To mark the COP26 Presidency Theme ‘Youth and Public Empowerment’, two young people have highlighted Ramblers Scotland’s Out There Award. Research, commissioned by Ramblers Scotland in 2017, showed that after ‘Scottish weather’, young people cited their two biggest barriers to getting out walking as: lack of knowledge and awareness of where to go for a walk, and lack of people to go with. The Out There campaign was launched in 2018, with ‘breaking down barriers to walking’ as one of its three key objectives and the Out There Award as a key mechanism for delivering that aim.
The free Out There Award has been designed to help kick-start 18 to 26-year-old adults’ journeys into the outdoors, while helping them meet people, boost their CVs and build confidence along the way. The award is split over three non-consecutive days, each with a different focus: outdoor skills, a challenging walk and volunteering. Each day is designed to help break down the barriers that sadly stop many young adults from enjoying the outdoors, while helping them to form a new network of like-minded people. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been important for young adults to have the skills to enjoy Covid-secure walks and responsibly access the outdoors.[1]
Heather and Iqra tell us of their experiences with the Out There Award; from breaking down barriers that stop many young adults from enjoying the outdoors to recognising the importance of nature for our mental and physical wellbeing.
Heather
I had an amazing experience on The Out There Award. Previously I’d found it difficult to know where to start when getting outdoors, there was so much conflicting information I was overwhelmed on what to bring, where to go, how to plan a route on a walk. But the award provided fantastic guidance on this and more! As an empowered young walker, I’ve gained an increasing respect and admiration for nature and all it can offer. The programme highlighted the benefits of preserving the natural environment from cutting waste to responsible camping to allow future generations to enjoy all that Scotland has to offer!
Working with an environmental charity is a fantastic addition and emphasises the Out There Award’s value for young Scots who would benefit from being educated about walking. But this also benefits those walking with us young people who see us being respectful when engaging with nature. Being knowledgeable about Scotland’s access laws has given me the drive to make a difference and ensure walkers such as myself are as well informed as I have been.
As young people we can often lack the confidence needed to get walking so having 1 to 1 help with a patient instructor who celebrated all that Scotland had to offer was much more helpful than watching a video or reading a book on the subject. I believe that finding effective learning methods such as this hands-on programme is the best way to educate and empower youth and improve all of our actions in tackling climate change.
The award was out of my comfort zone but a comfortable environment to make mistakes and learn whilst doing so safely. We could ask questions and engage with an experienced walker something I wouldn’t have had access to if it wasn’t for the programme. As a student, having an award that was free also motivated me to join in. Many of my peers lack the funds to pay for walking/hiking courses that would cover the valuable information shared in the award and being able to walk and access the outdoors could have an excellent impact on their mental and physical health like it has mine. I think it would be a shame if people like me had to miss out on such a fantastic award and education on Scotland’s vital environmental issues.
Overall, the Out There Award has had an excellent impact on my life and the benefits extend well beyond myself, to environmental conservationists, climate change activists, the Scottish government and many more people. Providing a starting place for youth to get involved in the natural environment is all that is needed, from there we can get involved in the fight to prevent climate change in ways the award may have not have even recognised before.
Iqra
Climate change is something that seems far removed: in China’s smog cities, in The United States with its industrial complexes and Artic glaciers melting many miles away.
However, climate change is right here, right now.
Until we entered lockdown, I had never realised how close to home, to Glasgow, the climate issue was. Picking up hiking and walking in rural outdoor areas helped me to realise the spaces we seek to protect are on our doorsteps.
I began hiking through the Out There Award with the Ramblers, which reduced my key anxieties for hiking like figuring out equipment, where to hike, and safety issues. It also became a reason why I began reflecting on how proximity to effects of climate change lead to people caring.
The Out There Award provided a year worth of free membership with the Ramblers, and from more hikes with the organisation I began to see how we should preserve these spaces that are a safe haven for both animals and our own mental health.
Deforestation in Scotland means only around 1% of our native pinewoods remain. Fossil Fuels in the U.K. are overused due to a lack of insulation. There are over 12 endangered species in Scotland alone. All of these issues are a stone’s throw away, and I can only express shame at not realising this until I got outdoors myself to realise how pertinent these concerns are.
