Strategic Environmental Assessment - DRAFT Environmental Report

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022

STRATEGY

Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment DRAFT Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021 (also incor­por­at­ing the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal)

To: [email protected] SEA Gate­way 2 H (South) Vic­tor­ia Quay Edin­burgh EH6 6QQ

Cov­er Note PART I

PART 2

An SEA Scop­ing Report is attached for the plan, pro­gramme or strategy (PPS) entitled: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 — 2027

The Respons­ible Author­ity is: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

PART 3

The PPS falls under the scope of Sec­tion 5(3) of the Act and requires an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005.or

The PPS falls under the scope of Sec­tion 5(4) of the Act and requires an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005. or

The PPS does not require an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act

1. How­ever, we wish to carry out an SEA on a vol­un­tary basis. We accept that, as this SEA is vol­un­tary, the stat­utory 5 week times­cale for views from the Con­sulta­tion Author­it­ies can­not be guaranteed.

PART 4

Con­tact name Nina Caudrey

Job Title Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Planning)

Con­tact address Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

Con­tact tel no 01479 873535

Con­tact email ninacaudrey@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

PART 5

Sig­na­ture (elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture is accept­able) Date Nina Caudrey 24 Septem­ber 2021

Table of Contents

Non-tech­nic­al summary

1. Con­text for the Envir­on­ment­al Report a. Back­ground b. Altern­at­ives c. About the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and rela­tion­ship with oth­er plans d. Envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion object­ives in oth­er plans, pro­grammes and strategies

2. Cur­rent state of the envir­on­ment a. Top­ics con­sidered b. Envir­on­ment­al baseline

3. Envir­on­ment­al assess­ment a. Assess­ment car­ried out b. Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assessments

4. Mon­it­or­ing

5. Next steps

Annex I: Plans, pro­grammes and strategies rel­ev­ant to the NPPP

Annex II: Envir­on­ment­al assess­ment tables

Table Al — policy screen­ing table

Table All — short term actions screen­ing table

Table Alll — long term object­ives and tar­gets screen­ing table

Table AIV – assess­ment for Object­ive A3, peat­land restoration

Table AV – assess­ment for Object­ive C4, Deeside Way extension

Table AVI – assess­ment for Object­ive C8, short term lets

Annex III: Baseline envir­on­ment­al data see sep­ar­ate document

Annex IV: Pop­u­la­tion data ana­lys­is information

Annex V: Mon­it­or­ing meas­ures table

Annex VI: Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

Note: Top­ic papers are provided in a sep­ar­ate document

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Non-tech­nic­al summary

This Envir­on­ment­al Report assesses the poten­tial envir­on­ment­al effects of the next Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (fig­ure 1).

North

Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of HMSO. Crown copy­right and data­base right 2015. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Fig­ure I — the area covered by the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

The NPPP iden­ti­fies meas­ures that part­ner organ­isa­tions and the Nation­al Park Author­ity will work togeth­er on to meet the legis­lat­ive aims for Nation­al Parks:

to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area;

to pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area;

to pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public;

to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021 These aims are to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers then great­er weight must be giv­en to the first aim (sec­tion 9.6 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act). This is a sus­tain­able devel­op­ment approach in which con­ser­va­tion of the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age under­pins the eco­nom­ic, social and recre­ation value of the Nation­al Park.

The main issues facing the Nation­al Park can be sum­mar­ised as the effects of cli­mate change on people and nature, the effects of people and land man­age­ment prac­tices on nature, and a hous­ing mar­ket that does not meet loc­al hous­ing needs (see sep­ar­ate envir­on­ment­al baseline Top­ic papers for fur­ther inform­a­tion). The NPPP seeks to identi­fy solu­tions to these issues through a range of policies, object­ives, short and long term tar­gets. Some of these solu­tions may have envir­on­ment­al effects. The main pur­pose of the Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment is to identi­fy where effects may occur, to enable amend­ments to min­im­ise harm­ful effects.

None of the policies or object­ives in the NPPP were pre­dicted to have envir­on­ment­al effects (Annex II: Envir­on­ment­al assess­ment tables). The envir­on­ment­al assess­ment iden­ti­fied three short term actions and one long term tar­get in the NPPP as hav­ing the poten­tial to have envir­on­ment­al effects. Of these, three were pre­dicted to have pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effects. Only one was pre­dicted to have lim­ited harm­ful envir­on­ment­al effects, how­ever meas­ures applied as part of plan­ning per­mis­sion have already reduced these to a min­im­al level. So it is not pos­sible to min­im­ise the effects any further.

