It’s now a month since COP15 in Montreal. The COP15 summit gave us commitments to global nature targets to halt the loss of nature by 2030 and to restore it by 2050. We also saw commitments to conserve and manage 30% of the Earth’s land and seas for nature; halt the extinction of known species, pledges to halve the risk from pesticides and nutrient loss, reduce to near zero the loss of wildlife rich habitats and to reduce government subsides that harm nature. These are big promises – and it is absolutely necessary that we fulfil them.
We already know we need to reach net zero by 2045 in Scotland. Now, we also know we need to have reversed and restored nature to be nature positive by 2050. That means doing things differently, implementing actions swiftly and aligning them so that actions for climate do not damage nature.
The global leadership from Montreal is important in setting a direction of travel. We will only walk that path however, if we all commit to supporting necessary action, and this is going to mean tough choices: tougher than flying less and phasing out fossil fuel, which are going to seem rather easy in comparison.
Beyond the headlines, what we need now are effective actions. Targets are important but what really counts is delivery. What will that look like in Scotland? It will need to look a bit like this:
Creating Nature networks to restore and protect our habitats, building wider ecosystem resilience to change. We do this through planning reform, land use planning and land use support as well as action on the ground.
Managing our wider landscapes and seas for biodiversity: deer numbers at levels that do not irrevocably damage their habitats, about 5 deer per km, and fishing that does not diminish and weaken fish populations.
Investment in nature restoration at habitat and species level: improving the quality of habitats like river woodlands, mountain woodlands, species rich grasslands and upland heaths for example. Rebuilding species populations to levels where they can sustain themselves: species like twinflower, juniper, curlew and lapwing, freshwater pearl mussel and dark bordered beauty moth.
Getting real about private investment in nature: recognising the risks of greenwashing and the traps of credits; being strategic about using public funding to kick start initiatives and fill in funding gaps
Protecting ecosystems from the main drivers of loss: pollution, habitat fragmentation and loss, over exploitation.
Reforming farming subsidy: shifting subsidy to nature and climate positive action, nature positive food production and away from damaging activities.
COP15 wasn’t really about agreeing action on the ground though. It was more about a strategic approach to ensuring action on the ground is effective to save nature. Success will depend on nature being right at the heart of government, in all parliamentary portfolios and at the forefront of the development of all government policy so we can all do our bit for nature.
To get there, we need leadership on biodiversity. Where will this leadership come from? It needs to come not just from Ministers, politicians and government: it needs to come from all of us. From young people who want to be able to see nature on their doorstep in decades to come, from grandparents who want their grandchildren to enjoy the wonder of nature just as they did as children and from society at large, who loves nature and wants to keep connecting with nature. This is no white flag: this needs to be our battle cry.
The publication of the draft Scottish Government Budget 2023/2024 prompts another look at what gets spent, in real terms, on core environmental protection and management in Scotland. The plot below (Fig.1) shows that from financial year 2010/11 through to the current proposal for 2023/24, there continues to be sustained underfunding.
This period is chosen as it marks the beginning of the public sector austerity measures, following the global financial crisis of 2008.
Both NatureScot (formerly SNH) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) receive core funding, each year, for their operational activities. Notwithstanding small increases this year, the funding for NatureScot has declined by 40% over the period. For SEPA the reduction is currently about 20% but has, just a few years ago, been as much as 40% as well.
The Scottish Government also contracts out policy-driven and policy-related environmental research to gather scientific evidence and find innovative solutions to our pressing problems. This is delivered through a rolling, tendered, and competitive, core programme which, in effect, underpins the research capability of major providers like the James Hutton Institute, Moredun and Scotland’s Rural College, as well as funding several multi-partner Centres of Expertise, such as CREW, for water management, and ClimateXChange, for climate policy. This research budget has declined by almost 60%, in real terms, over the past 13 years.
The graph below shows that spending in these areas has been disproportionately cut in comparison to the overall Scottish budget. While some increases to the overall budget reflect the devolution of additional powers, and subsequently pandemic-related spending, this does not explain why these environmental agencies have been deprioritised over this period.
It’s worth noting that trimming this environmental spend in Scotland has actually delivered less than 0.2% savings in the overall Government budget. As a proportion, the three environmental components shown here declined from 0.55% of total Scottish budget in 2010/11 to a minimum of 0.25% in 2022/23.