This reflection became further research- people’s psychological closeness to climate change correlates with greater concern and greater preparedness to reduce energy consumption. For me and many young people, psychological closeness can come through social media, as although we are not physically near, young people are more intertwined due to a constant bombardment of climate effects.
Empowering and mobilising these Young People, who care but don’t know what to do, is an important purpose of education in Climate Action. We know the problems, however we need the options and information to find more solutions. For me, this came through the Out There Award.
Later, I am hoping to do the Out There Award Plus with Ramblers too, which will entail learning about responsible camping and working with an environmental charity to help protect Scotland’s natural environment and ecology. I truly believe outdoor education can improve people’s motivation towards climate action, as it helped myself realise Climate Change is closely attached to each of us.
As I said, climate change is right here, right now. What will you do next?
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks CoP26 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
The nature crisis and the climate crisis are deeply interlinked. Efforts to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss must be approached jointly for the best results.
In 2019 people of all ages came together across Scotland to demand action on the climate crisis and within just five days the Scottish Government increased its 2030 emissions reduction targets to 75%. We cannot afford to lose that momentum for nature as well. One crises cannot be solved without the other.
The UN biodiversity conference in Kunming, or Cop15, should not be overshadowed, as biodiversity loss is an equally grave threat to humanity. When all eyes are on the climate crisis, we must not forget nature’s vital role in climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation. As healthy ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, seas and grasslands, have served as enormous carbon sinks and helped mitigate climate change, a better way is to coordinate the two CoP processes for a synergised solution.
This series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
This blog kicks off a series by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who will bring a nature-climate twist to the COP26 presidency programme. Click here to find out more.
2021 and 2022 are the big years for action to save nature and the climate. Both the climate CoP26 in Glasgow in November 2021 and the nature CoP15 in Kunming in May 2022 will be crucial in setting the necessary level of ambition.
We are living in a climate and nature emergency. These are so closely intertwined that you cannot solve one without solving the other. It would be pointless to try. Finding solutions to both will be key to our future. It means both CoPs need to bring about a paradigm shift to ecological transitions, now non-negotiable for any future on earth.
The drivers of both emergencies need addressing. One of these is the drive towards GDP. Measuring the world’s success through GDP isn’t working. It values all the wrong things: a natural disaster has a massive negative impact on our ecological capital but generates financial capital through clean up schemes. The ecological loss goes unrecorded, and the financial boost is mistakenly valued. We need to move into measuring what matters: social and planetary wellbeing. If either our social or ecological capital is going down, we are not being successful.
A key part of that is a just transition to new ways of working within Earth’s planetary limits. Young people are, quite rightly, demanding change. They can very clearly see the mess they are inheriting and are angry. They are angry not just about the mess, but about the delays and inaction of governments across the world as they watch their future and their children’s future not matching up the future that past and current generations have been lucky enough to inherit.
Both CoPs mark a point in the road. What do we hope comes out of them? 2021 is the start of the Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. This decade must be a success: without ecosystem restoration we will fail to bequeath a planet worth living on. Success means this next decade will be one of hard work. It will need to be based on much longer term thinking and planning; a governmental term is not enough, ten years is not enough. But ten years is enough to see whether the Climate Action Plan and the new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy will make the scale of changes needed to achieve our 2045 climate net zero targets and the 2050 nature restoration goals. It will need to be a decade of new funding: the scale of action required both in terms of the amount of work to do and the geographical scale it needs to cover are so vast that current sources of funding are simply inadequate. In Scotland, the £500 million nature restoration funding from government is welcome and half of what we need to see – and then that needs to be matched by another £1 billion from philanthropy, £1 billion from business, all matched by resources in kind from society through volunteering and individual actions at home.
This new decade will need to be a decade of enlightenment as we move entire countries towards measuring what matters. Scotland’s National Performance Framework is a good start towards measuring and valuing wellbeing, but we need to move further from GDP as a measure of success. We need to encourage and inspire and learn from others: everyone can contribute, and everyone has a role. It needs to be a decade of empowerment and responsibility: we need to be able to listen and everyone needs to be empowered to play their part. Citizen Assemblies in Scotland have come up with effective and innovative solutions: we need to build on their suggestions and run more of them. It will be a decade of innovation and new thinking, of new priorities and creative solutions. And it will be a decade of excitement and purpose as we learn and make progress. It will need to be a decade underpinned by altruism and empathy when we all work together. That’s a huge ask in today’s increasingly fragmented, disrupted and angry world but we all share a single planet. Cooperation and mutual support are the best survival tools we have.