As the NPPP is imple­men­ted, mon­it­or­ing will occur on an annu­al basis to see if there are any unex­pec­ted effects (Annex V: Mon­it­or­ing meas­ures table). If unex­pec­ted effects occur, action will be taken to rem­edy them as appro­pri­ate to the effect and its cause.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report

1. Con­text for the Envir­on­ment­al Report a. Back­ground Septem­ber 2021

The plan being assessed is the fourth Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). The NPPP is a five year man­age­ment plan cov­er­ing the whole of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park area (fig­ure 1) for the peri­od 2022 – 2027, although it also con­tains tar­gets up to 2040. It will replace the cur­rent NPPP, which cov­ers the peri­od 2017 – 2022. NPPPs seek to identi­fy key land man­age­ment, social and eco­nom­ic issues for the Park as a whole, along with stra­tegic meas­ures to alle­vi­ate them.

The NPPP was sub­ject to SEA scop­ing in early 2020. Responses from stat­utory con­sul­tees have been taken into account dur­ing the pre­par­a­tion of the draft Envir­on­ment­al Report.

b. Altern­at­ives

Hav­ing a NPPP is a leg­al require­ment under required under sec­tion 11 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000. This lim­its the options avail­able for con­sid­er­a­tion of altern­at­ives, as hav­ing no NPPP is not per­mit­ted. Car­ry­ing for­ward the cur­rent 2017 – 2022 NPPP was ruled out as it does not fully reflect or address the con­tem­por­ary issues facing the Nation­al Park. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) worked with part­ner organ­isa­tions to identi­fy issues and solu­tions dur­ing 2020 and 2021, res­ult­ing in the draft NPPP. Unfeas­ible altern­at­ive solu­tions were ruled out dur­ing that pro­cess, mean­ing that the solu­tions felt by part­ners to be most viable were put for­ward into the draft NPPP.

C. About the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and rela­tion­ship with oth­er plans The NPPP will:

Set the stra­tegic vis­ion and pri­or­it­ies for man­aging the Park by identi­fy­ing key land man­age­ment, social and eco­nom­ic issues.

Identi­fy meas­ures that CNPA and part­ners think will alle­vi­ate the issues and make the biggest con­tri­bu­tion to a suc­cess­ful Nation­al Park over the plan’s life­time and beyond.

Provide focus and pri­or­it­ies at a time of lim­ited fin­an­cial resources.

Show how the four aims of the Nation­al Park can be achieved togeth­er, bene­fit­ing people and place.

The NPPP will also provide stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for five key strategies and plans that sit below it, as shown in fig­ure 2. In turn, these plans and strategies will sup­port deliv­ery of the NPPP pri­or­it­ies. (Note that these strategies may change name and loc­a­tion in the hier­archy as the 2022 NPPP is imple­men­ted, how­ever they will remain below the NPPP and cov­er the same top­ic areas.)

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan The over­arch­ing man­age­ment plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Act­ive Cairngorms The out­door access strategy for the Nation­al Park

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan Sets out the con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies for the Nation­al Park

Eco­nom­ic Action Plan

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Sets out the eco­nom­ic pri­or­it­ies for the Nation­al Park Sets out the polices for land use plan­ning with­in the Nation­al Park

LEAD­ER Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy Sets out the pri­or­it­ies for pro­mot­ing com­munity- led loc­al devel­op­ment to sup­port a sus­tain­able rur­al eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park

Fig­ure 2 — hier­archy of CNPA plans and strategies cur­rently linked to the NPPP

d. Envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion object­ives in oth­er plans, pro­grammes and strategies

There are a large num­ber of oth­er plans, pro­grammes and strategies (PPS) that are of rel­ev­ance to the NPPP. Due to their num­ber, these are lis­ted in Annex I: Plans, pro­grammes and strategies rel­ev­ant to the NPPP. The PPS are cat­egor­ised accord­ing to their inter­na­tion­al, nation­al and loc­al scales and are accom­pan­ied by inform­a­tion on their pur­pose, rela­tion­ship with the NPPP and their rel­ev­ance to the envir­on­ment­al assessment.