Fig.1 Normalised, to financial year 2010/11, real-term, budgets for the public environment research programme, for NatureScot, SEPA, and total Scottish Government. Source budget summary & updated from yearly budgets.
The research providers, of course, have the opportunity to bid elsewhere for competitive research grants and, on the whole, are very successful in bringing inward investment and added value to the science base. The Scottish Government funds, however, are focused specifically on Scottish environmental issues that support Scottish policy and deliver public good. Other research funds are not locally focused and, for example, those from the European Commission are now seriously jeopardised by Brexit.
SEPA derives around half of its income from separate cost-recovery schemes, with charges imposed on businesses who hold licences to discharge to the environment. These charging schemes are approved by the Scottish Government and have not always kept pace with inflation. In 2010/11 this income was £34.1M and in 2020/21 was £42.0M, a real-term reduction of 14%.
These deep, and prolonged, cuts have an inevitable impact on staffing. For example, NatureScot had 728 staff in 2011/12 and only 594 staff in 2020/21. The search for a new NatureScot Chair began this week and one of the first issues she or he will have to deal with is how to address the lack of resources for the body charged with addressing the nature crisis. High quality environmental regulation and management cannot be delivered without professional staff, using sound science, informed by robust research and evidence. During periods of financial constraint, it is all too easy to delay building maintenance, to cut training and quality management systems, to delay replacement or upgrading of equipment, limit site visits, and reduce monitoring. In the short term this may be inevitable but, in the longer term, it undermines the capability to deliver operationally well-informed solutions. As cuts continue, then excessive management time is devoted to further cost reductions, restructuring and reorganisation, closure of premises, and ultimately delivering voluntary severance programmes. All this detracts from core duties and increases operational risks.
At the same time, Scotland’s environment is deteriorating. Almost 50% of ecosystem services are in decline; the percentage of nature protected sites in favourable condition has declined from 80% in 2017 to 78.3% in 2021; the index of terrestrial species abundance slumped from 98 in 2010 to 68.7 in 2016; Scotland is ranked 212 out of 240 countries for biodiversity intactness; the reported ecological status of Scotland’s rivers has dropped.
So, has wider environmental concern been refocused by Scottish Government away from the “nature crisis” towards the “climate emergency”? The Scottish Government puts the nature and climate crises side by side and requires climate mitigation and adaptation in every routine budget and work programme. Despite this, however, a recent report shows that total emissions associated with the Scottish Budget for 2023-24 will be 8.8Mt carbon dioxide equivalent, which is higher than in 2010-11. This is reflected in the recent progress report from the UK Climate Change Committee, which says “The Scottish Government lacks a clear delivery plan and has not offered a coherent explanation for how its policies will achieve Scotland’s bold emissions reduction targets”.
Scottish Government states that “Scotland’s natural environment is central to our identity as a nation” that “we will play our full part in responding to the global climate and nature crises” and “through our work, our country will be transformed for the better. Our natural environment will be restored.”
As LINK has stated, Scotland needs more robust environmental scrutiny, audit, challenge, targets, funding most certainly, and formalised accountability and delivery to do that.
Contributed by one of LINK’s Honorary Fellows, this blog provides analysis of budget allocation to the environment sector in 2023 – 2024.
From one of LINK’s Honorary Fellows, Claudia Beamish
On this bright day which augers spring, I pottered in the back garden amongst a range of peeking bulbs, budding shrubs and fruit trees. There the breeze stirred my autumn-long pondering on why COP27 caught the headlines while COP15 did not?
The twin crises – nature and climate – are inextricably fused.
Check out the first day of COP15 from the protest by people of the Talama Nation on Canada’s W Coast – appropriately recognized– in President Trudeau’s opening speech to UN Secretary General Guterres’s stark warnings.
So – robust targets were reached. Good. Though COP 15 is left to grow without the support, regulation and commitment of 27. Planning, monitoring and money will be at the heart of success or failure – to state the obvious. To do whatever can be done to keep the life giving support of mass public awareness on the cause of COP 15 is year round work. Protecting and rebuilding biodiversity goes hand-in-hand with tackling climate change. Instead, big business mutes the importance of biodiversity; monopolistic homogeneity is profitable and damn the socio-economic and environmental consequences!
