion for the Nation­al Park, and the deliv­ery of the tar­gets and actions of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan in each of the mis­sions: nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence, com­munit­ies, and a Park for all.

Fig­ure 3: Stra­tegic devel­op­ments on the Cairngorms (Map indic­at­ing stra­tegic devel­op­ments with­in the Cairngorms, includ­ing: Stra­tegic set­tle­ment, Inter­me­di­ate set­tle­ment, Rur­al Stra­tegic set­tle­ment, Aviemore and Cairngorm pri­or­ity area, Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Dark Sky Park, Ski centre, Moun­tain bike centre, Key nature res­tor­a­tion areas, Exist­ing wood­land, A9 trunk road, High­land Main Line rail­way, Lochs.)

Because the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a rel­at­ively remote rur­al place, with mostly small com­munit­ies but high vis­it­or num­bers, com­par­at­ively few indi­vidu­al and dis­crete stra­tegic devel­op­ments are iden­ti­fied. How­ever, there are a num­ber of stra­tegic devel­op­ment areas and pri­or­it­ies that are iden­ti­fied where mul­tiple small but inter­con­nec­ted devel­op­ments will sup­port trans­form­a­tion­al change.

Region­al Land Use Frame­work and Partnership

Bal­an­cing the many demands placed on Scotland’s finite land area is an essen­tial part of ensur­ing thriv­ing com­munit­ies are not neg­at­ively impacted by, and are bene­fit­ting from, efforts to restore biod­iversity* and increase Scotland’s resi­li­ence to cli­mate change. The region­al scale allows for a bal­ance between sens­it­iv­ity to the needs of loc­al stake­hold­ers and main­tain­ing account­ab­il­ity to nation­al tar­gets. It is in this con­text that the Region­al Land Use Frame­works* (RLUF) and Part­ner­ships* (RLUPs) pilot pro­ject seeks to optim­ise the role Scotland’s land plays in address­ing the twin cli­mate and nature crises*.

The RLUF seeks to identi­fy nat­ur­al cap­it­al* assets and enable a nat­ur­al cap­it­al-led approach when identi­fy­ing key pri­or­it­ies for land use with­in a region so that these align with nation­al cli­mate and envir­on­ment­al tar­gets. The RLUP seeks to test approaches to demo­crat­ic gov­ernance, ensur­ing region­al out­comes are agreed by part­ner­ship mem­bers with input from region­al stakeholders.

Estab­lished in 2021, a three-year pilot phase allowed the RLUPs to test out mul­tiple approaches to achiev­ing this. The Nation­al Park Author­ity used this time to tri­al using our Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan as the Region­al Land Use Frame­work. It described the pri­or­ity land use object­ives and out­comes for the Nation­al Park. The Park Author­ity Board and sup­port­ing stake­hold­er engage­ment and tech­nic­al advis­ory for­ums, like the Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group, acted as our Region­al Land Use Partnership.

The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment is now mov­ing from the pilot phase to the form­al ini­ti­at­ives and is con­sid­er­ing extend­ing the use of land use part­ner­ships bey­ond the four pilot regions. We are using the learn­ings from our own pilot to inform our work to sup­port and deliv­er land use change.

The role and poten­tial for region­al and loc­al part­ner­ships has been high­lighted as a key theme of Scotland’s 4^th Land Use Strategy. Through this Strategy, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment presents a new vis­ion for an integ­rated and resi­li­ent nation­al land­scape, based on a set of shared land use out­comes. It has com­mit­ted to pub­lish­ing a deliv­ery plan by the end of March 2027.

Whilst the con­tent of the deliv­ery plan is still sub­ject to decisions, it is anti­cip­ated that one area of work will centre on the rela­tion­ships between com­munit­ies, part­ners, gov­ern­ment and agen­cies, and how we can all work to foster under­stand­ing, col­lab­or­a­tion and flex­ib­il­ity through­out the land use sys­tem. This Park Plan sets out how the nation­al strategy will be delivered in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

How we will deliv­er the Plan

Deliv­ery of the Plan

The deliv­ery of the Part­ner­ship Plan is the stat­utory respons­ib­il­ity of all pub­lic bod­ies. This can only be done in part­ner­ship with land man­agers, com­munit­ies, busi­nesses and the third sec­tor. The Park Authority’s respons­ib­il­ity is to coordin­ate the deliv­ery of the Plan.