1. Cur­rent state of the envir­on­ment a. Top­ics considered

Sched­ule 3 of the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005 lists cat­egor­ies of poten­tial envir­on­ment­al effects that should be con­sidered as part of the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment pro­cess. These have been grouped togeth­er into eight Top­ic areas. The Top­ics are:

Top­ic 1: Cli­mat­ic Factors Top­ic 2: Air Top­ic 3: Water

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Top­ic 4: Soil (includ­ing geo­di­versity’) Top­ic 5: Mater­i­al Assets Top­ic 6: Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Top­ic 7: Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Top­ic 8: Pop­u­la­tion and Human Health

All the SEA Top­ics have been included in the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment, as the stra­tegic nature of the NPPP and baseline issues have the poten­tial to influ­ence all topics.

b. Envir­on­ment­al baseline

The sep­ar­ate Top­ic papers present inform­a­tion on the envir­on­ment­al baseline, ordered by the eight dif­fer­ent top­ic areas: cli­mat­ic factors, air, water, soil, mater­i­al assets, biod­iversity flora and fauna, land­scape and cul­tur­al her­it­age, pop­u­la­tion and human health. (Annex IV: Pop­u­la­tion data ana­lys­is inform­a­tion provides inform­a­tion on how some ele­ments of the pop­u­la­tion and human health baseline were assessed, due to com­plex­it­ies of gath­er­ing data at a Nation­al Park rather than Loc­al Author­ity level.)

A dif­fer­ent approach has been taken to present­ing the baseline inform­a­tion, by using infograph­ics rather than the tra­di­tion­al text heavy writ­ten report style. The aim of this is to make the inform­a­tion more access­ible and under­stand­able to con­sul­tees and the pub­lic. (The infograph­ics are also suit­able for use for more pur­poses than SEA alone. By being multi-pur­pose, this rep­res­ents more effi­cient work­ing for CNPA staff.)

The baseline data has been taken from a vari­ety of sources, such as the 2011 Census, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Nation­al Stat­ist­ics, Nation­al Records of Scot­land, Forestry and Land Scot­land, NatureScot, Regis­trar of Scot­land, and the five Coun­cils in the Nation­al Park. (Annex IV: Pop­u­la­tion data ana­lys­is inform­a­tion provides details of how the pop­u­la­tion data was gathered at the Nation­al Park level.)

1. Envir­on­ment­al assess­ment a. Assess­ment car­ried out

The envir­on­ment­al assess­ment is presen­ted in Annex II: Envir­on­ment­al assess­ment tables. In sum­mary, none of the policies or object­ives in the NPPP were pre­dicted to have envir­on­ment­al effects. The envir­on­ment­al assess­ment iden­ti­fied three short term actions and one long term tar­get in the NPPP as hav­ing the poten­tial to have envir­on­ment­al effects. Of these, three were pre­dicted to have pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effects. Only one was pre­dicted to have lim­ited harm­ful envir­on­ment­al effects, how­ever meas­ures applied as part

Geo­di­versity is more rel­ev­ant to soils (Top­ic 4) due to the small num­ber of quar­ries in the Nation­al Park. The con­tri­bu­tion of min­er­al extrac­tion to resources is still included under Top­ic 5.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021 of plan­ning per­mis­sion have already reduced these to a min­im­al level. So it is not pos­sible to min­im­ise the effects any further.

Table I provides the scor­ing mat­rix used to ensure con­sist­ency dur­ing the envir­on­ment­al assessment.

Table I — scor­ing matrix

	Sig­ni­fic­ance of Effect
Ele­ment would have a major pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effect in its cur­rent form as it would resolve an exist­ing issue or max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies.SIG­NI­FIC­ANT.	++
Ele­ment would have a minor pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effect.	+
Effect of Ele­ment is uncer­tain.	?
No con­nectiv­ity with the envir­on­ment­al Topic/​Objective being assessed.	X
Ele­ment would have no pre­dicted envir­on­ment­al effects.	0
Ele­ment would have a minor adverse envir­on­ment­al effect.	-
The Ele­ment would have a major adverse envir­on­ment­al effect as it would cre­ate sig­ni­fic­ant new prob­lems or sub­stan­tially exacer­bate exist­ing prob­lems. Con­sider exclu­sion of option. SIG­NI­FIC­ANT.	- -

