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:
By Calum Duncan, Head of Conservation Scotland for Marine Conservation Society and Convener of Scottish Environment LINK marine group.
Last week the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party announced a co-operation agreement and shared policy programme, the first of its kind in the UK. Whilst not exhaustive, and still to be voted on by Scottish Green members, many welcome commitments are included.
Nature recovery targets on land and sea
With thanks to everyone that supported the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign, we are pleased the deal commits to a Natural Environment Bill that will “put in place key legislative changes to restore and protect nature, including, but not restricted to, targets for nature restoration that cover land and sea, and an effective, statutory, target-setting monitoring, enforcing and reporting framework.” We will engage closely to ensure this delivers the ocean recovery targets so urgently needed, in tandem to achieving existing commitments for our seas to meet “Good Environmental Status”. It is also welcome to see commitment to expansion of the Nature Restoration Fund to contribute to “meeting…targets and restoring Scotland’s terrestrial and marine environment”.
Improved marine protection
Whilst commitment to “deliver fisheries management measures for existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)… as well as key coastal biodiversity locations outside of these sites”[1] is simply restating delayed commitments for MPAs and Priority Marine Features (PMFs), it must be included. It is crucial as part of this phase that the most damaging activities are excluded from MPAs, including the use of bottom-towed fishing gear from all seabed MPAs and from areas where sensitive PMFs naturally occur. Such measures would contribute toward international standards of at least 30% of the sea in which “only light extractive activities are allowed, and other impacts are minimized to the extent possible” as defined by the IUCN global standards [2].
More significantly, we warmly welcome the commitment to “add to the existing MPA network by designating a world-leading suite of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) covering at least 10% of our seas” by 2026 in both inshore and offshore waters. The latter is subject to the co-operation of the UK government who hold the legislative power in the zone beyond 12 nautical miles. In other words, at least 10% of Scotland’s seas would be free from any fisheries, aquaculture or development but would allow non-damaging types of recreation and tourism to continue. Such a commitment in a government agreement could lead the way for other parts of the UK and Europe.
We welcome the commitment that selection for these sites will be ecologically representative across inshore and offshore waters, and that it will provide for the recovery of Priority Marine Features and for ecosystem recovery and biodiversity enhancement, including protection of blue carbon and critical fish habitats. The latter is also in line with Scotland’s Future Fisheries Management strategy.
Capping and reducing fishing effort
The deal also commits the Government to “take specific, evidence-based measures to protect the inshore seabed in areas outwith MPAs and HPMAs” including consulting on applying “a cap to fishing activity in inshore waters (up to three nautical miles) that will limit activity to current levels and set a ceiling from which activities that disrupt the seabed can be reduced in the light of evidence as it becomes available.” This is not a precautionary approach, whereby vessels would be excluded and only allowed to fish via licensed derogations upon proving lower impact. Whilst we would prefer a more ambitious approach to recognise there should be a presumption against trawling and dredging in a significant part of the inshore area, a cap followed by reduction in effort is a small step forward. A large-scale low impact trial could help inform the evidence-base.
Ensuring “more effective compliance” in the commercial fishing fleet and “increasing capacity and capability in marine monitoring and protection” is welcome. It is essential that this includes use of modern technology such as Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) with cameras and is implemented urgently given the current state of our seas and the many delays to date.
We must also see commitment to end overfishing and incidental bycatch of seabirds, whales, dolphins, turtles and endangered sharks, skates and rays.
Climate emergency
In the wake of the UN issuing a red alert for humanity in the face of the latest IPCC assessment, we must look to all industries to adapt. The current deal does not recognise the role of fisheries management as a climate action. A recent report by WWF, Marine Conservation Society and RSPB reveals how Scotland can futureproof its fisheries and show world leadership in the process by ensuring a just transition and adopting a “climate-smart” strategy for the sector.
We also recognise the need to expand offshore wind in a way that maximises opportunities for ecological restoration and mitigates potential impacts on marine biodiversity, while committing to manage such impacts proportionately.
Aquaculture
We look forward to the announced publication of the long-awaited Government response to the Salmon Interactions Working Group report in September. It is crucial that these recommendations are acted upon swiftly to provide much-needed protection for wild salmon and sea trout populations in Scotland.
The commitment to “reform the regulatory and planning framework, starting with an independent review to consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the current regime and make recommendations for further work by the end of 2021,” is a reaffirmation of recommendations arising from the Scottish Parliamentary inquiry. We would not want to see this review delay action on improving regulation of the industry’s environmental impact as already committed to.
