Reduce inputs of nutrients to freshwaters that cause enrichment impacts on biodiversity, by controlling both diffuse and point source pollution through effective nutrient management through agricultural reform and SEPA’s Priority Catchment programme, ensuring compliance with the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR) under River Basin Management Planning.
Objective 3: Embed nature positive Farming, Fishing and Forestry
Priority Action 14. Ensure increased uptake of high diversity, nature-rich, high-soil carbon, low-intensity farming methods while sustaining high-quality food production
SEPA’s Priority Catchment Programme is currently operating across multiple Scottish catchments, focusing on reducing rural diffuse pollution through farm advisory visits, compliance checks, and targeted mitigation actions such as buffer strips, improved slurry management, and exclusion of livestock from watercourses.
The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) Regulations (CAR) remain the primary legal mechanism for controlling point and diffuse water pollution in Scotland, enforced by SEPA through authorisation, inspection, and compliance activity under River Basin Management Planning requirements.
Scottish Government agricultural reform measures include nutrient management requirements within Whole Farm Plans and associated environmental compliance frameworks, aimed at improving nutrient use efficiency and reducing losses to water systems.
River Basin Management Planning in Scotland identifies agricultural diffuse pollution as a key pressure on freshwater ecological status, with ongoing actions required to meet Water Framework Directive objectives for ecological condition.
Despite active regulation and advisory programmes, SEPA reporting indicates that diffuse agricultural pollution remains a persistent pressure in multiple catchments, particularly related to nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) entering watercourses from farmland.
SEPA water quality assessments identify nutrient enrichment (nitrogen and phosphorus) as a key driver of eutrophication in Scottish freshwater systems, leading to algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and loss of aquatic biodiversity.
River Basin Management Planning evidence shows that nutrient pollution reduces ecological status under the Water Framework Directive classification system, affecting invertebrate communities, fish populations, and aquatic plant diversity.
SEFARI and NatureScot evidence link freshwater nutrient enrichment to declines in habitat quality and reduced ecosystem resilience, particularly in lowland agricultural catchments.
State of Nature Scotland reports continued biodiversity decline across freshwater-dependent species groups, reinforcing the importance of reducing nutrient pressures on aquatic ecosystems.
Taken together, this evidence shows that Scotland has strong regulatory and advisory frameworks in place to reduce nutrient pollution, but monitoring data and catchment outcomes indicate that diffuse pollution remains widespread. Ecological improvements are therefore partial and not yet sufficient at landscape scale.
SEPA – Diffuse Pollution in the Rural Environment
SEPA – River Basin Management Planning
Scottish Government – Whole Farm Plan
State of Nature Scotland
Increase the uptake of integrated pest management across Scottish agriculture to minimise risks and impacts of pesticides to the environment in line with the UK National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.
Develop a routemap (end of 2025) for soil security in Scotland including a review and update of Scotland’s Soil Framework and action/implementation plan (2030).
Develop evidence-based Soil Health Indicators that can be considered for inclusion in Whole Farm Plans and Forest Management Plans.
Undertake an evidence-based update of currently available information and advice on biodiversity management to farmers/land managers, to ensure it is up-to-date, clear and easily accessible.
Improve information for land managers on how to assess and interpret soil erosion risks and implement measures to avoid erosion (and other impacts on soil health related to climate change), including: i) the impacts of extreme rainfall drought events on soils; and ii) maps of soils that have been subject to anthropogenic degradation and are candidates for soil improvement programmes.
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