Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 4 23 March 2026 Pages 1 – 4 of 4

For dis­cus­sion

Title: Cairngorms Peat­land ACTION Programme

Pre­pared by: Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Management

Pur­pose

This paper presents an update on the deliv­ery of the Park Authority’s Peat­land ACTION pro­gramme in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ and the devel­op­ing pro­gramme for ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Note the pro­gress against pro­gramme tar­gets for ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆. b) Note the plans for ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇.

Stra­tegic policy consideration

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) action is to restore a min­im­um of 6,500 hec­tares (ha) of peat­land by 2027, as a con­tri­bu­tion towards the tar­get of a min­im­um of 38,000ha of peat­land under res­tor­a­tion by 2045, 80% of all drains restored by 2035, and all erosion fea­tures restored by 2050.
2. Peat­land Action fund­ing is a sig­ni­fic­ant com­pon­ent of the match fund­ing for the Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) Pro­gramme. As one of the five Peat­land ACTION deliv­ery part­ners, the res­tor­a­tion work delivered by the Park Author­ity plays an import­ant part in reach­ing the Scot­tish Government’s (SG) tar­get of 250,000ha of peat­land being restored by 2030.

Per­form­ance dashboard

Per­form­ance Meas­ure for 2025⁄26	Rat­ing	Com­ment­ary
Fin­ance: Max­im­ise use of £3.98 mil­lion cap­it­al fin­ance and £650,000 resource fin­ance avail­able in 2025⁄26 for peat­land restoration.	Green	There are cur­rently 15 pro­jects in the pro­gramme with an estim­ated grant require­ment of £3.37 mil­lion (estim­ated on 31 Janu­ary 2026). £610,000 were returned to SG in Novem­ber 2025. The resource budget of £650,000 is on track to be fully spent.
Fin­ance: Impact on the Park Authority’s budget management.	Green	No wider unplanned demands cur­rently made by pro­gramme on fin­an­cial resources.
Res­tor­a­tion tar­get 2025⁄26: 1,700ha Res­tor­a­tion Area	Green	1,614ha have been repor­ted between 01 April 2025 and 31 Janu­ary 2026. There is a poten­tial total of 1,870ha in the pro­gramme, with 256ha of res­tor­a­tion cur­rently delayed due to snow.
Pipeline for 2026⁄27	Green	The pro­vi­sion­al pro­gramme includes 15 pro­jects totalling 1400ha. A fur­ther five pro­jects are on a reserve list. The Park Author­ity will design and deliv­er six pro­jects dir­ectly, with the remainder being agent-led.
Pro­gramme risk profile	Green	At this stage in the year there are quite likely to be changes in the pro­gramme. Should pro­jects drop out, there are suf­fi­ciently worked up pro­jects in reserve to fill the programme.
Future fund­ing profile	Green	The pro­vi­sion­al SG alloc­a­tion for 2026⁄27 is £4.205 mil­lion, com­pris­ing £3.5 mil­lion cap­it­al and £705,000 resource. £250,000 is alloc­ated for devel­op­ment grants, sur­veys and mon­it­or­ing. £3.25 mil­lion remains avail­able for pro­ject delivery.
Future deliv­ery profile	Green	Landown­ers remain engaged with Peat­land ACTION and demand now exceeds sup­ply in terms of budget.

Deliv­ery against stra­tegic outcomes

1. The pro­gramme is on track to exceed the tar­get of 1,700ha in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆. Approx­im­ately 1,600ha have already been secured and work is con­tinu­ing on three pro­jects, sub­ject to delays due to snow con­di­tions. If con­di­tions improve, a total of 1,870ha could be achieved in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆. Altern­at­ively, the work will be fin­ished in oper­a­tion­al year ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇.
2. Since 2022 approx­im­ately 6,600ha of peat­land has been brought under res­tor­a­tion. The NPPP action to bring 6,500ha under res­tor­a­tion by 2027 has been achieved and we remain on track to bring a min­im­um of 38,000 ha of peat­land under res­tor­a­tion man­age­ment by 2045.
3. Fund­ing for peat­land res­tor­a­tion in ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ is a reduc­tion in cap­it­al from ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ of £480,000. This reflects a reduc­tion in the nation­al budget as a res­ult of there being no addi­tion­al £8 mil­lion from Scot Winds. Our pro­vi­sion­al share of the nation­al budget is £3.5 mil­lion cap­it­al and from this we aim to fund 15 pro­jects across the Nation­al Park and a pro­vi­sion­al tar­get of 1400ha.This may be altered over the next few months.
4. Multi-year plans for sev­er­al large estates will con­tin­ue to be developed, bring­ing a degree of secur­ity to future pipelines and a strong busi­ness case for invest­ment both by landown­ers in terms of private con­tri­bu­tions to pro­jects and con­tract­ors on plant, staff and train­ing. Devel­op­ment grants have proved suc­cess­ful in devel­op­ing agent led pro­jects and we will con­tin­ue to issue these grants.

Stra­tegic risks under management

1. Budget capa­city: For the first time since the start of the pro­gramme, demand for pro­jects now exceeds budget capa­city. The Park Author­ity has pri­or­it­ised pro­jects using a range of cri­ter­ia includ­ing hec­tares, value for money, deliv­ery risk and exist­ing com­mit­ments. Pro­jects that do not fully meet these cri­ter­ia are con­sidered as reserve for ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ and / or deferred to future years.
2. Staff­ing and resourcing: One Peat­land Officer left the team in the sum­mer. Hav­ing con­sidered how best to fill this post we have recruited a replace­ment which will bring the Peat­land Team back to a full com­ple­ment of nine staff.
3. Con­tract­or capa­city: Con­tract­or capa­city remains suf­fi­cient to tackle the planned pro­gramme and appears to have broadly sta­bil­ised over­all. The new entrant scheme, which sup­ports rel­at­ively small oper­at­ors start­ing out in the dis­cip­line in apply­ing for and deliv­ery of low com­plex­ity pro­jects, has res­ul­ted in one new con­tract­or bid­ding for work in the Nation­al Park.
4. Agent capa­city and exper­i­ence have increased markedly across the Park and this is some­thing the Park Author­ity has act­ively encour­aged. Agent led pro­jects now exceed the Park Authority’s designed and led pro­jects in the annu­al pro­gramme and this is likely to con­tin­ue in future years.

Colin McCle­an 23 Feb­ru­ary 2026 colinmcclean@​cairngorms.​co.​uk