Going forward
The co-operation agreement includes new commitments to be welcomed, should they be approved this weekend. 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. Please follow us on @savescotsseas for updates.
Notes
[1] “deliver fisheries management measures for existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) where these are not already in place, as well as key coastal biodiversity locations outside of these sites, by March 2024 at the latest” from the co-operation agreement.
Scottish Environment LINK, a coalition of over 40 leading environment charities has welcomed the inclusion in the draft SNP-Green deal of legally binding targets to halt the rapid decline of Scotland’s nature by 2030.
The deal, announced today (20 Aug), commits a potential SNP-Green government to introducing a Natural Environment Bill in 2023-24 that will set targets to stop the loss of Scotland’s wildlife and plants, and set nature on track to recovery on land and at sea.
The deal comes 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%) have declined in numbers in the last 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction.
While welcoming the commitment to nature restoration targets, the charities have expressed concern that the legislation is not due until 2023-24, given the current rapid decline of Scotland’s nature.
Since 2018, through the campaign Fight for Scotland’s Nature, Scottish Environment LINK has been calling for legally binding targets for the recovery of nature.
Deborah Long, chief officer of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“Scotland’s nature is central to the lives of Scotland’s people, but it’s in real trouble. We need to treat the nature crisis with the same urgency as the climate crisis, and take action now before it’s too late. We’re delighted by the inclusion of legally binding targets for nature in this deal, but we’re concerned that delaying their introduction for up to three years will make halting the decline of nature by 2030 more difficult. We hope to see swift action to bring targets into law and make the recovery of our wonderful nature a reality.”
The deal between the Greens and the SNP needs the approval of both parties’ decision-making bodies before it can go ahead.
The recovery of Scotland’s nature could be beautiful and exciting – if we can find the political will to make it happen, writes Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign coordinator Miriam Ross.
I was fascinated when I learned that millions of native oysters were once harvested from the Firth of Forth every year, providing a cheap and common source of food, and an Edinburgh old town full of raucous ‘oyster cellars’. It can be hard to imagine the places we live as they once were – and just as hard to imagine a different future for them.
Native oysters virtually disappeared from the Forth due to massive overfishing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and similar collapses have played out around most of Scotland’s coastline.
But native oysters, which are distinct from the pacific oysters now found on restaurant menus, are so good for ecosystem health and biodiversity that efforts are being made to start restoring their populations. In one such initiative at Loch Craignish in Argyll, the charity Seawilding has started growing juvenile oysters and returning them to the loch to restore the natural beds. Over the course of five years, it plans to grow up to one million native oysters.
Across Scotland, there are hundreds of inspiring projects underway to help our nature recover. These efforts are incredibly important, and they’re already making many of Scotland’s places better to live in.
But the bigger picture, in Scotland as elsewhere, is one of decline. And it’s not a slow decline. We no longer need to look back centuries to see how things have changed, because Scotland is losing its biodiversity at a rate perceptible within the lifetimes of people alive today. Almost half of our species have decreased in number in the past 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction.
The devastating loss of nature is not inevitable. We can stop the decline, and we can increase Scotland’s wildlife populations and restore habitats, on land and at sea, helping nature to thrive. The many places where nature is recovering are living proof that we can do it if we want to. But we need to do it on a large scale, with action driven by government.
Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to, writing in 2019, “The challenges facing biodiversity are as important as the challenge of climate change, and I want Scotland to be leading the way in our response.”
Now we need to see action to match those words.
Our neighbours are, on paper at least, moving in the right direction. At the end of June, the Welsh parliament called for legally binding targets to halt and reverse the decline of nature. The European Union has promised to introduce legally binding targets this year with the aim of restoring nature by 2030 – a development the Scottish government should note, having committed to aligning with EU environmental law.
There is no time to lose. The Scottish government must set legally binding targets to stop the loss of our wildlife and to make sure that by the end of this decade Scotland’s nature is on track to recovery. And it must propel the change needed to meet those targets.
Then we can collectively start to imagine, and create, a future in which a rich and diverse natural environment helps to make Scotland the kind of place we want to live in.
The recovery of Scotland’s nature could be beautiful and exciting – if we can find the political will to make it happen, writes Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign coordinator Miriam Ross.