Every year, the Park Author­ity will pro­duce a dash­board show­ing pro­gress on the deliv­ery of the tar­gets and indic­at­ors of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Evid­ence on pro­gress will be sought from all rel­ev­ant pub­lic bod­ies and private / char­it­able / com­munity organ­isa­tions where appropriate.

If a tar­get is off track, this will be brought to the Nation­al Park Author­ity Board along with poten­tial solu­tions for get­ting the tar­get back on track. This will also involve oth­er pub­lic bod­ies being asked to provide inform­a­tion as required.

This Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is data driv­en and we want the pub­lic facing part to show clearly where pro­gress is being delivered and where there is a need for more focussed action to meet the targets.

Hier­archy of plans

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is the high-level man­age­ment plan for the Nation­al Park and is the Eco­nom­ic Strategy, Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Strategy, Region­al Spa­tial Strategy*, Cli­mate Action Plan and the Region­al Land Use Frame­work*. It is sup­por­ted by a num­ber of action plans that will help to deliv­er the object­ives of the Plan and the Nation­al Park’s aims. Pub­lic bod­ies will also pre­pare Gael­ic Lan­guage Plans and Equal­ity Out­comes Plans that will be sig­ni­fic­ant in influ­en­cing activ­ity with­in the Nation­al Park.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan is the:

• Eco­nom­ic Strategy
• Cap­it­al Invest­ment Strategy
• Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Strategy
• Region­al Land Use Framework
• Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Plan

Nature and Cli­mate Resilience

• Cairngorms Nature Action Plan
• Water Man­age­ment Plan
• Forest Strategy
• Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan

Com­munit­ies

• Busi­ness and Tour­ism Action Plan
• Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan
• Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy

Nation­al Park for All

• Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan
• Core Paths Plan
• Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan

Pro­posed imple­ment­a­tion groups

The pur­pose of the dif­fer­ent groups is to ensure that part­ner­ships are in place to deliv­er the Part­ner­ship Plan across the pub­lic, private and third sectors.

Mis­sion 1: nature and cli­mate resilience

It is pro­posed that there will be an over­arch­ing nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence group of key stake­hold­ers to coordin­ate deliv­ery of the nature and cli­mate resi­li­ence part of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

This will be sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing wider forums:

• Cairngorms Upland Advis­ory Group
• Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group
• Cairngorms Nature Advis­ory Group

Mis­sion 2: communities

It is pro­posed that two groups will coordin­ate deliv­ery of the com­munit­ies mis­sion with­in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The first is a busi­ness and tour­ism group and the second is a com­munity group.

This will be sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing wider forums:

• Com­munity Coun­cil Forums
• Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Network

Mis­sion 3: Nation­al Park for all

Three groups of key stake­hold­ers will coordin­ate and advise on the Nation­al Park for all mis­sion sec­tion with­in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. These are:

• Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Panel
• Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access Forum
• Cairngorms Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Group

Gloss­ary of terms

Terms appear­ing in this gloss­ary are marked with an aster­isk* in the main body of text.