Con­sid­er­a­tion of cumulative/​in com­bin­a­tion effects was part of the assess­ment pro­cess, rather than being a sep­ar­ate assess­ment. How­ever no cumu­lat­ive effects with suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment were found. (For example, while the pro­posed wood­land expan­sion, biod­iversity enhance­ment and peat­land res­tor­a­tion tar­gets are likely to inter­act, because the NPPP is a high level doc­u­ment, there is lim­ited spe­cif­ic inform­a­tion on where, how and when indi­vidu­al activities/​projects arising from the three ele­ments would inter­act. This means it is not pos­sible to assess what cumu­lat­ive effects, if any, would occur.) Non­ethe­less, it should be noted that more detailed inform­a­tion of many of the tar­gets would be part of oth­er plans pro­grammes or strategies, which them­selves would be sub­ject to envir­on­ment­al assess­ment at a scale bet­ter able to quanti­fy and assess cumulative/​in com­bin­a­tion effects at that time.

Due to the NPPP being a high level doc­u­ment, many of the policies and object­ives are too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment of poten­tial envir­on­ment­al effects, and/​or are not geo­graph­ic­ally spe­cif­ic enough to enable assess­ment, and/​or relate to pro­cesses that in them­selves do not res­ult in change or envir­on­ment­al effects. So while actions arising from many of the policies/​objectives might give rise to some envir­on­ment­al effects, it is not pos­sible to assess what those are, where they might occur, their scale and/​or their sig­ni­fic­ance. Many of the effects would be man­aged through con­sent­ing pro­cesses (such as plan­ning per­mis­sion) or SEA of oth­er plans, pro­grammes or strategies (such as the

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021 Cairngorms Nature Action Plan), which would con­tain more detail that would enable assess­ment at that time.

Some of the policies/​objectives/​targets are also reli­ant on imple­ment­a­tion of oth­er plans or strategies, such as the LDP and Forest Strategy, which are sub­ject to sep­ar­ate SEA on their more detailed content.

The Rur­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and Plan ele­ment of the NPPP lack suf­fi­cient detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment. They will also be sep­ar­ate plans and so will be sub­ject to sep­ar­ate SEA on their detailed con­tent. Her­it­age Hori­zons pro­jects are not assessed, as they will be sub­ject to sep­ar­ate envir­on­ment­al assess­ment at the detailed pro­ject design stage.

b. Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assessments

A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken at the same time as the draft Envir­on­ment­al Report. The HRA has been used to inform the Envir­on­ment­al Report and vice versa as part of an iter­at­ive pro­cess. For ease of cross ref­er­ence, the HRA is provided in Annex VI: Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report

1. Mon­it­or­ing Septem­ber 2021

The effects of imple­ment­a­tion of the NPPP will be mon­itored dur­ing its life­time. Annex V: Mon­it­or­ing meas­ures table iden­ti­fies what meas­ures will be used and what mon­it­or­ing will be under­taken. If unex­pec­ted effects occur, action will be taken to rem­edy them as appro­pri­ate to the effect and its cause

1. Next steps

At the end of the con­sulta­tion peri­od on the draft NPPP and Envir­on­ment­al Report, con­sulta­tion responses will be reviewed. Where this res­ults in a change to the NPPP, the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment will be reviewed and updated accord­ingly. Con­sul­tee com­ments on the Envir­on­ment­al Report itself will also be reviewed and the Envir­on­ment­al Report updated as appropriate.

Once the NPPP and Envir­on­ment­al Report have been final­ised, the NPPP will be adop­ted and a post-adop­tion state­ment on the Envir­on­ment­al Report issued. The final­ised NPPP is anti­cip­ated to be ready for adop­tion in sum­mer 2022.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021 Annex I: Plans, pro­grammes and strategies rel­ev­ant to the NPPP