I was fascinated when I learned that millions of native oysters were once harvested from the Firth of Forth every year, providing a cheap and common source of food, and an Edinburgh old town full of raucous ‘oyster cellars’. It can be hard to imagine the places we live as they once were – and just as hard to imagine a different future for them.
Native oysters virtually disappeared from the Forth due to massive overfishing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and similar collapses have played out around most of Scotland’s coastline.
But native oysters, which are distinct from the pacific oysters now found on restaurant menus, are so good for ecosystem health and biodiversity that efforts are being made to start restoring their populations. In one such initiative at Loch Craignish in Argyll, the charity Seawilding has started growing juvenile oysters and returning them to the loch to restore the natural beds. Over the course of five years, it plans to grow up to one million native oysters.
Across Scotland, there are hundreds of inspiring projects underway to help our nature recover. These efforts are incredibly important, and they’re already making many of Scotland’s places better to live in.
But the bigger picture, in Scotland as elsewhere, is one of decline. And it’s not a slow decline. We no longer need to look back centuries to see how things have changed, because Scotland is losing its biodiversity at a rate perceptible within the lifetimes of people alive today. Almost half of our species have decreased in number in the past 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction.
The devastating loss of nature is not inevitable. We can stop the decline, and we can increase Scotland’s wildlife populations and restore habitats, on land and at sea, helping nature to thrive. The many places where nature is recovering are living proof that we can do it if we want to. But we need to do it on a large scale, with action driven by government.
Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to, writing in 2019, “The challenges facing biodiversity are as important as the challenge of climate change, and I want Scotland to be leading the way in our response.”
Now we need to see action to match those words.
Our neighbours are, on paper at least, moving in the right direction. At the end of June, the Welsh parliament called for legally binding targets to halt and reverse the decline of nature. The European Union has promised to introduce legally binding targets this year with the aim of restoring nature by 2030 – a development the Scottish government should note, having committed to aligning with EU environmental law.
There is no time to lose. The Scottish government must set legally binding targets to stop the loss of our wildlife and to make sure that by the end of this decade Scotland’s nature is on track to recovery. And it must propel the change needed to meet those targets.
Then we can collectively start to imagine, and create, a future in which a rich and diverse natural environment helps to make Scotland the kind of place we want to live in.
On the last day of June, the Welsh Parliament became the first parliament in the world to declare a nature emergency. The Senedd also called for legally binding targets to halt and reverse the decline of nature. Plaid Cymru member, Delyth Jewell, introduced the motion whilst referencing the missed UN Aichi targets on biodiversity: “When you miss a target like that, it doesn’t stand still—that loss, that decline, continues apace. The situation gets worse”. The Scottish Parliament failed to declare a nature emergency in November last year, when a similar motion was tabled by Mark Ruskell MSP which noted the catastrophic collapse in biodiversity globally and in Scotland.
Monica Lennon MSP has lodged a motion which, in light of the Welsh Parliament’s declaration of a nature emergency, calls on the Scottish Parliament to declare a nature emergency and introduce legally binding nature targets to drive nature’s recovery. We are totally dependent upon the natural world. But we are currently damaging it so profoundly that many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown. The recently published Biodiversity Intactness Index places Scotland at 212th out of 240 countries based on how much human activity has impacted nature.
As we begin the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, and as Scotland prepares to welcome the world at COP26 and play its role in Biodiversity COP15, action to reverse biodiversity declines in Scotland has never been more urgent. For over a decade, Scotland has striven to meet bold climate change targets, the same must now be put in place to address the nature crisis.
Time is running out and nature cannot afford another missed opportunity. We need Scotland’s political parties to come together to declare a nature emergency and commit to clear, legally binding targets to stop the loss of Scotland’s nature and set it on a path to recovery by 2030.
Tell your MSP to stand up for nature!
Urge your MSPs to support the motion, lodged by Monica Lennon MSP, calling on the Scottish Parliament to declare a nature emergency and commit to legally binding nature recovery targets. You can find the name, party affiliation and email address for your constituency and list MSPs by entering your postcode into the Scottish Parliament ‘Find MSP by postcode’ search tool. Once you have identified your MSPs, download our template email below, allowing you to contact each MSP individually and speak up for nature in a matter of minutes.
Scottish Environment LINK and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland recently held an event to discuss the role of material use in mitigating climate change. The event was organized as part of LINK’s Circular economy for a fairer footprintproject, which is campaigning for comprehensive and cross-cutting policies to make our economy more circular.