If the next decade is all those things, it will also be a decade of burgeoning nature, healthy and accessible food, clean air and clean water. We’ll see forests spread across the landscape, and oceans teem with life. And we’ll see a generation with new hope for the future.
COP15: the two-part UN biodiversity summit will kick off today until the 15th October and will finish next May in the city of Kunming with the completion and adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, a crucial stepping stone towards the 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”. Over the course of the next five days, MSP Nature Champions will be providing real-life examples of crucial species and habitats that maintain ecosystem function whilst raising awareness of the inextricable link between the nature and climate crises.
The Nature Champions Back Biodiversity initiative shines a spotlight on a variety of plants, marine wildlife, pollinators, animals, peatlands and native woodlands that are vital in maintaining ecosystem function. This initiative also highlights the importance of nature in tackling the climate crisis on the run up to the UNFCCC COP26; from the role of whales in the carbon cycle, the importance of grasses for carbon sequestration, to the under-appreciated potential of seagrass meadows as carbon sinks. People depend on nature, from oceans to forests, to supply clean air and water, and to regulate rainfall that is vital for food supplies. If too many species vanish, and ecosystems start to fail, our natural life support services will falter.
Why is COP15 important?
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) originally signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and later ratified by about 195 countries, is designed to protect diversity of plant and animal species and ensure natural resources are used sustainably. COP15 aims to set both long-term goals for mid-century and shorter-term targets for 2030 and, crucially, push for those to be enshrined and delivered through national policies. At the CBD 2010 talks in Nagoya, Japan, 194 countries (or Parties) signed up to a series of 20 targets, called the Aichi targets, to be met by 2020. Fast forward a decade to 2020, and the 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook report revealed that these targets were spectacularly missed across the world. The UK failed in their contribution towards the targets, and Scotland did too, in failing to meet 11 targets.
A new international deal for nature must be matched by domestic ambition to put nature on a path to recovery and deliver commitments made under the CBD. Scotland is home to some incredible and iconic wildlife. However, 49% of species in Scotland have declined and one in nine is threatened with extinction. The recent Biodiversity Intactness Index has shown that Scotland is listed in the worst twelve percent of 240 countries and territories around the world for the amount of wildlife and wild places lost due to human activity. The UN has designated 2021-2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in recognition of the scale of action required to tackle the biodiversity crisis. The UN has designated 2021-2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in recognition of the scale of action required to tackle the biodiversity crisis. Nature is in trouble now, and we need to act now.
The recent commitment in the Programme for Government to a Natural Environment Bill that would include targets to halt the decline of nature in Scotland by 2030 and drive substantial improvements in nature by 2045 is very welcome. However, we need to see real and substantive action towards the CoP15 targets before it is planned to be brought forward until 2023, year three, of the Parliament. Experts in IPBES urge that with less than nine years to enact transformative change before the 2030 deadline – nations and multilateral bodies must begin to act decisively today to create a liveable future for people and nature.
For more than 30 years, the international community has tried and failed to find a path to slow down — and eventually reverse — worldwide declines in the richness of plant, animal, insect and fungi species. These efforts to protect the natural world have yet to achieve the same high profile as those to limit climate change. We have already seen what can be achieved when we speak up for nature. In 2019 people of all ages came together across Scotland to demand action on the climate crisis and within just five days the Scottish Government increased its 2030 emissions reduction targets to 75%. We need to build the same level of momentum for nature itself.
The Nature Champions initiative has been developed by Scottish Environment LINK to encourage Members of the Scottish Parliament to champion endangered or iconic species and habitats, raising awareness and promoting action to restore and safeguard Scotland’s environment. With 1 in 9 species at risk of national extinction, political support for restoring and protecting our natural environment has never been more critical. At the start of this Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, now is the time for Nature’s voice in the Scottish Parliament to be strong, loud and well informed.
By Deborah Long, chief officer, Scottish Environment LINK
In less than one month’s time, Scotland will be host to the United Nations’ Cop26 climate change conference.
