Scottish Environment LINK welcomes the Scottish Government’s Environment Strategy Monitoring Framework published yesterday (24 February). The framework sets out the initial range of indicators that will be used to assess progress on achieving key outcomes to improve Scotland’s environment, including protecting nature, tackling the climate emergency and re-using resources.
LINK members welcome the inclusion of indicators to monitor the health of our environment and impact of human activity in a number of areas including marine environmental quality, Scotland’s material footprint and people’s access to the outdoors.
Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“Scotland’s Environment Strategy is critical for driving long term improvements in our environment, from reducing our consumption and waste to improving the health of our soils and seabed. The monitoring framework published today is a welcome step in setting out the initial indicators that will be used to assess Scotland’s progress to addressing the interlinked nature and climate emergency over the coming decades. There is much to welcome in the Framework but we must continue to build on these initial indicators to include measuring progress on improving the quality and extent of habitats and significantly increasing the percentage of Scotland’s native woodland in the overall mix of woodland creation.”