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Inter­na­tion­al Dir­ect­ives and Policies
European Charter for Region­al or Minor­ity Lan­guages (European Coun­cil, 1992)	European adop­ted under the aus­pices of the Coun­cil of Europe to pro­tect and pro­mote his­tor­ic­al region­al and minor­ity lan­guages in Europe. Iden­ti­fies Gael­ic as being an endangered language.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port the Gael­ic lan­guage where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies identified.
European Land­scape Con­ven­tion (European Com­mis­sion, 2000)	Pro­motes the pro­tec­tion, man­age­ment and plan­ning of European land­scapes and organ­ises European co-oper­a­tion on land­scape issues	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should be a tool for the main­ten­ance and res­tor­a­tion of land­scapes and their nat­ur­al habitats.
The Par­is Agree­ment (United Nations Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change, 2015)	The agree­ment sets out a glob­al action plan to put the world on track to avoid dan­ger­ous cli­mate change by lim­it­ing glob­al warm­ing to well below 2°C and pur­su­ing efforts to lim­it it to 1.5°C.	Cli­mat­ic Factors	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should seek to pro­mote the devel­op­ment and use of appro­pri­ate renew­able energy sources and con­trib­ute to cli­mate change mitigation.
Kyoto Pro­tocol (UNFC­CC, 1997)	Pro­tocol to the inter­na­tion­al Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change Frame­work with the object­ive of redu­cing the Green­house gases that cause cli­mate change.	Cli­mat­ic factors	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port meas­ures that will reduce green­house gas emissions.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
The Pan-European Bio­lo­gic­al and Land­scape Diversity Strategy (Coun­cil of Europe, 1995)	The Strategy aims to reverse the decline of land­scape and bio­lo­gic­al diversity, by pro­mot­ing innov­a­tion and pro­act­ive policy making.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Water	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port the Strategy by con­sid­er­ing the con­tri­bu­tion that actions could make to pro­tect­ing biod­iversity and landscapes.
Ram­sar Con­ven­tion on Wet­lands of Inter­na­tion­al Import­ance 1971	Requires con­ser­va­tion and wise use of wetlands.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should ensure the pro­tec­tion and enhance­ment of wetlands.
Tak­ing Sus­tain­able Use of Resources For­ward: A them­at­ic Strategy on the pre­ven­tion and recyc­ling of waste (EU 2005)	A sec­tor based strategy pro­duced as a require­ment of the Sev­enth Envir­on­ment­al Action Pro­gramme of the European Com­munity, seek­ing to help Europe become a recyc­ling soci­ety that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a resource.	Cli­mat­ic factors Air Mater­i­al assets	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should seek to min­im­ise waste and pro­mote recycling.
Them­at­ic Strategy for Soil Pro­tec­tion (EU 2006)	A sec­tor based strategy pro­duced as a require­ment of the Sev­enth Envir­on­ment­al Action Pro­gramme of the European Com­munity, seek­ing to estab­lish com­mon prin­ciples for the pro­tec­tion and sus­tain­able use of soils.	Soil and geodiversity	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should con­trib­ute towards the pro­tec­tion and improve­ment of soil.
UN Con­ven­tion on Bio­lo­gic­al Diversity (UN, 1992)	An inter­na­tion­al leg­ally-bind­ing treaty with three main goals: con­ser­va­tion of biod­iversity; sus­tain­able use of biod­iversity; fair and equit­able shar­ing of the bene­fits arising from the use of genet­ic resources.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should look for oppor­tun­it­ies to