Dubbed as the most important climate summit ever, there’s much expectation to get it right and to set our ailing planet on track to recovery. And, with it, Scotland has much to prove. Now more than ever, it must lead by example and turn commitments into action.
Recent major UN reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have spelled out the need for immediate action to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius and to restore biodiversity.
The stark warnings come at a time when biodiversity in Scotland and worldwide is declining faster than at any time in human history. In Scotland alone, almost half of our species (49 per cent) have reduced in numbers in the last 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction.
Since 2018, through the campaign, Fight for Scotland’s Nature, Scottish Environment LINK has called for legally binding targets for the recovery of biodiversity, similar to those in place to tackle climate change.
We welcome the Scottish government’s recent commitment to nature-restoration targets, through a Natural Environment Bill to be introduced in 2023-24. The proposal to designate ten per cent of our seas as highly protected is also promising. However, given the grave threats facing our natural world, for measures to be meaningful, Scotland must act now.
We need to see urgent, determined and demonstrable steps that will help halt nature’s decline by 2030 and put it on a path to recovery. Work to protect our natural environment for generations to come, reversing ecological decline and delivering nature-based solutions central to our climate change obligations can no longer be seen in isolation of one another, and a real time effort to tackle these challenges is now an immediate priority.
The Scottish government’s commitments, while welcome, need to be fully resourced if they are to have a fighting chance of success. We need adequate multi-annual funding at scale and for government to take a coherent, whole-society approach by working across communities and sectors.
And while the commitment to £500 million for nature restoration is promising, this is roughly half of what will be required from government to meet the scale of the task ahead.
If this is matched by £1 billion from philanthropic sources and green financing, and if our agricultural support system delivers for people, nature and climate, Scotland has a chance to begin to see the level of action needed to make the transformative change required, not only for nature but also the health of the nation.
The Scottish government’s commitment to a Good Food Nation Bill is also welcome. This offers the opportunity for Scotland to become a leader on nature and climate-friendly food production, increasing access for all to high quality, sustainable and healthy food – but it must deliver measurable progress.
Equally, initiatives such as the bottle-deposit scheme and a ban on non-essential, single-use plastics, heavily delayed by the pandemic and already in place in many countries, must go ahead.
There’s no time to wait. Let’s make the year 2021 count.
The Scottish Government is consulting on the future of farming policy in Scotland. They need to hear a strong message that farming practices should not harm nature or contribute to climate change, and that agriculture policy must support farmers to adopt the right practices.
Of course, it will be important to hear from farmers during this consultation. However, the viewpoints of others matter here, too. It is important that the Scottish Government hears a breadth of views including from consumers, taxpayers and concerned citizens, and from all those who want farmers and our government to take urgent action for nature and our climate.
Agriculture takes place on 75% of Scotland’s land area, producing meat, cereals, fruits and vegetables. The types of farming and the methods used have significant impacts on nature and our climate. Whilst some kinds of farming and crofting are positive for nature and low carbon, a lot of the farming we see today is contributing to the loss of wildlife and to significant emissions of greenhouse gases. This needs to change.
Farming policy has a big influence on the decisions farmers and crofters make about how they produce food and manage their land. The policies of the Scottish Government send important signals – through setting regulations and providing financial incentives and advice – about how to farm and use land. The Scottish Government plans to reform farming policy and there is now an opportunity to make sure new policy encourages all of Scotland’s farmers and crofters to farm in nature positive and low carbon ways. Your voice can make a difference.
For many years, as a result of being a member of the EU, farming policy in Scotland was determined by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Through the CAP, farmers and crofters were able to claim payments through a range of different schemes to a total value of approximately £650 million each year. Much of this money is handed out as direct payments, based on the area of land farmed and the type of land. Larger, more productive farms on better quality land receive the lion’s share of money. Little of the money is used to pay for land management and activities that help wildlife or encourage farmers to take climate action. For example, only about 7% of the budget is allocated to the Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme which supports nature and climate friendly farming.
The UK has left the EU and Scotland now has a chance to do things differently. The Scottish Government has signalled it intends to transition to a new policy by 2025. This consultation is a first step to gather views on what kind of farm support and funding might be needed. It will set the stage for further consultation next year and a new Agriculture Bill in 2023. Now is the time to make it clear that we need to support farming that works for nature and the climate, as well as people.