There has been increasing recognition that we really need to turn our minds to the energy that is embodied in materials if we are to address climate change. Eighty two percent of Scotland’s carbon footprint comes from things we use and consume. Life cycle analysis of products, which enables us to identify at what points in a product’s life cycle most of the impacts occur, shows raw material extraction as the most carbon intensive part of the life cycle of most products.
Understanding more about the materials we use and where they come from is vital to enable us to prioritise our action to meet climate change goals. For example, although switching to electric cars cuts our direct emissions in Scotland our global emissions will remain high due to the emissions embedded in the materials cars are made from. More sustainable transport options such as improvements in public transport are needed to address our overall contribution to climate change.
Our event heard from 3 speakers who are at the forefront of using data to explore the impact of the materials we use on GHG emissions at the global, UK and Scottish levels.
Professor John Barrett, University of Leeds, presented a study which found that by applying a range of strategies to increase the efficiency of how we use materials, UK consumption based emissions could be reduced by 121 million tonnes (approximately 8 times the annual emissions from all forms of transport in Scotland per year). The potential of material efficiency to reduce carbon emissions from industry is found to be double that of energy efficiency (which is where much of the effort has focused to date). Most of this emissions reduction would occur outside the UK where the materials we use are extracted and processed and many of our goods are manufactured; but, although it is our carbon footprint that would see the biggest reduction, the impact on territorial emissions is also significant.
The research found that in terms of emission reduction in the UK, about half the saving could be made from food-based policies – reducing food waste and changing our diets; other key areas being light-weighting (reducing weight) – particularly in buildings and vehicles, and increasing recycling processing in the UK. To reduce our emissions overseas, using products for longer and switching from the sale of goods to the provision of services would provide added carbon savings.
Research at the global level by the Circularity Gap Initiative was presented by Matthew Frazer from Circle Economy in the Netherlands. This research found that circular economy measures could address the emissions gap – the gap between carbon savings linked to policies already announced and those needed to be on track to meeting the Paris Agreement.
We were shown a Sanky diagram showing the flow of materials, and associated carbon, through the global economy which demonstrated how most of the fossil fuels extracted end up embodied in materials and goods. By looking at how human needs can be met in a more material efficient way, the report identified policy areas that could make the biggest impact on reducing carbon emissions whilst addressing societal needs. The research modelled 21 strategies which had a combined effect of shrinking global material use by 28% and global emissions by 39%. Three of the areas where cross-cutting policies could have the biggest potential were identified as buildings (such as making better use of and improving the design of buildings), mobility (for example, urban design to enable mobility with fewer vehicles), and nutrition (including changes in diets and regenerative farming). Together, these three areas could deliver 70% of the required emissions cut.
Kim Pratt from Zero Waste Scotland presented some of the findings of the Scottish Material Flow Accounts, published on the day of the event.
One key indicator calculated is an estimate of our material footprint – the amount of raw materials each person uses in a year. In 2017, each person in Scotland used 18.4 tonnes of materials, higher than the EU average, at 14.1 tonnes per person per year. The sustainable level is considered to be 8 tonnes per person per year which would enable people to live sustainable and high quality lives. Our 18.4 tonnes per year equates to 50 kg of materials per person per week. Remember most of these materials don’t make it into the final product, for example 25 tonnes of iron ore is required to make 1 tonne of steel.
Kim provided insight from a specific example of greener steel reprocessing and the benefits it could bring. We export 820,000 tonnes of Scottish scrap steel for reprocessing every year with a commodity value of £110m. Traditional steel reprocessing relies on coal and so there are associated carbon emissions. However, a modern electric arc furnace uses electricity instead of coal and if we developed such a furnace in Scotland, where our electricity has a very low carbon intensity, we could be reprocessing some of the greenest steel in the world and also saving materials as they take more scrap. This would lead to material, energy and transport savings – 56% reduction in GHGs; 180 direct and 1000 indirect jobs, and an increase in direct gross value added of £10 – 25m per year.
Some additional thoughts were provided by the speakers:
– Stay focussed on the goal. Quantification is important and we need a sense of scale. We need to think about millions of tonnes of materials flowing through the economy and how to achieve societal goals whilst using considerably less materials.
– We need a government wide approach – it is not just the domain of the environment departments. Resource efficiency must be embedded in all operations – how infrastructure is planned and how money is allocated and spent across departments.