On the Convention on Biodiversity website in the Poverty Reduction section, we are reminded that “Socio-political aspects of inequality, including gender and ethnicity, are inextricably linked with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. This is because indigenous peoples and local communities and women are important custodians of biodiversity and related traditional knowledge, although they are often marginalized and disadvantaged.
“The role of law and equity to manage nature contributes to an inclusive society based on justice and democratic decision-making. Recognizing rights to sustainable management of natural resources, enhancing values of biodiversity and related knowledge, and building an environment for equitable benefit-sharing has the potential to improve socioeconomic and political inequality among social groups.”
The interlinks are infinite and demand permanently ongoing action. Check out – “Biodiversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Today it feels a long while since marching in Edinburgh for the Millennium Goals. Plus ca change! In relation to nature and climate justice, we have an obligation to assess the impact of what we do on the Global South and perhaps even to assess how we can help improve global biodiversity as we work on national and local projects.
Needless to say the failures of biodiversity action deeply affect people here in Scotland as well.
As I muse on inspiring projects from the macro – continuing to develop the National Ecological Network, to the micro – planting fruit trees around a rugby pitch in Fintry, I am keenly aware of the importance of community involvement. Let’s face it – our health and wellbeing ain’t great! However, fresh air and tending the soil can work what might feel like miracles for our psyche and for native seedlings!
The challenges of the Cop15 2030 Targets can feel deeply daunting. However, what ScotLINK and communities are doing and can do even more of, will bite out a big chunk of negativity and connect us all better to our land in the working together.
In recent months the term ‘nature positive economy’ is being used more and more in recognition that our economy has a huge role to play in achieving the goal to be nature positive by 2030. To strive for a nature positive economy is included in Scotland’s National strategy for economic transformation (2022).
Little has been written about what this actually means in terms of modifying the way our economy operates, although the Dasgupta Review provides a useful start by highlighting a number of areas where change is needed.
A recent event hosted by entitled ‘Making the economy work for nature’, provided a number of observations on priorities and perspectives.
Opening remarks from Professor Yadvinder Malhi, president of the British Ecological Society, stressed that we need to think about how to reconcile our economy with living on a finite planet and that a circular economy offers a way forward by drawing less resources into the economy and pumping less waste into the environment. This is supported by the recent report Tackling root causes, which reveals that circular solutions have significant potential to halt biodiversity loss.
Speakers at the event largely focussed on food and farming and care for our soils – the biological side of the well known circular economy butterfly diagram. It was noted that the largely linear economy has led to a broken carbon cycle and restoring that carbon cycle to a more circular one would be good for climate and biodiversity. It was pointed out that far more attention needs to be paid to the status of soils. As a key element of natural capital, a natural asset fundamental to our economy and wellbeing, we need to understand the health and status of soil. Currently we do not monitor our soils in the same way as we monitor air and water.
In relation to food production, work by the Ellen McArthur Foundation which has shown huge opportunities to redesign food production to regenerate nature with a more circular economy was presented. The principles of circular economy and food design can be brought together such that food is good for nature and climate by focussing on lower impact ingredients (such as pea flour instead of wheat flour, or syrup from sucrose extracted from crop residue); use of wider varieties to build resilience; and regenerative systems. Modelling shows economic and environmental benefits.
The potential for farms in Scotland to diversify and make use of by-products was highlighted as was the potential for regenerative practices to deliver yields comparable to conventional farming.
Despite these opportunities, real barriers in Scotland were pointed out. For example, the vast majority of livestock are farmed on the west whereas crops are gown in the east which makes closing the nitrogen cycle difficult. What’s more, much of the food we produce is for export, which impacts on and hinders efforts to become circular.
Looking more broadly at our economy and decision making, hidden assumptions embedded into our economic system and thinking which have become barriers to change were highlighted. First, the assumptions that the economy and nature are separate and that nature will ‘replenish itself’. Second, the way in which appraisals of potential projects or policies are carried out, including: a baseline scenario of ‘business as usual’ as an option (when carrying on as we are is not an option); omitting to consider the distribution of costs and benefits; and discounting (the process of converting a value received in the future to an equivalent present day value) and the assumption that future generations will be better equipped to deal with problems.