• Act­ive travel – mak­ing jour­neys in more phys­ic­ally act­ive ways, such as walk­ing, using a wheel­chair or mobil­ity aid, cyc­ling, or scooting.
• Afford­able hous­ing — hous­ing of a good qual­ity that is afford­able to people on low and mod­est incomes, includ­ing social ren­ted accom­mod­a­tion, mid-mar­ket ren­ted accom­mod­a­tion, shared own­er­ship, shared equity, dis­coun­ted low-cost hous­ing for sale (includ­ing plots for self-build), and low-cost hous­ing without subsidy.
• Air­borne depos­ition – the pro­cess by which air­borne pol­lut­ants settle onto ground sur­faces, veget­a­tion, and water. The depos­ition of pol­lut­ants can sig­ni­fic­antly impact eco­sys­tems and human health, lead­ing to envir­on­ment­al degrad­a­tion and biod­iversity* loss.
• Biod­iversity – the vari­ety of plant and anim­al life in the world or in a par­tic­u­lar hab­it­at, a high level of which is usu­ally con­sidered to be import­ant and desirable.
• Blen­ded fin­ance – fin­an­cial sup­port from a vari­ety of sources, which may include pub­lic money, private invest­ment, grant fund­ing or char­it­able donations.
• Cairngorms Nature Action Plan – Cairngorms Nature is a part­ner­ship for people and organ­isa­tions to come togeth­er with a com­mon desire to safe­guard and enhance the out­stand­ing nature in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Action Plan will be developed once the Part­ner­ship Plan is approved.
• Cairngorms Nature Index – a tool to help estab­lish a baseline and frame­work for mon­it­or­ing the health of the Nation­al Park’s hab­it­ats, spe­cies and ecosystems.
• Car­bon sequest­ra­tion – a nat­ur­al or arti­fi­cial pro­cess by which car­bon diox­ide is removed from the atmo­sphere and held in sol­id or liquid form.
• Cli­mate adapt­a­tion – tak­ing action to pre­pare for and respond to cur­rent and pro­jec­ted impacts of cli­mate change, to reduce asso­ci­ated risks such as drought, flood­ing and wildfire.
• Cli­mate emer­gency – the cur­rent situ­ation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt cli­mate change and avoid poten­tially irre­vers­ible envir­on­ment­al dam­age res­ult­ing from it.
• Com­munity / social enter­prises – a busi­ness or ser­vice with primar­ily social object­ives whose sur­pluses are prin­cip­ally rein­ves­ted for that pur­pose, rather than being driv­en by the need to max­im­ise profit for share­hold­ers or owners.
• Com­munity wealth build­ing – sup­port­ing com­munit­ies and res­id­ents to own, have a great­er stake in, or bene­fit from wealth gen­er­ated by their loc­al economy.
• Con­ser­va­tion des­ig­na­tions – this cov­ers such des­ig­na­tions as Spe­cial Areas of Con­ser­va­tion, Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Areas, Sites of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest etc.
• Con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry – a man­age­ment meth­od where a forest can­opy is kept intact by select­ively har­vest­ing smal­ler groups of trees rather than clear felling large areas.
• Cycle hub – a cent­ral­ised facil­ity designed to sup­port cyc­lists, offer­ing a vari­ety of ser­vices, such as repair tools, stor­age or oth­er resources.
• Deer man­age­ment groups – groups of estates or oth­er land­hold­ings that share access to a dis­crete pop­u­la­tion or herd of deer that is man­aged as a com­mon resource.
• Eco­sys­tem func­tion­al­ity – the capa­city of nat­ur­al pro­cesses and com­pon­ents to provide goods and ser­vices that sat­is­fy human needs, either dir­ectly or indirectly.
• Hous­ing Need and Demand Assess­ment – Hous­ing Need and Demand Assess­ments are under­taken by loc­al author­it­ies every five years. They estim­ate the num­ber of addi­tion­al hous­ing units required to meet exist­ing and future hous­ing need (social hous­ing) and demand (mar­ket hous­ing). They also cap­ture inform­a­tion on the oper­a­tion of the hous­ing sys­tem to assist in the devel­op­ment of policies on new hous­ing sup­ply, man­age­ment of exist­ing stock, spe­cial­ist hous­ing pro­vi­sion, and the pro­vi­sion of hous­ing-related services.
• In-bye land – part of a farm which is used mainly for arable and grass­land pro­duc­tion, and which is not hill and rough grazing.
• Just trans­ition – the concept that justice and equity should form an integ­ral part of the trans­ition towards a low-car­bon world.
• Key­stone spe­cies – an import­ant spe­cies whose impact on an eco­sys­tem or envir­on­ment far out­weighs its abundance.
• Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan – enables the right kind of devel­op­ment to hap­pen in the right place to help deliv­er the aims of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. All plan­ning applic­a­tions in the Nation­al Park are assessed against this Plan.
• Loc­al Hous­ing Land Require­ment – the amount of land required for hous­ing, as iden­ti­fied by the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan*. The Loc­al Hous­ing Land Require­ment is expec­ted to exceed the 10-year min­im­um all-ten­ure hous­ing land require­ment for the area, as set out in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4*.
• Man­age­ment agree­ment – a long-term con­trac­tu­al agree­ment between the Park Author­ity and a landown­er that out­lines how a piece of land is used, man­aged or developed.
• Mont­ane core – the moun­tains and sur­round­ing uplands at the centre of the Nation­al Park where there are no pub­lic roads and no per­man­ent human habitation.
• Muir­burn – the prac­tice of burn­ing off old growth on moor­land to encour­age new growth.
• Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 – a long-term plan for Scot­land, developed by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, that sets out where devel­op­ment and infra­struc­ture is needed to sup­port sus­tain­able and inclus­ive growth.
• Nat­ur­al cap­it­al – the world’s stock of nat­ur­al resources, which includes geo­logy, soils, air, water and all liv­ing organ­isms. Nat­ur­al cap­it­al ​‘assets’ such as hab­it­ats and eco­sys­tems provide a wide range of bene­fits to human well­being, known as ​‘eco­sys­tem services.’
• Nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion – the pro­cess by which wood­lands are restocked by trees that devel­op from seeds that fall and ger­min­ate in situ.
• Nature30 – Nature30 offers an altern­at­ive to tra­di­tion­al Pro­tec­ted Areas by recog­nising areas that deliv­er pos­it­ive, sus­tained, and long-term out­comes for biod­iversity* as a res­ult of the land man­age­ment, regard­less of the primary object­ive of this management.
• Nature / biod­iversity crisis – the rap­id loss of spe­cies and the rap­id degrad­a­tion of eco­sys­tems across the plan­et. Sci­ent­ists pre­dict that on our cur­rent tra­ject­ory of hab­it­at loss and glob­al warm­ing, between one third and one half of all spe­cies will face extinc­tion by the end of this cen­tury. Their dis­ap­pear­ance will upend eco­sys­tems and destabil­ise human civilisations.
• Nature-based solu­tions – actions to pro­tect, sus­tain­ably man­age, and restore nat­ur­al or mod­i­fied eco­sys­tems, that address soci­et­al chal­lenges effect­ively and adapt­ively, sim­ul­tan­eously provid­ing human well­being and biod­iversity* benefits.
• Nature net­work — the sys­tem con­nect­ing more, big­ger, bet­ter and joined up core areas, cor­ridors and step­ping stones of exist­ing and future hab­it­at needed to allow spe­cies and hab­it­ats to sur­vive in fluc­tu­at­ing conditions.
• Regen­er­at­ive agri­cul­ture – restor­ing and renew­ing nat­ur­al assets, par­tic­u­larly soils and eco­sys­tem health, through prin­ciples-based, eco­lo­gic­al improvement.
• Region­al Land Use Frame­work / Part­ner­ship – a frame­work to help nation­al and loc­al gov­ern­ment, com­munit­ies, landown­ers and stake­hold­ers work togeth­er to find ways to optim­ise land use in a fair and inclus­ive way, meet­ing loc­al and nation­al object­ives and sup­port­ing the jour­ney to net zero.
• Region­al Spa­tial Strategy – a long-term strategy for an area of land that iden­ti­fies: the need for stra­tegic devel­op­ment; the out­comes to which stra­tegic devel­op­ment will con­trib­ute; pri­or­it­ies for the deliv­ery of stra­tegic devel­op­ment; and its pro­posed loc­a­tions, shown in the form of a map or diagram.
• River catch­ments – the area of land, includ­ing the hills and moun­tains, wood­lands and build­ings which water drains from, before flow­ing into streams, rivers and lochs.
• Slow­ing the flow — redu­cing how quickly water runs through land­scapes, help­ing to pre­vent floods and river pollution.
• Struc­tur­al diversity — grasses, trees, shrubs, mosses and oth­er veget­a­tion of all dif­fer­ent shapes, sizes and heights.
• Sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture – land man­age­ment that min­im­ises envir­on­ment­al harm and avoids long-term deple­tion of nat­ur­al resources.
• Wood­land Car­bon Code – a scheme admin­istered by Scot­tish Forestry but avail­able UK-wide. The code allows the own­ers of new wood­land plant­ing schemes to cal­cu­late the total car­bon sequest­ra­tion* their wood­land will achieve over the life­time of the trees.