– Many of the strategies needed are about optimising the use of carbon intensive materials, such as those that go into cars. Cars are typically idle for 95% of the time and, when in use, usually only 40% full. We need to find ways to collectively access mobility without the need for individual ownership of cars.
– The opportunities are positive and exciting with a huge amount of potential to create new business models for more sustainable living. New business models create positive stories.
– Resource efficiency will struggle to keep up in terms of throughput of materials and greenhouse gas emissions if we have higher growth rates. We will struggle to reduce overall impact unless we change consumption patterns. We need absolute targets to achieve this goal – we need an absolute target in material use and we also need absolute targets in energy demand.
What are our next steps? It is clear that we need a fundamental shift in how we use resources – it is not OK to tinker around the edges, we need transformative change to enable people to do things differently.
There is further work to do to examine the new Scottish material flow data to really pinpoint the material related policies that will have the biggest impact on reducing Scotland’s contribution to climate change emissions. We also need to think about the impact that material use has on biodiversity and start an equivalent analysis to determine key material policies to reduce our impact on land use and biodiversity – remember, 80 – 90% of global biodiversity loss is caused by the extraction and growing of raw materials and their processing.
In parallel, we need to put pressure on decision makers. More analysis is useful, but we already know that decisive action is needed and some of the key areas. Please sign our petition and share our film.
Slides from the event are available here: Prof. John Barrett, University of Leeds: slides ; Matthew Fraser, Lead, Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative: slides; Kim Pratt, Zero Waste Scotland: slides
Lastly, if you want to watch a short clip highlighting the issue, see this clip by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Scotland’s coastline is rich with marine wildlife and is a fantastic place to connect with nature, slow down and soak up some vitamin sea. Over a quarter of all species of whale, dolphin, and porpoise, have been recorded here, and that’s not all… Scotland is one of the best destinations in the world to see basking sharks, a species that is classified by the IUCN as endangered.
This month saw this parliamentary session’s first debate on the nature and climate emergency, centered on a motion put forward by Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson. After an election campaign in which nature and climate featured prominently – through discourse around the climate and nature emergencies, but not least through the need for a green recovery from the pandemic – the debate was a key opportunity for the government and the opposition to lay out their plans on climate action and nature restoration for the next five years. The debate showed a very welcomed understanding from all parties of a need for urgent action. However, it unfortunately also continued a trend in which the nature crisis is put second to the climate emergency.
The Cabinet Secretary opened the debate by highlighting the way in which ‘Scotland has taken a world-leading, distinctive and ambitious approach to tackling the twin crisis of climate change and ecological decline by putting in place legislation, targets and governance for reducing emissions, building our climate resilience and protecting our environment.’ It was encouraging to see wide ranging support to bring a revised Climate Change Plan forward early in this session, support which hopeful reflects an understanding of the severity of the challenges ahead.
However, debating MSPs gave significantly less attention to the nature emergency. The climate crisis is intrinsically linked to solving the nature emergency, meaning neither of the twin crisis can be solved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone. Just as ‘we are already seeing the impact of the global climate crisis’ in Scotland, as Mr. Matheson drew attention to in his opening remarks, we are also seeing the impacts of the biodiversity crisis. The State of Nature Scotland 2019 report finds that one out of nine species in Scotland are at the risk of distinction. The importance of restoring nature to our efforts to tackle climate change was drawn attention to by Alex Cole-Hamilton of the Liberal Democrats. In doing so, he supported the earlier statement on the importance of peatland by the Cabinet Secretary, SNP’s Emma Harper and Green’s Lorna Slater. These crucial contributions to the debate suggest there is no lack of knowledge in the parliament on the need to restore our nature. Now we need to see the equal importance of the nature crisis be reflected across the work of our MSPs in the next five years. A crucial next step in the fight to restore nature is adopting Nature Targets. Nature Targets would ensure that efforts to tackle the nature crisis, just like the climate crisis, is steered by world leading legislation.
More promising was the overall focus of MSPs across the political spectrum on the need for action. Conservatives’ Liam Kerr stated that ‘it is way beyond time that we focus on delivery.’ Stressing that delivery must also relate to the nature recovery, Mr. Kerr drew attention to Scotland’s failure to reach the Aichi biodiversity targets. The 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook report revealed that these targets, which 194 countries signed up to in 2010, have been spectacularly missed across the world. As such, Mr. Kerr’s statement is a welcome reminder of the scale of the action needed in the years ahead. Additionally, Labour’s Monica Lennon stressed the need for urgent action to bring forward a Circular Economy Bill and Green’s Lorna Slater urged for action on the 166 cross-party recommendations on alterations to the Climate Change Plan agreed in the last session, showcasing the breath of action needed to tackle the twin crisis. Together, the focus on action provided the hopeful prospect of a parliamentary session in which we see more action and less unmet promises.