Panellists were asked to provide thoughts on how we change the system. Change in the way we incentivise agriculture was highlighted as key, as was the promotion of good practice. Working with big businesses, some of whom are taking strides to put nature at the heart of what they do, and developing partnerships was also noted. There was a call for politicians to be bolder and not to rely on markets to solve the problem.
This is a useful reminder – the economic (as well as other) opportunities associated with the circular economy are often highlighted; but this should not be an excuse for lack of political leadership. Without significant changes to accounting and decision making rules/ processes, the market won’t address the nature crises.
LINK has been working on circular economy for several years and, amongst other things, has been highlighting to government that soils, the cornerstone of a circular and regenerative economy, need more attention. In the next 6 months the Scottish Government will be bringing forward its Circular Economy Bill – this is an opportunity to make sure the legislation is in place to steer our economy to one that is more circular, with reduced footprints and working for nature. LINK’s Farm for Scotland’s Future campaign is pressing for reform to support for farmers such that farming works for nature, climate and people.
This blog was written by Phoebe Cochrane, LINK’s Sustainable Economy Policy Officer
The final weeks of 2022 saw a historic, if much delayed, global agreement for biodiversity reached at COP15 in Montreal, with a central pledge to protect 30% of the planet by the end of the decade.
If we needed a reminder of the scale of the challenge, the record-breaking warm weather across Europe in the first days of January should have been it.
The planet is deep into an ecological emergency and we are long past the time when bold promises for action can be delayed decades into the future.
A 2030 target for nature protection should, hopefully, help shake some complacency from those policymakers across the planet who perennially treat the environment as a problem to deal with tomorrow.
Scotland had adopted the ‘30 by 30’ commitment ahead of COP15 and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy – published at the Montreal summit – sets the high-level aspirations for our approach to nature between now and 2045, including an ambition to be “nature positive” by 2030.
These goals are welcome, but meeting them will not be without challenges – not least, time.
2030 is not far off. We are rapidly approaching the mid-way point of the decade, and meaningful change will depend on the decisions being made today.
Crucially, the detail of how the Scottish Government intends to meet those ambitions will be set out in five year delivery plans, the first of which will be consulted on soon.
LINK recently commissioned opinion polling to measure public attitudes towards nature and key policy areas. The results should give Ministers confidence that the public will support ambitious action.
More than 80% say that they are worried about the impact of climate change and human activity on nature, and almost unanimously (96%) Scots say our natural environment is important to the country as a whole. Overwhelming majorities support pro-environmental policies such as ‘30 by 30’, prioritising native woodlands, and making sure that farm funding delivers for the planet.
The public know we’re in a crisis – and they want the government to act. 2023 should be the year where we begin to turn the corner for nature.
Dan Paris, Advocacy Manager at LINK
Image: Simon Jones
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is all about nature and how we must all take progressive actions to reverse the global loss of biodiversity. COP15 has been somewhat overshadowed by the higher-profile Climate COP – COP27 – which recently took place in Egypt, but due to the climate emergency being inextricably linked to the nature crisis, is equally important. Four years in the making, delayed by the Covid 19 pandemic, COP 15 is a once-in-a-decade chance to turn the tide for nature. For our ocean, this has never been more needed.
At the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2022, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared that we are facing an “ocean emergency”, an inevitable result of the intertwined climate and nature crises given that the ocean has already absorbed so much excess carbon dioxide and heat arising from our burning of fossil fuels. In Scotland, breeding seabird numbers had declined by almost 50% since the 1980s[1], even before the devastating 2022 outbreak of Avian Influenza (‘bird flu’). Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020[2] also paints a stark picture of poor seabed health, with living seabed habitats particularly diminished and vulnerable,and iconic species such as Atlantic salmon in decline. It emphasises bottom-contacting and pelagic fishing as the most “geographically widespread, direct pressures” and climate change as the “most critical factor” affecting Scotland’s marine environment.
At COP 15, world leaders will finally agree on new, binding targets for the protection and recovery of biodiversity under a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The draft GBF is currently proposing a target that would bind signatory countries to at least 30% of their land and sea being covered by systems of protected areas. It sets the global minimum standard for protection of ecosystems. Importantly, the Framework identifies the main drivers of biodiversity loss that must be addressed, with global food production the top concern. For our seas in Scotland, this means industrial pressures such as bottom-contact mobile fishing gear and aquaculture need to be transformed to support the recovery, rather than drive the decline, of nature.
Networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are one of the key conservation tools in a country’s toolbox to protect and recover nature. They are areas of sea with greater levels of protection than surrounding areas, often identified for particular species, habitats or ecosystems of conservation importance where activities that pose the greatest risk to these features are restricted. This latter point is key, as an MPA is only as good as the management measures put in place within it. Currently, there are 232 MPAs in Scotland’s seas designated for nature conservation, but only a small percentage of these have legally binding restrictions on bottom-contact fishing activities, and many other marine industries continue to operate within the sites. These measures will currently, at best, protect small areas of marine biodiversity that are left but are unlikely to enable the large-scale ecosystem recovery that is needed, and therefore do not yet fulfil the commitment to truly protect at least 30% of our seas.
In the Bute House Agreement – the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party’s co-operation agreement and shared policy programme – there is a commitment to complete the fisheries management measures for the remainder of the existing MPA network by 2024. Though delayed, this is welcome, and in our view must deliver a “whole-site approach” to protecting the existing MPAs, where bottom-contact fishing gear is excluded from sites designated to protect seabed habitats.
The agreement also includes an ambitious new commitment to designate at least 10% of Scotland’s seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) by 2026. These HPMAs are MPAs under even stricter protection, where all damaging and extractive activities will be prohibited[3]. In conjunction with bolstering the protection of the existing MPA network, if implemented effectively, HPMAs could help turn the tide on marine biodiversity loss, providing core reserves where habitats and species can regenerate to a more natural state.
Why do we need HPMAs in addition to the existing MPAs in Scottish seas? Imagine HPMAs as a fully protected core of the MPA network, providing sanctuaries for marine life from all extractive or damaging activity. These new areas can be targeted to degraded or altered areas where ecosystem recovery is most needed, complimenting the wider MPA network. Sites in the existing network were identified to protect, and in some places recover, the best of the biodiversity remaining after centuries of human impact and decline, and include more targeted protections for specific species and habitats but still allow some types of fishing, aquaculture and other activities such as cable-laying and wind-farms.
In combination, an ecologically coherent network of HPMAs and MPAs can help support the recovery of nature that has declined, the protection of nature that remains in good condition and ensure that our seas continue to provide benefits to society (ecosystem services) such as food, energy and recreation. .
It is important to emphasise that people will be able to access HPMAs for recreation and enjoyment. Non-extractive, non-damaging activities will be possible at levels clearly defined to ensure they do not impact the site. As stated in the Benyon Review, HPMAs can provide multiple social and economic benefits such as marine tourism and recreational activities, and opportunities for scientific research and education. They can have a positive impact on human health, and enhance the aesthetic, cultural and religious significance of the area.
With only eight years left to turn around the decline of nature on land and at sea, COP15 has to deliver bold global commitments for ocean recovery. In Scotland, it is vital that the existing MPA network is swiftly protected from industrial pressures such as bottom-contact fishing gear, and thereafter that at least 10% of our large patch of the northeast Atlantic is protected from all forms of damaging activity and all types of fishing within new HPMAs.
Esther Brooker and Fanny Royanez, Marine Policy and Engagement Officers at LINK
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
[3] Equivalent to International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected area category 1A: ‘Strict nature reserve: Strictly protected for biodiversity and also possibly geological/ geomorphological features, where human visitation, use and impacts are controlled and limited to ensure protection of the conservation values’
The new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy offers a significant opportunity to restore Scotland’s ecosystems and reverse species declines. Our natural environment is in crisis, and we urgently need an ambitious new strategy with clear targets. Freshwater ecosystems are essential for biodiversity, providing habitat for a wide array of aquatic species while also helping to reduce the impacts of major threats including climate change, flooding, chemical pollution, and noise pollution. Unfortunately, the number of good quality freshwater habitats in the UK are dwindling, with many ponds being filled in to make room for development, being polluted by chemical run-off, or simply being lost due to poor management.
National wildlife charity Froglife has been tackling this issue through an innovative project, Fife Living Waters, funded by the Scottish Power Foundation. This one-year project has been focused on restoring freshwater ecosystems in Cowdenbeath (Fife, Scotland) through creating and restoring many ponds and engaging with local communities. Fife Living Waters has been working across two key sites, Cowdenbeath Wetland and Swans Pond, delivering ambitious targets for freshwater habitat creation. We have also involved the local community through a variety of engaging and educational activities including volunteer sessions to create new ponds and other habitats, delivering educational school sessions, running pop-up events and much more. The project has engaged with a total of 2,548 people from the local community who will benefit from the fantastic new habitats created in the area, and who now have the knowledge and skills to continue improving their local green spaces.
