Paper Two Annex One - Active Cairngorms

MAN­AGE­MENT PLANS Act­ive Cairngorms Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Act­ive Cairngorms: Act­ive People

Walk­ing to Health Lor­na Laing, Lumphanan Health Walkers

“The Walk­ing to Health Group is really import­ant to me for meet­ing friends every week. It gets me up and out and at one time was my only way of meet­ing people from the vil­lage. Now I have joined the loc­al whist and rur­al groups, I would not have joined them if it had not been for the Health Walk.

It is great to be out on a fine day, even in the rain, nice and fresh! I like to hear the bird­song, espe­cially the wood­peck­er and, of course, the lambs. The Health Walk makes me more ener­gised to enjoy the fresh air, includ­ing my garden.”

Caper­cail­lie Man­age­ment Alis­on Greg­gans, RSPB Com­munity Ranger, Boat of Garten

“Teem­ing with wild­life and a haven for Caper­cail­lie, the Boat of Garten woods are a spe­cial place. Work­ing with the com­munity I have dis­covered how valu­able it is for them to get out­doors. From mums with prams to kids on bikes, just going out for walk and dis­cov­er­ing more about what’s on their door­step helps them want to look after it”.

Cycle Friendly Kin­gussie Shona Ander­son, Volun­teer Cycle Ride Leader

“As part of Cycle Friendly Kin­gussie, I atten­ded a one day Cycle Ride Lead­er course. This gave me the skills and con­fid­ence neces­sary to lead groups in my loc­al area. We now have reg­u­lar rides every Tues­day night, one of which I have led, and hope­fully this will become more pop­u­lar with the spread of Cycle Friendly Kingussie.”

Inclus­ive Cairngorms: Back­bone Event Kemel Okan

“I now have a rela­tion­ship with Scot​land​.It moves me and its deep felt. I learned about the great con­nec­tion between people and the envir­on­ment. Its not just about activ­ity (e.g going for walk). Its about the connection”.

1 Fore­word 2 – 3 Let’s get mov­ing 4 Stra­tegic Over­view 5 Act­ive Places 6 – 7 Act­ive Man­age­ment 8 – 9 Act­ive Pro­mo­tion 10 – 11 Mon­it­or­ing 12 Appendix A: Policies 13 – 14 Appendix B: Action Plan 15 – 19 outdoorsactiveeveryday

Fore­word

Les­ley McK­enna was born in Inverness and grew up in Aviemore.

She is Scotland’s best-known snow­boarder and a triple Olympian.

She is the only snow­boarder from the UK to have ever won a half pipe World Cup event and to have led the half pipe World Cup standings

It gives me great pleas­ure to write this fore­word to Act­ive Cairngorms.

Fol­low­ing the inspir­ing suc­cess of Team GBs 2012 Olympic Games, 2014 Winter Olympic Games and Glasgow’s Com­mon­wealth Games, I’m delighted to endorse this new approach from the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to help cre­ate health­i­er lives by design­ing, man­aging and pro­mot­ing places that encour­age phys­ic­al activity.

Grow­ing up in Aviemore and being act­ive out­doors was key to my suc­cess as an Olympi­an. As a kid, the Cairngorms were an amaz­ing nat­ur­al play­ground, which not only inspired me to take part in out­door sports, but also made me appre­ci­ate just how lucky I was to live in such a spe­cial place.

I still live in the Park, and con­tin­ue to use the out­doors for work, fun, and act­ive travel. I obvi­ously love hit­ting the slopes dur­ing the winter, but really enjoy walk­ing in the hills and cyc­ling around our towns and vil­lages. Being act­ive is a nor­mal part of my every­day life.

I’m pas­sion­ate about get­ting more people act­ive, par­tic­u­larly young girls and women. We can do this by focus­ing on small changes to our daily lives. Why not leave the car behind on short jour­neys, fix up and use that bike, join a loc­al com­munity or volun­teer­ing group or simply walk to the shops on a reg­u­lar basis? No mat­ter how slowly you walk, run or cycle, you will still be going faster than every­one sit­ting down.

So, let’s get out­doors and be act­ive every day. I’ll see you out there!

2 Les­ley McKenna

Fac­al-Tois­ich

Rugadh Les­ley McK­enna ann an Inbhir Nis agus chaidh a togail anns an Aghaidh Mhòr.

Is i an neach-bòrd-sneachda as ain­meil ann an Alba agus tha i air a bhith aig trì geaman­nan Oilimpigeach.

Is i an t‑aon neach-bòrd- sneachda bhon RA a bhuan­naich tachartas half pipe a riamh aig tachartas Cupa na Cru­inne agus a bha os cionn half pipe stand­ings aig Cupa na Cruinne.