If you can spare a little time to submit a response to the consultation have a look here for guidance and help on how to do that. The closing date for responses is 17th November so please do this as soon as you can. Let’s make sure our views are heard.
We have a problem with stuff, writes LINK’s sustainable economics officer Phoebe Cochrane. Recently published data shows that people in Scotland consume about 18 tonnes per person per year, while a sustainable amount is estimated to be about 8 tonnes.
People inherently hate waste, and instinctively know our ‘throw away’ culture can’t be good for the planet. What is less well known perhaps, is the key role our use and waste of materials has in the climate and nature crises. We often hear that Scotland is doing well in addressing climate change and, indeed, we are doing OK in reducing the emissions that occur in Scotland.
However, the energy that goes into making products we use emits a huge amount of carbon: 80% of our carbon footprint, much of it overseas. It is also estimated that 90% of biodiversity loss is caused by the extraction and processing of materials. So, our instinct is right and things need to change, pretty radically.
Despite excellent initiatives like refill aisles and repair cafes, cutting our waste can be difficult. Your phone stops working and there’s no information available to help you fix it, so you buy a new one. Your delivery comes in packaging that you can’t reuse or recycle. You put out your recycling, but with a niggling suspicion that a lot of it won’t ever be turned into something new. We need systemic change and everyone needs to be involved.
Critically we need action from governments to create a more ‘circular’ economy in which products are designed to last, waste and pollution are minimised, and everything is used again and again.
The Scottish government was an early proponent of a circular economy, being the first in the UK to ban plastic stemmed cotton buds and commit to a deposit return system for bottles and cans. Much has been accomplished, but there’s so much more to do.
Very encouragingly, the newly formed Holyrood administration has appointed a new minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity. It has promised to introduce a Circular Economy Bill within this parliament, and given the urgency of the challenges we face, this should be brought in as soon as possible. But there are a number of other important measures the Scottish government should move forward with in the meantime.
For example, it should require public authorities, which are major consumers, to use their purchasing power to choose environmentally friendly goods, services and works. This would make an important contribution to sustainable consumption and production, through repairing existing products, purchasing second-hand, requiring recycled content in goods, and renting rather than purchasing.
The deposit return scheme for drinks containers, due to be implemented in July 2022, should be the pre-cursor to deposit schemes for other products such as reusable coffee cups.
We have fantastic repair and re-use enterprises, some of which can’t cope with the demand for their services. The government should establish bigger re-use hubs in our cities which combine training with repairing and selling of second-hand items.
When the promised Circular Economy Bill is introduced, to ensure it drives real change it should include headline targets on reducing Scotland’s overall use of raw materials. Tracking progress on these would show us whether we are heading in the right direction. The Netherlands has such a target and the European Parliament has recommended the European Commission develops one. The bill should also include a duty to produce plans mapping out how to reduce our footprint.
A more circular economy must be at the heart of a green recovery. By hardwiring wiser and less wasteful use of ‘stuff’ into the system, we can design an economy that works better for the planet and for people.
The marine environment is one of the UK’s greatest assets. Our seas provide vital ecosystem services, including food provision, protection from storms, nutrient cycling and mitigation of climate change impacts, but ongoing destruction of marine habitats and ecosystems impair their ability to provide these life-sustaining benefits.
For the opening session of Environment Links UK biennial meetings 2021, Scottish Environment LINK invited LINK colleagues and members to reflect on the actions needed to set our part of the global Ocean on a path to recovery.
How to Achieve Ocean Recovery?
Calum Duncan, Head of Conservation Scotland for Marine Conservation Society and Convener of Scottish Environment LINK’s marine group, shed light on the urgent need to deliver recovery of the marine environment.
The ocean is under pressure like never before and, despite a drop in global carbon emissions due to the pandemic, last year ocean temperatures hit a record high, breaking the 2019 record. The most widespread direct human impact in the ocean, globally and in Scotland, is unsustainable fishing practices, impairing the ocean’s ability to help fight climate change when it operates beyond environmental limits. The seas around Scotland, and the UK, are among the most pressurised on Earth and we now know that they are among the most important on Earth for storing blue carbon.