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
UN Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change (the Rio Earth Sum­mit) 1992 (UN, 1992)	Treaty aimed at redu­cing glob­al emis­sions of green­house gases to com­bat glob­al warming.	Cli­mat­ic factors	con­serve, and where pos­sible restore, biod­iversity. Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should assist in the reduc­tion of green­house gas emissions.
Nation­al Legis­la­tion (UK and Scotland)
Air Qual­ity (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2000 (as amended in Scotland)	Estab­lishes stand­ards for air qual­ity and sets lim­its for vari­ous pol­lut­ants in Scotland.	Air Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port meas­ures that would improve air quality.
Ancient Monu­ments and Archae­olo­gic­al Areas Act 1979 (as amended by His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment (Amend­ment) (Scot­land) Act 2011)	Pre­scribes the approach to be taken to plan­ning for sched­uled ancient monu­ments and archae­olo­gic­al areas.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should ensure that sched­uled ancient monu­ments and archae­olo­gic­al areas are not adversely affected by new development.
Cli­mate Change (Scot­land) Act 2009	Legis­la­tion to set a tar­get for the year 2050, an inter­im tar­get for the year 2020, and to provide for annu­al tar­gets, for the reduc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions; to provide about the giv­ing of advice to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters relat­ing to cli­mate change; to con­fer power on Min­is­ters to impose cli­mate change duties on pub­lic bod­ies; to make fur­ther pro­vi­sion about mit­ig­a­tion of and adapt­a­tion to cli­mate change; to make pro­vi­sion about energy effi­ciency, includ­ing pro­vi­sion enabling coun­cil tax dis­counts; to make	Cli­mat­ic factors	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port and include cli­mate change adapt­a­tion and mit­ig­a­tion measures.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
	pro­vi­sion about the reduc­tion and recyc­ling of waste; and for con­nec­ted purposes.
Con­ser­va­tion (Nat­ur­al Hab­it­ats, &c) Reg­u­la­tions 1994 (as amended for Scotland)	These reg­u­la­tions relate to the des­ig­na­tion of European sites, and pro­vi­sion of pro­tec­tion to vari­ous plant and anim­al species.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should ensure that European sites are pro­tec­ted from loss or damage.
Envir­on­ment Act 1995	The Act sets new stand­ards for envir­on­ment­al man­age­ment by Nation­al Parks and oth­er stat­utory bodies.	All Top­ics	The CNPA must adhere to the stand­ards set out in the Act.
Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005	Requires Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ments to be com­pleted for plans, pro­grammes and strategies likely to have sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects.	All Top­ics	Enables the sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects of the plan to be iden­ti­fied and addressed.
Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (Forestry) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2017	Requires envir­on­ment­al impact assess­ments for cer­tain forestry projects.	All Top­ics	The plan will be required to be com­pat­ible with Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ments legislation.
The Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2017	Requires envir­on­ment­al impact assess­ment of site spe­cif­ic pro­jects and spe­cific­ally requires con­sid­er­a­tion of Sens­it­ive Areas includ­ing Nation­al Parks.	All Top­ics	The plan will be required to be com­pat­ible with Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ments legislation.
Equal­ity Act 2010	The Equal­ity Act 2010 leg­ally pro­tects people from dis­crim­in­a­tion in the work­place and in wider society.	Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	The plan should ensure that it does not res­ult in indi­vidu­als or groups with pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics being dis­crim­in­ated against.
Flood Risk Man­age­ment (Scot­land) Act 2009	Estab­lishes roles, respons­ib­il­it­ies and require­ments for sus­tain­able flood management.	Cli­mat­ic Factors Water Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	The plan should sup­port flood man­age­ment, par­tic­u­larly nat­ur­al flood management.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Gael­ic Lan­guage (Scot­land) Act 2005	The Act aims to secure Gael­ic as an offi­cial lan­guage of Scot­land, ​“com­mand­ing equal respect” with English	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	In its pro­duc­tion the plan should meet the require­ments of the Act and enable and oth­er part­ners, includ­ing those not covered by the Act, to do the same.
His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land Act 2014	Amongst oth­er things, estab­lishes His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land with the gen­er­al func­tion of invest­ig­at­ing, caring for and pro­mot­ing Scotland’s his­tor­ic environment.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	The plan should sup­port the pro­tec­tion and pre­ser­va­tion of the his­tor­ic environment.