An dèidh soirb­heachas brosna­chail Sgioba GB ann an Geaman­nan Oil­im­pi­geach 2012, Geaman­nan Oil­im­pi­geach a’ Gheam­hraidh 2014 agus Geaman­nan a’ Cho-fhlaithe­is ann an Glaschu, tha mi air leth toi­l­ichte a bhith a’ toirt taic don mhodh- obrach ùr seo aig Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh ann a bhith a’ cuideachadh le bhith a’ cruthachadh beatha nas fhal­lain le bhith a’ dealbhachadh, a’ man­aid­seadh agus ag adhartachadh àiteachan a tha a’ brosnachadh ghnìom­han corporra.

Bha a bhith a’ fàs suas anns an Aghaidh Mhòr agus a bhith gu mòr an sàs air a’ bhlàr a‑muigh air leth cudromach a thaobh cho soirb­hea­chail ​‘s a tha mi air a bhith aig na h‑Oilimpigs. Nuair a bha mi òg, b’ e raon-cluiche nàdar­rach air leth sòn­raichte a bha sa Mhon­adh Ruadh, agus chan e a mhàin gun do bhrosnaich e mi gu bhith a’ gabhail pàirt ann an spòrs air a’ bhlàr a‑muigh, thug e tuigse dhomh cho fort­anach ​‘s a bha mi a bhith a’ fuire­ach ann an àite cho sònraichte.

Tha mi a’ fuire­ach sa Phàirc fhath­ast, agus tha mi a’ leantainn orm a’ cleach­dadh a’ bhlàir a‑muigh air­son obair, cur seachad agus siubhal. Tha e fol­laiseach gur toigh leam a bhith a‑muigh air na slèib­htean sa gheam­hradh, ach is fior thoigh leam a bhith a’ coiseachd air na cnu­ic agus a’ falbh le baidh­sagal mun cuairt nam bail­tean beaga agus mòra. Tha a bhith gnìom­hach na phàirt àbhaisteach dem bheatha làitheil.

Tha mi air leth dealas­ach mu bhith a’ brosnachadh dhaoine gu bhith gnìom­hach, gu sòn­raichte clann-nighean òga agus boire­an­naich. Faodaidh sinn seo a thoirt mun cuairt le bhith a’ dèanamh ath­ar­ra­chaid­hean beaga nar beatha lài­theil. Car­son nach fhàg sibh an càr aig an taigh an uair nach eil agaibh ri dhol ach air astar goirid, nach cur sibh am baidh­sagal agaibh air dòigh agus cleach­daibh e, thi­gibh an sàs ann an coim­hearsnachd ion­a­dail no buid­heann saor-thoileach no dìreach cois­ich gu na bùithtean gu cunbhalach? Chan eil dio­far dè cho slao­dach ​‘s a bhios tu a’ coiseachd, a’ ruith no a’ falbh leis a’ bhaidh­sagal, bidh tu fhath­ast tòrr nas luaithe nan fheadhainn a bhios nan suidhe sios.

Nach tèid sinn a‑mach gus am bi sinn gnìom­hach a h‑uile là. Chì mi sibh a‑muigh ann an siud! 3 Les­ley McKenna

Let’s get mov­ing 1.1 When we think about Nation­al Parks, we think about con­serving the unique envir­on­ment and its spe­cies, pro­tect­ing those at risk and sup­port­ing the eco­nom­ic and social life of its res­id­ents. What if one of the spe­cies we con­sidered at risk was not one of the plants, birds or anim­als, but the humans who live in or vis­it the Park?

1.2 We now know that phys­ic­al inactiv­ity is killing us. It is the second biggest cause of mor­tal­ity, lead­ing to around 2,500(1) pre­ma­ture deaths in Scot­land every year. We also know that increas­ing phys­ic­al activ­ity can lead to improve­ments in many con­di­tions, from heart dis­ease to men­tal health issues.

1.3 Can we help? Can we work with the envir­on­ment to pre­serve it and ourselves for the future? The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a very spe­cial place. From the high moun­tain plat­eau and ancient forests to the spark­ling lochs and rivers, the land­scape inspires and shapes our lives.

1.4 Act­ive Cairngorms aims to make it easi­er and safer for people to move around the Park whatever their age, abil­ity or back­ground; to be more phys­ic­ally act­ive, to learn about, care for and appre­ci­ate the Park.

1.5 Our aim is for all res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to enjoy and use the Park for phys­ic­al activ­ity once a day

1.6 Phys­ic­al activ­ity doesn’t have to involve spe­cial equip­ment, or get­ting hot and sweaty. It’s as simple as walk­ing to the shops or tak­ing the dog out for a walk.

Just 30 minutes (2) walk­ing a day is enough to make a sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ence to your health. But if you want to cycle to school or work, go horse rid­ing, paddle on a loch, run through our forests or go hill walk­ing, then Act­ive Cairngorms aims to make that exper­i­ence easi­er and more access­ible for all.