In its Ocean Recovery Plan, Scottish Environment LINK calls for nature recovery targets for land and sea in law. It also supports at least 30% of our seas to be highly protected by 2030, a third of which, so at least 10% of our seas, to be fully protected, through transformation of the MPA network. This ask is consistent with the recent WCL report on achieving 30×30 in England. ScotLINK Ocean Recovery Plan highlights that Scotland’s seabed is in poor condition and that urgent action to reduce pressure of human activities is needed to help ensure the ocean continues to provide benefit for biodiversity, food and blue carbon. Significant investment in proactive ocean restoration, including of blue carbon habitats such as seagrass and native oyster beds, and other nature-based solutions is vital to help reverse the climate and ocean emergencies.
The Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party co-operation agreement includes new commitments to be welcomed. We will engage closely in all processes, keeping supporters updated as to how you can help at strategic moments to ensure urgently needed ocean recovery measures are secured.
The Ocean Recovery plan advocates for a just transition to nature and climate positive, spatially managed fisheries. The co-operation agreement commits to the remaining fisheries management measures for Scotland’s MPA network to be in place by 2024, but this is as already required and included in the 2018 MPA update report to the Scottish Parliament. ScotLINK will push for the most damaging pressures to be excluded from benthic sites, adopting a whole-site management approach where possible, to help meet the 30% highly protected target.
In his presentation, Mario Ray, Project officer for WWF Scotland, highlighted the vital role industries operating in and around the marine environment have in tackling the intertwined climate and nature emergencies. With the UK Joint Fisheries statement currently in progress, now is a key moment to influence policies and ensure that the industry contributes to net zero through the development of climate-smart fisheries. A recent report from WWF, Marine Conservation Society and RSPB describes the ways in which the fishing industry can become climate-smart and contribute to ocean recovery:
Decarbonise the fleet.
Protect and support recovery of blue carbon within current MPAs and in key areas outside of MPAs.
Strengthen marine policy frameworks and include more climate change policy objectives
Encourage transition towards low impact fishing gear.
Increase transparency and traceability of fishing by implementing Mandate Remote Electronic Monitoring with cameras that include Vessel Monitoring Systems across vessels fishing in UK waters.
Research blue carbon and fisheries impact.
Lamlash Bay and Loch Craignish – Scotland’s Recovery Stories
Lucy Kay, MPA project officer at Arran COAST and Danny Renton, project coordinator of Seawilding showcased the incredible stories of community-led restoration projects in Scotland.
The Lamlash Bay No Take Zone (NTZ) was the first Community-led Marine Reserve of its kind in Scotland. Strongly supported by the local community, the No Take Zone (NTZ) became designated in law in 2008, following COAST’s proposal for a marine regeneration trial in 2005. Since then, research demonstrated a clear recovery of the seabed, and marine life has increased by nearly four-fold.
Following a pilot project conducted by CROMACH in 2020, the charity Seawilding was formed to restore the natural beds of the loch Craignish. Situated outside Loch Sunart, an MPA for flapper skate, Loch Craignish is an ideal habitat for native oysters. The project aims to develop community-owned sustainable native oyster fisheries, growing up to 1 million juvenile oysters, and empower communities to be more active stakeholders in fisheries management of inshore waters.
Arran COAST and Seawilding demonstrate what a community-led project can achieve, by using a low-cost approach to encourage other sites to follow and empower local communities. Lucy and Danny reiterated the importance of engaging with people locally.
Going further – What is Holding Ocean Recovery Back?
Despite an apparent impressive MPA network covering 38% of UK seas, Professor Callum Roberts reminded delegates that only about 20% is protected by legally enforceable management measures. The UK is among the leading countries in the world in terms of designating MPAs, but the light levels of protection and management we currently see will not deliver the recovery we so urgently need.
In the MPA Guide, Grorud-Colver et al. (2021). show that only high levels of protection can protect and enhance the marine environment. Completing the MPA management measures is an absolute necessity. As Lucy Kay declared, “we do not have time to delay recovering our seas”. Including the ocean as a solution is vital to tackle climate change, particularly by protecting blue carbon habitats. Ensuring at least 30% of our seas are highly and fully protected, from the surface to the seabed, is essential if the UK nations are to meet net-zero and biodiversity targets.