Hous­ing (Scot­land) Act 2014	Makes pro­vi­sion about hous­ing, includ­ing pro­vi­sion about the abol­i­tion of the right to buy, social hous­ing, the law affect­ing private hous­ing, the reg­u­la­tion of let­ting agents and the licens­ing of sites for mobile homes.	Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	The plan should sup­port the pro­vi­sion of hous­ing, par­tic­u­larly afford­able housing.
Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003	Estab­lishes right of respons­ible access to land and water.	Water Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	The plan can provide for and sup­port respons­ible access.
Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000	Spe­cifies what a Park Author­ity can do and how it should be run, includ­ing a require­ment to pro­duce a Nation­al Park Plan.	All Top­ics	Estab­lishes the aims of Nation­al Parks. Provides dir­ec­tion on the func­tions and role of the Nation­al Park Authority.
Nature Con­ser­va­tion Act (Scot­land) 2004	Act places duties on pub­lic bod­ies for con­serving biod­iversity, increases pro­tec­tion for Sites of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest	Water	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
	(SSSI), amends legis­la­tion on Nature Con­ser­va­tion Orders, provides for Land Man­age­ment Orders for SSSIs and asso­ci­ated land, strengthens wild­life enforce­ment legis­la­tion, and requires the pre­par­a­tion of a Scot­tish Fossil Code.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Heritage	should sup­port con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of biodiversity.
Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tion Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997	Pre­scribes the approach to be taken in plan­ning for lis­ted build­ings, con­ser­va­tion areas and designed land­scapes and gardens.	Mater­i­al Assets Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should ensure that lis­ted build­ings, con­ser­va­tion areas and designed land­scapes and gar­dens are not adversely affected.
Pro­tec­tion of Badgers Act 1992 (as amended in Scotland)	Sets out offences in rela­tion to the pro­tec­tion of badgers.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should seek to pro­tect badgers.
Sewage (Scot­land) Act 1968	Along with the Water Industry (Scot­land) Act 2002 this gives respons­ib­il­it­ies to Scot­tish Water to man­age the dis­charge of sur­face water that enters its drain­age sys­tems (by provid­ing sew­ers and pub­lic Sus­tain­able Urb­an Drain­age Sys­tems (SUDs)) and to main­tain water sup­plies and drain­age infrastructure.	Water Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should have regard to Scot­tish Water’s duties under this Act.
Water Envir­on­ment and Water Ser­vices (Scot­land) Act 2003	Trans­poses the Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive into Scots law.	Water Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should encour­age improve­ments to the water envir­on­ment and sup­port meas­ures for more effi­cient use of water.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Water Industry (Scot­land) Act 2002	Along with the Sewage (Scot­land) Act 1968 this gives respons­ib­il­it­ies to Scot­tish Water to man­age the dis­charge of sur­face water that enters its drain­age sys­tems (by provid­ing sew­ers and pub­lic Sus­tain­able Urb­an Drain­age Sys­tems (SUDs)) and to main­tain water sup­plies and drain­age infrastructure.	Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Water	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should have regard to Scot­tish Water’s duties under this Act.
Wild­life and Coun­tryside Act 1981 (as amended in Scotland)	Sets out offences in rela­tion to the pro­tec­tion of cer­tain species.	Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port pro­tec­ted species.
Wild­life and Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Act 2011	Amends Wild­life and Coun­tryside Act 1981, and seeks to mod­ern­ise game law; abol­ish the des­ig­na­tion ​‘areas of spe­cial pro­tec­tion’; improve snar­ing prac­tice; reg­u­late invas­ive non- nat­ive spe­cies; change the licens­ing sys­tem for pro­tec­ted spe­cies; amend cur­rent arrange­ments for deer man­age­ment and deer stalk­ing; strengthen pro­tec­tion of badgers; change how muir­burn can be prac­tised; and make oper­a­tion­al changes to the man­age­ment of Sites of Sci­entif­ic Interest; game law, use of shores, and invas­ive spe­cies legislation.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port pro­vi­sions of the Act.
Nature Con­ser­va­tion (Scot­land) Act 2004	To make pro­vi­sion in rela­tion to the con­ser­va­tion of biod­iversity; to make fur­ther pro­vi­sion in rela­tion to the con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of Scotland’s nat­ur­al fea­tures; to amend the law relat­ing to the pro­tec­tion of cer­tain birds, anim­als and plants; and for con­nec­ted purposes.	Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port pro­vi­sions of the Act.
Nation­al Policy (UK and Scotland)