1.7 One and a half mil­lion people vis­it the Park every year. The pro­vi­sion of high qual­ity out­door facil­it­ies and activ­it­ies is vital to our tour­ism and is a major con­trib­ut­or to the Park’s eco­nom­ic suc­cess. Act­ive Cairngorms will help our vis­it­ors access the beauty of the Park in an act­ive way. Our work can influ­ence changes in beha­viour that last as long as the hol­i­day memories.

1.8 Act­ive Cairngorms is divided into three themes where we can make the biggest difference:

Act­ive Places Act­ive Man­age­ment Act­ive Promotion

This doc­u­ment high­lights our pri­or­it­ies and actions for deliv­ery. It con­trib­utes to the deliv­ery of the Scot­tish Government’s Act­ive Scot­land Out­comes, builds on the leg­acy of the 2014 Com­mon­wealth Games and deliv­ers long term out­comes of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Deliv­ery requires part­ner­ship across the Park, involving the NHS and many oth­er loc­al ser­vice providers.

Imple­ment­a­tion will require tar­geted Ranger Ser­vice coverage.

The prize is a Park that leads Scot­land in integ­rat­ing phys­ic­al activ­ity into everyone’s every­day life, lead­ing to a health­i­er, hap­pi­er pop­u­la­tion and cher­ished environment.

(1) Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Phys­ic­al Activ­ity Imple­ment­a­tion Plan, 2014 (2) NHS Choices, 2014 4

NATION­AL POLICY NATION­AL PARK VIS­ION OUT­COME Stra­tegic Over­view Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment: Act­ive Scot­land Out­comes A More Act­ive Scot­land: Build­ing a Leg­acy from the Com­mon­wealth Games Nation­al Walk­ing Strategy Cyc­ling Action Plan for Scot­land Tour­ism Scot­land 2020 An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where people and nature thrive togeth­er Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (2015−2018) Out­come 3: People enjoy­ing the Park through out­stand­ing vis­it­or and learn­ing exper­i­ences VIS­IT­OR EXPER­I­ENCE Five year More people will enjoy, learn about and help to The Park’s recre­ation out­comes con­serve and enhance the oppor­tun­it­ies have improved Park health and enjoy­ment of res­id­ents and vis­it­ors AIM THEME POLICY GUID­ANCE The expect­a­tions of vis­it­ors are met or exceeded

Act­ive Cairngorms Res­id­ents and vis­it­ors will enjoy and use the Park for phys­ic­al activ­ity at least ACT­IVE PLACES Design­ing places that encour­age phys­ic­al activ­ity once a day ACT­IVE MAN­AGE­MENT Cham­pi­on recre­ation­al man­age­ment best prac­tice and envir­on­ment­al appre­ci­ation ACT­IVE PRO­MO­TION Pro­mot­ing healthy life­styles using Park facil­it­ies Improv­ing path pro­vi­sion | Increas­ing under­stand­ing and and qual­ity for people of | enjoy­ment of the Park’s spe­cial all abil­it­ies Com­munity empower­ment and volun­teer­ing Pro­vi­sion of cyc­ling, horse rid­ing and water­borne routes and infra­struc­ture qual­it­ies Man­age­ment of organ­ised out­door events Invest­ment in Act­ive Travel Improv­ing inform­a­tion about out­door recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies Cairngorms Out­door Access For­um NHS Loc­al Health For­ums Inclus­ive Cairngorms 5

Act­ive Places

What’s been done to date

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Core Paths 666 miles Des­ig­nated Pro­moted long dis­tance routes 60 miles Includes all of exist­ing Spey­side Way, Cat­er­an Trail, Badenoch Way, Dava Way

The place to be act­ive 43% of vis­its to the coun­tryside are with­in 2 miles of res­id­ence 46% of res­id­ents in the Park vis­it the coun­tryside once a day 85% of vis­its to the coun­tryside involve walk­ing and of that 47% involve walk­ing between 2 and 8 miles 28% of vis­its to the coun­tryside by res­id­ents will be to wood­land and forest 52% of vis­its to the coun­tryside are with a dog

Build­ing and main­tain­ing loc­al paths Since 2008 28 miles

£7.5 mil­lion Total expendit­ure on paths in the Park since 2006 (CNPA, COAT, EU, Lot­tery, Loc­al Author­it­ies and others)

Nation­al Cycle Net­work Routes 60 miles Coordin­ated by SUSTRANS

COAT Repair of upland paths Two multi- mil­lion pound Her­it­age Lot­tery Fun­ded pro­jects 80 miles

200 Signed com­munity path net­works miles Paths signed in and around communities

Invest­ing in our future

Cycle paths link­ing com­munit­ies Cre­ated Cairngorms Out­door Access Trust (COAT) Path design and con­struc­tion, moun­tain paths, health walks and adopt a path scheme. Top 10 Activ­it­ies in the Cairngorms ① Gen­er­al sight­see­ing 56% ② Walk­ing – low level 44% ③ Vis­it­ing attrac­tions 38% ④ Eat­ing out 26% ⑤ Walk­ing — high level 14% ⑥ Tak­ing pho­to­graphs 14% ⑦ Cycling/​Mountain Bik­ing 13% ⑧ Skiing/​Winter sports 13% Data Cairngorms Nation­al Park Vis­it­or Sur­vey, ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ • Watch­ing wild­life 12% ⑩ Oth­er 4%