With the context of our stories, songs and culture deeply embedded not just in Scotland but in coastal and island communities across the UK, how we used our seas in the past and today needs to change for a future under the pressures of the climate emergency and the nature crisis. We need to do things differently – at sea and on land. If we want to see more sea life, fight against climate change, increase our sea food security and build prosperity for future generations, member organisations from the four Links in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland need to work together, learn from others and implement lessons learnt by what we’ve done in the past and what others are doing. Our marine groups work effectively together to influence policy at country and UK level and in each country, we could be doing more with our coastal communities, who are leading the way on local involvement in ocean recovery and protection.
However, we are clearly running out of time. Both the IPCC and IPBES reports (2019) show, with rigorous scientific underpinning, that we have a decade to change our ways: to limit climate temperature increase below 1.5 degrees and to halt and then reverse the loss of biodiversity. In SELINK’s film, we suggested we need 4 things: legally underpinned nature targets on land and at sea; 30% of our seas under high levels of protection; nature and climate positive fisheries management and investment in ocean recovery.
We’ve heard some examples of what we can do in the nine years we have left. Let’s do it.
Stephenson, S. and Johnson, A.F. (2021) Shifting gears: achieving climate smart fisheries. Published by WWF, RSPB and Marine Conservation Society. Available here
Prof James Harrison (2021), Briefing No. 5 – Strictly Protected Marine Protected Areas: International Policy and National Practice. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Law School and Isle of Arran COAST. Available here
Stewart Bryce D., Howarth Leigh M., Wood Howard, Whiteside Kerri, Carney William, Crimmins Éilís, O’Leary Bethan C., Hawkins Julie P., Roberts Callum M. (2020). Marine Conservation Begins at Home: How a Local Community and Protection of a Small Bay Sent Waves of Change Around the UK and Beyond. Frontiers in Marine Science Vol 7. DOI:10.3389/fmars.2020.00076. Available here
Grorud-Colver et al. (2021). The MPA Guide: A framework to achieve global goals for the ocean. Science vol 373. DOI 10.1126/science.abf0861 available here
We’ve all heard about the devasting effects of plastic pollution and we know our relationship with single-use materials needs to change. We’ve seen plastic bottles, food containers and shopping bags floating in the seas. We’ve watched footage of marine life swimming in a fog of our disposable debris. But how much is being said about plastic’s partner in crime, chemical pollution?
Marine chemical pollution, the invisible threat.
Industrial chemicals play an essential role in the running of our modern-day life. From life-saving medicine to climate change mitigation, chemicals offer us hope for a brighter future. But the way we currently manage chemicals is failing. Hormone disrupting chemicals, bisphenols, commonly used in paper receipts, tin cans and plastics, are polluting beaches across the world[i] and disrupting the reproduction of turtles, fish and other marine species[ii]. The ‘forever chemicals’, PFAS, used in everything from food packaging to cosmetics, are damaging the immune system, kidney function and liver function of bottlenose dolphins[iii]. Chemical flame retardants now contaminate marine animals globally, from penguins in the south, to gannets on Scotland’s very own Bass Rock[iv]. And chemical treatments used in Scottish salmon farming are free-flowing into surrounding waters with unknown consequences to marine and freshwater ecosystems[v].
Chemical pollution poses a very real and severe threat to ocean life. Not only is the industry one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters, using vast amounts of fossil fuels, energy and water[vi], it also exacerbates the dangers of plastic pollution[vii]. Plastic in itself is a mixture of different chemical compounds. These may be contaminants from the plastic production process, or additives used to give plastic certain desirable properties. Plastics also act as carriers of chemicals pollutants, meaning they can adsorb chemicals from their surroundings, transporting them through the environment. Once ingested, some of these chemicals are known to bioaccumulate, increasing in concentration in the body tissue of animals further up the food chain with potentially devastating effects for the ocean’s top predators. This has already been observed in some of Scotland’s own wildlife populations, with Scotland’s west coast orca population still under threat of extinction from reproductive damage caused by PCB contamination[viii].
Chemical pollution is intensifying both biodiversity loss and climate change, and left unchecked, will leave its mark for generations to come. But there is still time to turn the tide if we act now. Fidra’s work on chemical and plastic pollution, and Scottish Environment LINK’s Ocean Recovery Plan outline key and achievable goals needed to protect the future of Scotland’s seas.