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
The Air Qual­ity (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2000	Sets out air qual­ity object­ives for Scotland.	Air Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should encour­age reduc­tions in emis­sions through a range of measures.
Cre­at­ing Places — A policy state­ment on archi­tec­ture and place for Scot­land (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2013)	A policy state­ment on archi­tec­ture and place set­ting out the com­pre­hens­ive value good design can deliv­er. The doc­u­ment con­tains an action plan that sets out the work that will be taken for­ward to achieve pos­it­ive change.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port good design.
Scot­tish Cli­mate Change Adapt­a­tion Pro­gramme (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2014)	Sets object­ives in rela­tion to adapt­a­tion to cli­mate change, Min­is­teri­al pro­pos­als and policies for meet­ing those object­ives, and the peri­od with­in which those pro­pos­als and policies will be intro­duced. The Pro­gramme also sets out the arrange­ments for wider engage­ment in meet­ing those objectives.	Cli­mat­ic factors Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should encour­age reduc­tions in emis­sions through a range of measures.
Civil Con­tin­gen­cies Act 2004	Deliv­ers a frame­work for civil pro­tec­tion in the UK and defines the respons­ib­il­it­ies for respon­ders to emer­gency which include (among others)	Mater­i­al Assets Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port the require­ments of respon­ders to ful­fil their stat­utory duties.
Clean­er Air for Scot­land — The Road to a Health­i­er Future (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2015)	The nation­al cross-gov­ern­ment strategy that sets out how the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and its part­ner organ­isa­tions pro­pose to reduce air pol­lu­tion fur­ther to pro­tect human health and ful­fil Scotland’s leg­al respons­ib­il­it­ies as soon as possible.	Air Pop­u­la­tion and Human health	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should encour­age reduc­tions in emis­sions through a range of measures.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Cli­mate Change: The UK Pro­gramme (UK Gov­ern­ment, 2000)	Goal to reduce car­bon emis­sions in the UK by 60% by 2050.	Cli­mat­ic factors Air	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should encour­age reduc­tions in emis­sions through a range of measures.
Ground­wa­ter Pro­tec­tion Policy for Scot­land (SEPA, 2009)	This policy aims to provide a sus­tain­able future for Scotland’s ground­wa­ter resources by pro­tect­ing legit­im­ate uses of ground­wa­ter and provid­ing a com­mon SEPA framework.	Water Soil and geodiversity	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should aim, where pos­sible, to man­age sig­ni­fic­ant flood risk to ground­wa­ter from flood­ing related pollution.
Des­ig­na­tions Three Year Plan 2016 – 2019 (HES, 2016)	This doc­u­ment sets out the three year plan for His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s work on des­ig­na­tions. Find the aims and pri­or­it­ies for the organ­isa­tion until 2019	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should fol­low the guid­ance when con­sid­er­ing des­ig­nated sites and structures.
His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Cir­cu­lar I (HES, 2019)	This cir­cu­lar cov­ers the require­ments of the sec­ond­ary legis­la­tion (‘the Reg­u­la­tions’) relat­ing to the His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land Act 2014 (‘the 2014 Act’).	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should fol­low the guid­ance for policy devel­op­ment on the man­age­ment of the his­tor­ic environment.
His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Policy State­ment (HES, 2016)	Doc­u­ment to which plan­ning author­it­ies are dir­ec­ted in their con­sid­er­a­tion of applic­a­tions for con­ser­va­tion area con­sent, lis­ted build­ing con­sent for build­ings of all three cat­egor­ies and their con­sid­er­a­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions affect­ing the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment and the set­ting of indi­vidu­al ele­ments of the his­tor­ic environment.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should fol­low the guid­ance for policy devel­op­ment on the man­age­ment of the his­tor­ic environment.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Land Use Strategy for Scot­land 2016 – 2021 (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2016)	Out­lines strategy for achiev­ing sus­tain­able land use across Scot­land and get­ting the best from the land of Scotland.	All Top­ics	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP could provide more spe­cif­ic dir­ec­tion on the Nation­al Land Use Strategy and can be imple­men­ted at a region­al level.
Man­aging Change in the His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Guid­ance Notes (HES, various)	Series of guid­ance notes which are designed to sup­port the Scot­tish His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Policy (SHEP) and Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy.	Land­scape and Cul­tur­al heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port pos­it­ive man­age­ment of the his­tor­ic environment.
Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 3 (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2014)	A long term strategy for Scot­land that provides the spa­tial expres­sion of the Government’s Eco­nom­ic Strategy and plans for the devel­op­ment and invest­ment in infrastructure.	All Top­ics	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port the stra­tegic con­text set by NPF3 for future region­al change around the Park.
Con­trol of Wood­land Remov­al Policy (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2009)	Sets out Scot­tish Min­is­ters policy on wood­land remov­al in Scotland.	Cli­mat­ic Factors Water Soil and geo­di­versity Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Heritage	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port the policy
The River Basin Man­age­ment Plan for the Scot­land River	Ful­fils a require­ment under the Water Envir­on­ment and Water Ser­vices (Scot­land) Act 2003.	Water Soil and geodiversity	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port management

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Envir­on­ment­al Report Septem­ber 2021

Rel­ev­ant PPS	Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose	SEA Top­ic	Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP
Basin Dis­trict: 2015 – 2027 (SEPA, 2015)		Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna	object­ives for water bod­ies in the Nation­al Park.
Scot­land Rur­al Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme 2014 – 2020 (Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, 2014)	Sets goals for sus­tain­able rur­al devel­op­ment and the types of sup­port available.	All Top­ics	Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP could provide dir­ec­tion on how rur­al development