Core paths to be 19 miles Ensur­ing all paths fit for pur­pose Long dis­tance 65 miles routes to extend 35 miles developed and improved Spey­side Way 15 miles Deeside Way 17 miles

8 Com­munit­ies with act­ive travel audits and actions plans sup­port­ing act­ive travel to school and work Grant­own-on-Spey, Nethy­bridge, Boat of Garten, Car­rbridge, Kin­gussie, New­ton­more, Brae­mar, Ballater

Design­ing places that encour­age phys­ic­al activ­ity 2.1 The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is home to 18,000 res­id­ents and wel­comes over 1.5 mil­lion vis­it­ors every year.

2.2 Devel­op­ing and enhan­cing our unique out­door assets under­pins the Park’s qual­ity as a tour­ism des­tin­a­tion and cre­ates oppor­tun­it­ies for busi­ness growth.

2.3 These assets also help the people of Scot­land enjoy more act­ive and health­i­er life­styles. Design­ing act­ive places will help res­id­ents to use act­ive travel for short, every­day jour­neys and

encour­age vis­it­ors to leave the car behind and use our path and pub­lic trans­port net­work to explore the Park.

2.4 Since the Park’s des­ig­na­tion in 2004, we have built our access net­work and land man­agers have been main­tain­ing and devel­op­ing com­munity assets. We will now focus on upgrad­ing and main­tain­ing these assets, par­tic­u­larly on act­ive travel links to encour­age more chil­dren and adults to use our net­work to reach school, work and for leisure.

2.5 Design­ing multi use routes that link to des­tin­a­tions is key to increas­ing use of our access net­work. Routes that lead to land­scapes, wild­life, her­it­age sites, shop­ping and din­ing, as well as out­stand­ing out­door activ­it­ies will increase activ­ity levels. It’s not why would you, it’s why wouldn’t you?

Policy (Appendix A) I Improv­ing path Act­ive Places: Object­ives Improve design of exist­ing out­door and act­ive travel infra­struc­ture Work with part­ners to design places that encour­age phys­ic­al activ­ity pro­vi­sion and qual­ity for people of all abil­it­ies 2 Pro­vi­sion for cyc­ling, horse rid­ing and water­borne routes and infra­struc­ture Pri­or­it­ies 100% of core paths to be bar­ri­er free and signed appro­pri­ately by 2020. Sup­port devel­op­ment of Aviemore Act­ive Travel Hub.

Devel­op a multi-use act­ive travel route from New­ton­more to Crom­dale: extend the Spey­side Way (pro­posed Nation­al Cycle Net­work 79) from Aviemore to New­ton­more by 2016; • upgrade exist­ing Spey­side Way to multi-use path from Crom­dale to Boat of Garten by 2017. Devel­op Cyc­ling Scot­land ​‘Cycle Friendly Com­munit­ies’ along High­land main rail­way line: • Kin­gussie to be developed as exem­plar cycle friendly com­munity from 2015; • devel­op remain­ing main sta­tions from 2017.

Extend Deeside Way (Nation­al Cycle Net­work 195) to multi-use path from Bal­later to Brae­mar by 2020. 6

Act­ive Management

Nation­al Park being pro­tec­ted, con­served and enhanced 1748 sq miles 6% of Scotland

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Sus­tain­ing our resources

Pro­mot­ing well man­aged events in the Park Organ­ising an Event? Read CNPA sup­plied key guid­ance Status: Priority

Work­ing with over 100 estates to pro­mote respons­ible access to land and water

Why the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is special

Key mes­sages com­mu­nic­ated to res­id­ents and visitors

The Park is home to 25% 25% of the UKs threatened bird, anim­al and plant species

Eco­nom­ic 18,000 Res­id­ents liv­ing in the Park 1.5 mil­lion Vis­it­ors to the Park each year 2.6 bil­lion Con­trib­uted from Out­door vis­its To the Scot­tish eco­nomy per year (Scot­tish Recre­ation Sur­vey) 210 Spend in Cairngorms mil­lion (CNP STEAM Report, 2012) Ana­lys­is by Sec­tor of Expendit­ure Accom­mod­a­tion Food and drink Recre­ation Shop­ping Transport

Total Dir­ect Rev­en­ue Indir­ect Expendit­ure VAT

TOTAL (CNP STEAM Report, 2012) £mil­lion 45 30 12 16 30 133 50 27 210

Cham­pi­on recre­ation­al man­age­ment best prac­tice and envir­on­ment­al appre­ci­ation 3.1 Land man­aged by pub­lic bod­ies, private estates, NGOs and com­munity groups plays a key role in provid­ing high qual­ity infra­struc­ture, wel­com­ing vis­it­ors and man­aging the inter­ac­tions of access with oth­er land man­age­ment object­ives. Col­lab­or­a­tion on recre­ation and access man­age­ment across land hold­ings is key to deliv­er­ing both con­ser­va­tion and vis­it­or experience.