Concluding the debate, the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land reform Mairi McAllan provided a stark reminder of why urgent action is needed. Saying that ‘it is not only for Scotland’s future generations that we need to act; we need also to demonstrate leadership throughout the world’, Ms. McAllan showed an understanding of how what we do in the next five years will not only affect those of us who were able to vote in this latest election, but also young people and people across the globe. Now, we need our newly elected MSPs to act on the promise of action. Future generations cannot wait. Neither can nature.
This blog is from LINK’s Advocacy Officer Anne Funnemark.
Land use and land ownership is a live issue in Scotland. Debate around who owns Scotland and what they do with that land has never gone away. How land is managed is coming into sharper focus now in the face of climate and nature emergencies. Land management is fundamental to how Scotland can meet our climate targets plus reduce the ongoing loss of biodiversity and improve the wellbeing of Scotland’s people.
Who benefits from land use is also key. We all benefit from land use; those who work the land, who live on it and in communities supported by it, those who visit and those who depend on the services it provides, like clean water, healthy food, flood control, health and wellbeing through contact with nature.
Taken together, this all points in a direction of a much wider set of goals for the farming sector than those relating purely to food production and carries a clear implication that a much wider range of interests and voices should be involved in shaping its future.
There is distinct acknowledgement at the highest levels of Government that the climate and environment emergencies require a radical change in approach to the way we manage and use our land, to address the challenges we face: The challenges facing biodiversity are as important as the challenge of climate change, and I want Scotland to be leading the way in our response. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, July 2019.
In early 2019, the Scottish Parliament debated future rural policy in light of the UK voting to leave the EU. As a result, the Farming and Food Production – Future Policy Group (FFP-FPG) was established by the then Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, to develop and make recommendations for policy from 2024 onwards. This group, launched in June 2019, has so far not been able to publish its findings.
While the Future Policy Group has been unable to publish their report to date (June 2021), farmer led groups have also been tasked with identifying ways forwards for each farming sector in response to climate change. They have all published reports.
The gap that remains is the original remit of the Future Policy Group to map out the current context and the future direction of policy travel needed. Without this strategic overview, the sector led plans will need to come together to identify and fill gaps and eliminate overlaps. Farms in Scotland need clear pathways towards farm profitability in a net zero and nature positive future.
To this end there are a number of principles that would guide the direction of travel for Scotland, would cover cross sectoral concerns and would provide the context for sector led actions. These include the following:
1: Ambitious, coherent, clear and measurable objectives: able to contribute to meeting Scotland’s net zero obligations and biodiversity targets, meet local food needs and reflect the need to sustain and enhance natural resources and the services our land provides.
2: Payments and interventions: must deliver clear outcomes that meet policy objectives for society, economy and the environment.
3: Effective ambition: food, farming and other Scottish Government policy goals must be aligned. These include meeting local food needs and increasing the availability and accessibility of healthy sustainable food.
4: Investment in research, knowledge transfer and innovation: to support and facilitate the rapid transition to a sustainable rural economy, with pilot projects and demonstrations and a fit for purpose advisory service enabling all to benefit.
5: Protection, restoration and investment in biodiversity and natural capital: to ensure future generations have access to fully functioning ecosystems and services, including healthy soil, clean water and air, species diversity from genes to pollinators. Agroecological principles are key.
6: Fair and proportionate policy creation: the costs of implementation and regulation must be shared fairly and proportionate to environmental, societal and economic benefits
7: Wide collaboration and buy in: must be central to future land use decisions. National ambitions, priorities and targets should match with local realities, knowledge and aspirations
8: Just Transition principles must be central: transformation has far-reaching implications for people across Scotland.
With CoP15 in October and CoP26 in November and the need to act within this Decade of Ecosystem Restoration to achieve change, Scotland must act now. We need to be ambitious, given the opportunity we have to learn lessons and step outside the constraints of the Common Agricultural Policy. We need to offer a clear direction of travel. Farmers, land managers and food producers need to know where Scotland’s future rural policy is heading in order to prepare for the future and target their investment and activity effectively and efficiently.
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