Farming and land management

The Cairngorms National Park covers an expanse of 4,528 square kilometres - an area twice as large as the Lake District National Park and bigger than the entire country of Luxembourg. However, unlike a number of national parks around the world, none of this land is owned or managed by the Park Authority.  

Approximately three quarters of land is privately owned by individuals or trusts and there are over 150 different landholdings, ranging in size from less than 100 hectares to over 40,000 hectares. Significant areas such as Mar Lodge Estate in Deeside and Abernethy Estate in Strathspey are owned by charitable conservation bodies, whilst government agencies such as Forestry and Land Scotland, NatureScot and Highlands and Islands Enterprise also own and manage large areas.

Forestry and woodland 

The Native Woodland Survey of Scotland shows that, while the average proportion of native woodland across all Scottish local authority areas is 22.5%, the Cairngorms National Park has at least 69%, making it the only area in Scotland where native woodland makes up the majority of the woodland resource. 

A significant proportion of the National Park forests are managed for timber production, providing employment through all stages of forest management, from forest planning to tree nurseries through to planting, felling and providing raw materials for sawmills. One major sawmill and several small-scale sawmills are located within and on the edge of the National Park.  

The Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy provides strategic direction for managing existing - and designing new - native woodlands and commercial forests in the Cairngorms National Park. It gives context about existing woodland and forestry in the National Park and helps to ensure that future native woodland creation or commercial forestry activity is directed to where it matters most. 

The Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy

Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy 2018

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This document contains the Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy 2018, which sets the direction for forest management and woodland restoration in the National Park for the next two decades. It aims to help deliver the forest-related goals of the Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan 2018-2022, encourage woodland creation, address issues affecting forests, assist with funding applications, and promote collaboration. The strategy emphasizes improving habitat conditions, enhancing the landscape, and recognizing good practices in moorland management while managing grazing to allow woodland regeneration. The document also focuses on habitat enhancement, rural development, and the importance of forests to people, with an emphasis on community involvement and sustainable use of forest resources. It concludes with targeting woodland creation to achieve the greatest environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Please be aware that this summary has been generated using AI.

Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy 2018 Annexes

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This document contains the annexes to the Cairngorms National Park Forest Strategy 2018. It details the Park Authority's guidance on policy fit with strategic objectives and Scottish Natural Heritage's assessment of suitability for woodland expansion or creation on designated sites within the Cairngorms National Park. The document lists specific locations with their SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) or SPA (Special Protection Areas) status and provides information on the suitability for woodland expansion or creation in those areas.

Please be aware that this summary has been generated using AI.

The Park Authority – with the support of partners Scottish Forestry, NatureScot and the Woodland Trust – is offering grants of up to £3,000 to help reduce the cost of developing woodland creation proposals within the National Park. 

Moorland  

Much of the moorland in the National Park is actively managed and characterised by a patchwork pattern of heather burnt in strips across the hillside. Burning takes place outside of the summer months when birds are breeding on the moor. The idea of the burning is to create a mix of habitat which provides long heather and shrubs like juniper for birds to shelter in and short fresh green heather for them to feed on. 

In some places, management of moorland is focused on achieving very high numbers of red grouse for shooting in the autumn. As well as burning, moorland managers control the numbers of predators, such as foxes and crows, which feed on grouse and other birds like the curlew and golden plover. 

It is recognised today that well managed moorlands play a significant role in supporting a range of habitats and species, as well as being an important part of the area’s culture and economy. The Park Authority is keen to see greater species and structural diversity on grouse moors, with more pockets and strips of trees and shrubs on moorland edges, steep slopes, in gullies and around woodland remnants.

The Park Authority works closely with land managers, including through the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership, to support the sharing of knowledge and best practice. 

Peatland 

Peatlands cover around 20% of Scotland’s land and store around 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to around 140 years’ worth of Scotland’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason, Scottish Government has set ambitious targets for restoring 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands in Scotland by 2030. 

Within the Cairngorms National Park, we estimate that there are around 90,000 hectares of impacted peatland and 57,000 hectares of this has experienced some form of erosion. Peatland restoration also helps store carbon: restoring one hectare of actively eroding peat saves up to 19 tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year.  

£250 million has been committed by the Scottish Government over 10 years for peatland restoration. Part of this funding is allocated to the Cairngorms National Park Authority as one of the five Peatland ACTION delivery partners, to distribute grant funding to projects in the National Park. This includes Cairngorms 2030, a five year programme supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

The restoration of peatland stops the loss of carbon, benefits biodiversity, improves water quality and helps alleviate flooding. This is one of the key deliverables that the Cairngorms can undertake to help Scotland meet its net zero targets.  

The Cairngorms Peatland ACTION programme provides funding and technical support for peatland restoration projects in the National Park, including a new entrant scheme to help train up local civil and plant businesses.