3.2 Encour­aging respons­ible shar­ing of out­door space between dif­fer­ent users, whilst redu­cing the impact on our pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats is our man­age­ment goal

3.2 It is import­ant that out­door recre­ation does not adversely impact ground-nest­ing birds. For example, the Park is home to 80% of the UK’s caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion. How­ever, an increas­ing body of research indic­ates caper­cail­lie avoid areas with high levels of human dis­turb­ance and can be excluded from oth­er­wise suit­able habitat.

In some areas, the num­ber of caper­cail­lie that the forest net­works can sup­port could be reduced by recre­ation­al disturbance.

Oth­er vul­ner­able spe­cies such as dot­ter­el and farm­land waders are also found in pop­u­lar recre­ation­al areas.

We must ensure that any rise in recre­ation­al use doesn’t neg­at­ively impact our pro­tec­ted spe­cies and habitats.

Act­ive Man­age­ment: Object­ives Reduce the envir­on­ment­al impact of out­door recre­ation con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies Policy (Appendix A) 3 Increas­ing Encour­age respons­ible shar­ing of out­door space between dif­fer­ent users under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the Park’s spe­cial qual­it­ies 4 Man­age­ment of organ­ised out­door events Pri­or­it­ies Every­body should have oppor­tun­it­ies to enjoy the Park’s spe­cial qual­it­ies in a sus­tain­able and respons­ible way (Scot­tish Out­door Access Code).

Reduce impact of recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance to ground nest­ing birds such as caper­cail­lie by sup­port­ing the deliv­ery of recre­ation­al man­age­ment plans and imple­ment­a­tion of the Caper­cail­lie Framework.

Con­tin­ue and devel­op ​‘Tread Lightly’ Cam­paign focus­ing on redu­cing impact of irre­spons­ible dog walk­ers and reduc­tion in wildfires.

Event organ­isers should fol­low the CNPA events guid­ance and look for loc­a­tions and times of year that do not dis­turb sens­it­ive wild­life or sig­ni­fic­antly affect oth­er recre­ation takers. Events should also provide addi­tion­al eco­nom­ic bene­fits to communities.

Large-scale events should be dis­cour­aged in the cent­ral core of the high moun­tains. 5 Invest­ment in Act­ive Increase num­ber of sites with vol­un­tary car park­ing charges to fin­ance act­ive Travel travel facil­it­ies and path main­ten­ance. 8

Pro­mot­ing healthy life­styles using the Park’s facil­it­ies 4.1 Pro­mo­tion of the wide range of recre­ation­al oppor­tun­it­ies avail­able in the Park is key to influ­en­cing beha­vi­or­al change. Our aim is that people liv­ing in or vis­it­ing the Park know the health bene­fits of phys­ic­al activ­ity and where and how to be active.

4.2 The biggest gain is to tar­get people cur­rently liv­ing sedent­ary life­styles where being inact­ive is the norm

4.2 We will pro­mote the Park’s out­door assets as an easy and free way to be act­ive as part of a daily routine.

4.3 Envir­on­ment­al volun­teer­ing has long been acknow­ledged as a way of enga­ging people in healthy activ­ity. We will cre­ate path­ways to health, well­being and employ­ment. This includes pro­mot­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for the social and insti­tu­tion­al mech­an­isms that enable phys­ic­al activ­ity, like social and sports clubs, buddy schemes and inform­al networks.

Act­ive Pro­mo­tion: Object­ives Increase levels of phys­ic­al activ­ity of res­id­ents and vis­it­ors Inspire and empower res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to devel­op a sense of respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park Policy (Appendix A) 6 Pro­mot­ing healthy life­styles 7 Devel­op­ing appro­pri­ate vis­it­or inform­a­tion about out­door recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies 8 Volun­teer­ing and com­munity Pri­or­it­ies Ensure every­one knows about the opportunities.

Act­ively tar­get those that are least act­ive by devel­op­ing a GP health walk refer­ral scheme.

Pro­mote activ­it­ies suit­able for all the family.

Inspire chil­dren to enjoy the outdoors.

Pro­mote the wider oppor­tun­it­ies for every­day exer­cise and out­door recre­ation such as cyc­ling, canoe­ing, cross coun­try ski­ing, climb­ing and hill walking.

Sup­port and pro­mote Com­munity Sport hubs – sign­post­ing inact­ive and act­ive people on how to be more active.

Adopt Scotland’s nation­al Path Grad­ing Sys­tem on all core paths by 2020.

Coordin­ate and grow the ​‘Walk­ing to Health’ Pro­gramme. empower­ment Work with Cairngorms Nature part­ners, includ­ing landown­ers and NGO’s to identi­fy volun­teer­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munity volun­teer groups.