Eliminating plastic and chemical pollution at source.
We know that plastic and chemical pollution are intrinsically linked and so to tackle the chemical crisis, we need to turn both taps off at the source. With multiple opportunities on the horizon, this is something Scotland is in unique position to achieve.
Through Scotland’s marine and national litter strategy, and consultation on single-use plastics, we can outline clear and time-lined commitments to ending plastic waste.
We can build on the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, including bans on items such as cutlery, coffee cup lids and plastic cigarette butts.
We can set appropriate Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) for chemical treatments used in Scottish aquaculture.
We can introduce bans on non-essential chemical use, including intentionally added PFAS in food packaging and bisphenols used in paper receipts.
Advocate a world-leading approach to chemical management.
The UK Chemicals Strategy will outline how we as country approach chemical management post-BREXIT and is in development as we speak. It offers a once in a generation opportunity for us to redefine our relationship with industrial chemicals, how they’re assessed, monitored and regulated. Needless to say, it is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. Scottish government must push for ambitious and time-lined commitments to more sustainable chemical use, more extensive monitoring regimes and a phase-out of the most hazardous chemicals from all non-essential uses. Fidra, along with 26 other health and environmental NGOs including some fellow LINK Marine Group members, have outlined 12 Key asks of the UK Chemicals Strategy that are fundamental to ensuring health and environmental protection are paramount.
Riding alongside the UK Chemicals Strategy is the development of the UK’s own chemical management body, UK REACH. For the dream of a sustainable chemical use to remain alive, UK REACH must at the very least remain aligned with regulations set by EU REACH. Deviation from EU regulations runs the risk of the UK becoming a ‘dumping ground’ for chemicals restricted elsewhere and falling behind on the most up-to-date safety data for chemicals already in use. But this is just a minimum. We now have the opportunity to go above and beyond EU regulations, setting our own ambitions and timelines for a truly world-leading chemical management system.
Outline commitments for a safe and effective Circular Economy.
The introduction of Scotland’s Circular Economy Bill presents so much promise. It’s a chance for us to leave our single-use habits behind and enter a new era of deposit return schemes, refill systems, and reusable… well, everything! But for this dreamy sustainable world to truly work, we must remove the barrier of chemicals contamination.
Hazardous chemicals can limit the success of a circular economy by risking the safety of secondary products. For example, chemicals approved for use in one product may wind up in products unsuitable for that substance, such as bisphenols in till receipts contaminating paper recycling and ending up in pizza boxes[ix]. Long-lived items may also contain chemicals that have since been restricted and so if recycled, may reintroduce banned substances into secondary products[x]. However, this could all be avoided by phasing-out the most hazardous chemicals from non-essential uses and ensuring transparency and traceability along supply chains. By mandating full chemical disclosure and introducing smart labelling, we will be able to track chemical substances along supply chains and make sure products unsuitable for recycling are disposed of safely.
Hope remains.
Addressing chemical pollution is no small task but it is possible, and Scotland is in a unique position to lead the way. With proactive and time-committed legislation, we can create a world-leading chemical management system, we can ensure a safe and thriving circular economy, and we can protect Scotland’s oceans for generations to come. It is all still possible, if we act now.
To find out more, see Scottish Environment LINK’s Ocean Recovery Plan and learn more about the work of Scottish environmental charity, Fidra.
Since 2018, the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign has called on the Scottish government to set legally binding targets to halt the rapid decline of Scotland’s nature and set it on track to recovery.
This summer, more than 1,200 people wrote messages to Scotland’s Minister for Environment and Land Reform Màiri McAllan about why nature matters to them.
The campaign worked! In August, the newly formed SNP-Green government committed to setting targets for nature restoration in a Natural Environment Bill to be introduced in 2023-24. It’s thanks to the thousands of people who’ve supported the call for targets over the last three years that we’ve made it this far.
With the Greens joining government, Green MSP Lorna Slater will now lead on nature recovery targets as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity. It’s great to see this issue given prominence at a ministerial level.
Now Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaigners are urging the government to set work in motion to make the recovery of our wonderful nature a reality.
Read a selection of people’s messages about the importance of Scotland’s nature in their lives:
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