Collate, review and prioritise all the landscape scale nature restoration projects across Scotland. Using this spatial evidence, NatureScot will identify and help facilitate partnership projects for six exemplar large scale landscape restoration areas with significant woodland components by 2025. By the end of 2026 those projects will have engaged with communities; developed deliverable action plans; identified funding (and where appropriate private finance) to deliver the outcomes required by 2030 and beyond.
Objective 1: Accelerate ecosystem restoration and regeneration
Priority Action 2. Introduce a Programme of Ecosystem Restoration
The first phase of the landscape-scale restoration programme has now been launched and the list of exemplar projects is publicly available on NatureScot’s website. The programme includes a diverse mix of community, farmer, NGO, and agency-led projects across a wide range of habitats and land ownership contexts. Adjustments have been made in response to earlier feedback, including the inclusion of coastal, urban, grassland, and pollinator habitats. NatureScot has engaged with funders to ensure that these exemplar priorities do not influence wider funding decisions and is supporting the growth of nature finance through initiatives such as the Scottish Rivers Fund, Nature Investment Prospectus, SMEEF, LENS, and emerging codes for woodland and ecosystem restoration.
This represents progress in coordinating and communicating landscape-scale restoration activity and in demonstrating effective models of delivery. The programme consolidates existing projects, incorporates a range of delivery approaches, and provides a clearer framework for engagement with communities and partners. However, despite these improvements, the current approach remains exemplar-led, with selection partly based on project readiness and existing partnerships rather than ecological need or biodiversity priorities. Geographic coverage remains uneven, particularly in the Northwest and Islands, and alignment with broader frameworks such as the Land Use Strategy, Nature Networks, Nature30, 30×30, and invasive species management is still developing. While exemplar projects are a positive step, they do not yet deliver fully connected, systemic landscape-scale restoration or ensure the step-change in ambition required for nature recovery.
The programme is an important milestone but, on its own, it is not sufficient to achieve Scotland’s biodiversity recovery goals. To deliver meaningful nature recovery, a strategic, whole-landscape restoration framework is needed. Priority landscapes must be selected based on ecological need, connected regional networks should be established, and delivery must integrate with wider land-use policies. Long-term, stable funding and recognition of community- and NGO-led initiatives as equal partners are essential to scale restoration nationally. Exemplar projects demonstrate good models and progress, but they remain incremental and do not yet provide the systemic transformation required to meet biodiversity targets by 2030 and beyond.
Scotland requires a strategic, whole-landscape restoration framework to achieve meaningful biodiversity recovery. Priority landscapes should be selected based on ecological need rather than project readiness, and exemplar sites should be integrated into connected regional networks that deliver systemic ecological impact. Restoration delivery must be aligned with land reform, agriculture, deer management, peatland restoration, and other policies to ensure long-term effectiveness. Mechanisms are needed to scale successful restoration models nationally, supported by long-term, stable funding. Community- and NGO-led initiatives must be recognised as equal partners, and restoration actions should be fully integrated with Nature Networks, Nature30, 30×30, and invasive species management to achieve transformative outcomes across Scotland’s landscapes.
Scottish Environment LINK – Landscape Scale Engagement Paper response
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