Devel­op a vol­un­tary ranger scheme based around loc­al com­munit­ies. 10

Act­ive Promotion

Mun­ros 58 Corbetts 26 Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Ski Centres 3 Wel­come to the Nat­ur­al Health Ser­vice On your marks, Get set… GO… …Lets get act­ive Caimgorms

Moun­tain Bike Cantres 3 Out­door 9 Activ­ity Centres

Why Exer­cise… It’s med­ic­ally proven that people who do reg­u­lar phys­ic­al activ­ity have: • 30% lower risk of early death • up to a 35% lower risk of coron­ary heart dis­ease and stroke Com­munity Path Leaf­lets 17 • up to 50% lower risk of type 2 dia­betes • up to 20% lower risk of breast can­cer • up to 30% lower risk of depres­sion • up to 30% lower risk of dementia

Source: NHS choices Recom­men­ded phys­ic­al activ­ity levels Chil­dren (-5): 180 mins every day Youths (5−18): 60 mins every day Adults (19−64): 150 mins every week Adults (65+): 150 mins every week

Ranger Ser­vices Help­ing you to under­stand 12 and enjoy the Outdoors

Act­ive pro­mo­tion to date Health Walks Delivered 4,026 CAT From April 2011– March 2015

17 Com­munit­ies with path leaf­lets: over 8,000 Aviemore Boat of Garten Glen Clova Lag­gan Atholl Car­rbridge Glen Esk Nethy­bridge Bal­later Dal­whin­nie New­ton­more Grant­own-on-Spey Brae­mar Dul­nain Bridge Strath­don Kin­gussie Tomin­toul leaflets

Tread Lightly in the Park: Respons­ible access campaign

Also pro­duced pro­mo­tion­al boards, maps, flags and banners.

Mon­it­or­ing It is import­ant that our work is spe­cif­ic and meas­ur­able. Act­ive Cairngorms and its action plan will be reviewed annu­ally fol­low­ing the col­lec­tion of baseline data.

As well as pro­mot­ing out­door access for all, we will focus on help­ing inact­ive res­id­ents become more act­ive. This will include older adults, women and people liv­ing with long-term med­ic­al con­di­tions. We will also devel­op inclus­ive out­reach pro­jects with com­munit­ies around the Nation­al Park.

Data num­ber of core paths; What Act­ive Places • long dis­tance routes or nation­al cycle net­work routes upgraded or developed; • act­ive travel hubs developed; • • • path use indic­at­ors on low­land and upland paths.

caper­cail­lie frame­work mon­it­or­ing; Scot­tish Out­door Access Code invest­ig­a­tions resolved; private and pub­lic estates; path use indic­at­ors on low­land and upland paths. Act­ive Man­age­ment • Act­ive Pro­mo­tion • Nation­al Park vis­it­or sur­vey; walk­ing to health/​GP refer­ral schemes; • NHS Data zones; • SNH SPANS; • Paths For All Walk­ers Data­base; Nation­al Walk­ing Strategy mon­it­or­ing; • Scot­tish House­hold Sur­vey; • ranger ser­vices • • region­al trans­port part­ner­ship data; SUS­TRANS Beha­vi­or Change Team and Hands Up Sur­vey; CAPS Mon­it­or­ing Report; path use indic­at­ors on low­land and upland paths; mem­ber­ship of loc­al clubs; num­ber of volun­teers and hours. 12

Appendix A Out­door Recre­ation and Access Policies The fol­low­ing table details the out­door recre­ation and access policies adop­ted by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Policy I Improv­ing path pro­vi­sion and qual­ity for people of all abil­it­ies 2 Pro­vi­sion for cyc­ling, horse rid­ing and water­borne routes and infra­struc­ture 3 Increas­ing under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the Park’s spe­cial qual­it­ies Key detail

1. A con­sist­ent approach should be taken to path cre­ation, repair and main­ten­ance of paths and trail heads (access hubs) in the Nation­al Park to ensure routes are ​‘fit for pur­pose’. The pri­or­it­ies will be: a) core paths; b) offi­cial long dis­tance routes and nation­al cycle net­work; c) moun­tain paths iden­ti­fied in the ​‘Scotland’s Nation­al Parks –The People and the Moun­tains Project’.
2. Oppor­tun­it­ies should be avail­able for a full range of exper­i­ences for people of all abil­it­ies focus­sing on a geo­graph­ic spread of bar­ri­er free, well sur­faced, multi use, shal­low gradi­ent routes.
3. Increase use of bicycles for leis­ure and func­tion­al trips.
4. Path and facil­ity upgrades should take into account horse-rid­ing, cyc­ling and water-borne access where appro­pri­ate. Not all routes are suit­able for all modes of transport.
5. We will work with and sup­port part­ners to sus­tain and enhance oppor­tun­it­ies for water­borne activ­it­ies includ­ing respons­ible recre­ation on the Rivers Spey and Dee.
6. Con­tin­ue to sup­port and encour­age enjoy­ment of the Park and the spe­cial qual­it­ies through respons­ible par­ti­cip­a­tion in non-motor­ised recreation.
7. Act­ive man­age­ment meas­ures should be applied and mon­itored at pop­u­lar recre­ation­al sites in the Nation­al Park to max­im­ise vis­it­or enjoy­ment, safe­guard health and safety, main­tain or enhance the qual­ity of the envir­on­ment and min­im­ise adverse effects of recre­ation­al use.
8. Devel­op man­age­ment at sens­it­ive nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age sites to reduce neg­at­ive impacts of recre­ation while main­tain­ing a high qual­ity vis­it­or experience.
9. The Scot­tish Out­door Access Code should be pro­moted by a range of part­ners includ­ing ranger ser­vices, out­door pro­viders, clubs, nation­al gov­ern­ing bod­ies and land man­agers using simple, con­sist­ent and eas­ily under­stood messages.
10. There should be a par­tic­u­lar emphas­is on the pro­tec­tion of the out­stand­ing nat­ur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park. 13

Policy Key detail Out­door Recre­ation and Access Policies 4 Man­age­ment of 1. Organ­ised out­door events should fol­low Cairngorms Nation­al Park organ­ised out­door events 5 Invest­ment in act­ive travel facil­it­ies 6 Pro­mot­ing healthy life­styles 7 Devel­op­ing appro­pri­ate vis­it­or inform­a­tion about out­door recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies 8 Volun­teer­ing and com­munity empower­ment Author­ity guid­ance and take place in loc­a­tions and at times of year that that do not dis­turb sens­it­ive wild­life or sig­ni­fic­antly affect oth­er recre­ation takers. Events should also provide addi­tion­al eco­nom­ic bene­fits to communities.

1. The sense of wild­ness and space in the cent­ral core of the high moun­tains (as dis­played in the SNH Wild Land Map) of the Nation­al Park is one of the out­stand­ing spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area. a. The Scot­tish tra­di­tion of self-reli­ant access will be main­tained with no new path signs and way­mark­ing, no new bridges, and no new both­ies or ​‘man-made’ moun­tain shel­ters. b. There is a pre­sump­tion against large-scale events in this area.
2. Pos­it­ive man­age­ment of motor­ised traffic at pop­u­lar loc­a­tions for recre­ation­al use is required. Car park char­ging schemes at key sites for out­door access and recre­ation are appro­pri­ate where: a designed facil­ity is provided; income gen­er­ated is demon­strably rein­ves­ted in vis­it­or infra­struc­ture; char­ging does not cre­ate addi­tion­al park­ing prob­lems out with the site; and dis­coun­ted schemes are avail­able for reg­u­lar and con­ces­sion­ary users.
3. Encour­aging less act­ive people to take more reg­u­lar phys­ic­al activ­ity in the out­doors will improve the phys­ic­al and men­tal health of the pop­u­la­tion. All infra­struc­ture improve­ments, sig­nage and access pro­mo­tion should make it easi­er for less act­ive and sedent­ary people to access the countryside.
4. Inform­a­tion about out­door access oppor­tun­it­ies should be provided in print and digit­ally and be under­stand­able by a range of users. These should fol­low the guid­ance in Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­munity Path Leaf­lets Design and new nation­al path grad­ing system.
5. Pub­lic­a­tions should be avail­able in elec­tron­ic format across a range of devices.
6. Envir­on­ment­al and recre­ation­al volun­teer­ing will be encour­aged and pro­moted through­out the Park. 14

Appendix B Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan 15

Act­ive Cairngorms No Action Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al: Action Act­ive Places Cham­pi­on Part­ner (s) Deliv­ery plan Short Medi­um Long Path Devel­op­ment 2 Improve the access­ib­il­ity of the Spey­side Way from Crom­dale to Aviemore for cyc­lists and horse riders. Com­plete the Spey­side Way exten­sion from Kin­craig to New­ton­more. Ensure all part­ners pro­mote respons­ible use of the Spey­side Way in accord­ance with the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code. CNPA will only sup­port pro­jects where it can be shown they won’t have a det­ri­ment­al effect on nearby Natura sites and sup­port the work of the Caper­cail­lie Frame­work. The Appropir­ate Assess­ment has demon­strated that a suit­bale route option will be pos­sible bteween Kin­craig and New­ton­more. Con­struc­tion will not start until it has been demon­strated that there are no likly sig­ni­ficnat effects upon caper­cail­lie, Insh Marshes SPA and River Spey SAC. CNPA SUS To sup­port the man­ag­ment of 3 Devel­op Deeside Way cycle path exten­sion from Bal­later sen­st­ive spiecies such as to Brae­mar. CNPA SUS caper­cail­lie the route will not go through the Bal­loch­buie SPA. 4 Design, devel­op and pro­mote cycle and act­ive travel hubs along High­land main rail­way line. CNPA CRP 5 Sup­port devel­op­ment of multi-use paths on trunk roads. CNPA TS SUS 6 Deliv­er ​‘Scotland’s Nation­al Park’s: The Moun­tains and the People’ Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund pro­ject. COAT CNPA 7 Sup­port Region­al Walk­ing and Cyc­ling (or Act­ive Travel) Strategies. 8 Expand Com­munity Plan­ning and Phys­ic­al Activ­ity Groups. HITRANS NES­TRANS TACT­RANS CNPA NHS CNPA SNH LA Sup­port devel­op­ment of ​‘Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in 9 DMBS CNPA Scot­land’ High­land Cluster Region­al Devel­op­ment Plan. 10 Sup­port com­munity path groups through Loc­al People Loc­al Paths Pro­gramme. Path upgrades to Lairig Ghru, Meall a Bhua­chaille, Loch Mor­lich beach. 12 All Cairngorms Nation­al Park Long Dis­tance Routes to be sur­veyed bien­ni­ally. 100% of core paths to be brought up to fit for pur­pose 13 stand­ard by 2020 (free from obstruc­tion and signed appro­pri­ately). 14 Devel­op a blue­print map of exist­ing and poten­tial act­ive travel routes in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. 16 PFAP CNPA FCS SUS­TRANS CNPA CNPA Land Man­agers RTP CNPA LA SUS (1−2 year) (3−4 year) (5+ year)

Act­ive Cairngorms No Action Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al: Action Act­ive Man­age­ment Cham­pi­on Part­ner (s) Con­ser­va­tion Reduce the impact of recre­ation on ground nest­ing birds such as caper­cail­lie by imple­ment­ing site spe­cif­ic actions from The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Frame­work. 2 Sup­port land man­agers to deliv­er recre­ation­al man­age­ment plans. CNPA Land Man­agers RUG CNPA Land Man­agers RUG 3 Mon­it­or and report on impacts on hab­it­ats and spe­cies caused by recre­ation. CNPA Land Man­agers RUG Man­age­ment 4 Devel­op and pro­mote ranger events pro­gramme. 5 6 7 Sup­port Forestry Com­mis­sion Scot­land to engage with activ­ity pro­viders and com­mer­cial access pro­moters on nation­al forest estate to pro­mote best prac­tice in vis­it­or man­age­ment. Imple­ment tar­geted vis­it­or mon­it­or­ing pro­gramme through stra­tegic review of exist­ing mon­it­or­ing at indic­at­or sites (low­land paths, upland paths, trail­heads, core paths and LDRs) with addi­tion­al mon­it­or­ing to be car­ried out where gaps are iden­ti­fied. Secure a spon­sor for the Spey­side Way and increase oppor­tun­it­ies for rev­en­ue gen­er­a­tion via web­site devel­op­ment. Guid­ance Sup­port and devel­op a range of resources for land man­agers to 8 pro­mote respons­ible access on their land. Pro­vi­sion of land man­age­ment signs, leaf­lets and posters. 9 10 Devel­op a ​‘dogs wel­come’ pack­age for the Park includ­ing web resources pub­lic­a­tions and iden­ti­fied dog walk­ing areas. Sens­it­ive sites with ground nest­ing birds will be avoided and key mes­sages from the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code about respons­ible dog own­er­ship will be prom­in­ent and in all mater­i­al and mar­ket­ing. Sup­port and advoc­ate uptake and use of the ​‘Head­ing for the Scot­tish Hills’ ini­ti­at­ive. 11 Sup­port devel­op­ment of com­munity led camp­ing site pro­pos­als. Devel­op­ments will only be sup­por­ted if they are shown to have no neg­at­ive effect on nearby des­ig­nated sites and spe­cies. 17 CNPA Ranger Ser­vices FCS CNPA Loc­al Author­it­ies CNPA SUS­TRANS CNPA Land Man­agers RUG CNPA SUS­TRANS CNPA Land Man­agers RUG Aber­deen­shire CNPA Coun­cil Com­munit­ies Short Deliv­ery plan Medi­um Long (1−2 year) (3−4 year) (5+ year)

Act­ive Cairngorms No Action Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al: Action Cham­pi­on Act­ive Pro­mo­tion Part­ner (s) Deliv­ery plan | 2 Devel­op a sus­tain­able com­munity based phys­ic­al activ­ity and envir­on­ment­al volun­teer­ing pro­gramme in the Park. Devel­op tar­geted pro­mo­tion activ­it­ies for those liv­ing sedent­ary life­styles. 3 Con­tin­ue to devel­op and pro­mote ​‘tread lightly’ as the main means to pro­mote the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code in the Park. 4 Ensure all part­ners pro­mote respons­ible use of the Spey and Dee in accord­ance with the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code. Devel­op a phys­ic­al activ­ity mar­ket­ing plan for core paths, CNPA will only sup­port long dis­tance routes and com­munity paths. 5