Cowdenbeath Wetland, despite its name, was no longer functioning as a wetland due to late succession. The few remaining ponds on site were heavily vegetated and unable to hold water. To restore this site to wetland status, we created 83 new ponds, and restored 10 existing ponds at the site. One of the existing ponds was home to Common Frogs, Common Toads and Palmate Newts, with evidence of Common Toads using the pond to breed. Unfortunately, the site was heavily vegetated and there was little open water, making it very limited in its capacity to accommodate breeding amphibians and other wildlife. We removed the excess vegetation, creating open water for amphibians to breed successfully. This is particularly important for newts, as the males require open water to perform courtship displays to attract a mate in the breeding season.
Our second site, Swans Pond, consisted of one very large open body of water which lacked biodiversity. The pond was also well-used by a variety of waterfowl, which typically degrades the water quality, making it unsuitable for amphibians. We have created 32 new ponds on this site to provide more suitable breeding habitat for existing amphibian populations, and to support increased biodiversity at the site, and we intend to make a few more ponds here before the project ends in January. Several of these ponds were hand dug by our wonderful, dedicated volunteers from the local community who will be able to enjoy the benefits of these ponds in the future.
Many species depend on freshwater habitats, but there is a serious lack of high-quality ponds and wetlands in the UK. Restoring these habitats is straightforward, we need to create lots of new, high-quality ponds. All new ponds are valuable, from small garden ponds up to large-scale wetlands. We need to be creating a variety of freshwater habitats of varying shapes and sizes to deliver the best outcome for biodiversity. While restoring existing ponds is also useful, it is always better to create a new pond instead if this is possible, as this will achieve the greatest impact. Froglife has made this easy to do by providing a free guide, Just Add Water, which takes you through the steps of how to create your own pond! Just follow this link: Just-Add-Water-7th-Edition.pdf (froglife.org)
Freshwater ecosystems greatly enhance and support biodiversity and play a key role in tackling climate change. The Fife Living Waters Project has been restoring freshwater habitats through the creation of 115 new ponds and restoring 10 existing ponds across two sites in Cowdenbeath, Fife. To fully protect these essential ecosystems, and the biodiversity that depend on them, we must continue to deliver more freshwater habitat restoration projects like this one. The new Scottish Biodiversity must acknowledge the value of these ecosystems, putting in place ambitious targets for creating new freshwater habitats on a large scale and implementing long-term management of these habitats.
Sheila Gundry, Operations Manager at Froglife
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
Through the Natural Environment Bill and Scottish Biodiversity Strategy we need to ensure that Scotland’s species-rich grasslands are valued and restored. Machair, meadows and species-rich pastures must be protected and managed for their biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services.
Last year Buglife found that the abundance of flying insects in the UK had plummeted by nearly 60% over the last 17 years; highlighting a worrying trend and the crucial need for insect-focussed conservation research, nationwide.
The 2021 Bugs Matter findings, which were published in a report released by Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife (Bugs Matter 2021 Full Technical Report), show that the number of insects sampled on vehicle number plates by citizen scientists across the UK reduced by a staggering 59% between 2004 and 2021. These findings are consistent with research which has widely reported declining trends in insect populations globally.
Insect counts differed across the UK, but there was no positive news for insects in any of our nations. England suffered the greatest decline with 65% fewer insects recorded in 2021 than in 2004. Wales recorded 55% fewer insects, whilst Scotland saw the smallest decline, still with 28% fewer insects in 2021 when compared to 2004 figures.
Inspired by the ‘windscreen phenomenon’ (a term given to the general observation that people are seeing fewer insects squashed on the windscreens of their cars today compared to several decades ago), Bugs Matter enlists the help of the public to monitor the health of the UK’s insect populations.
Insects and other invertebrates are critical to a healthy functioning environment. They pollinate most of the world’s crops, provide natural pest control services, decompose organic matter and recycle nutrients into the soil. Without them, life on earth would collapse.
We need a Scottish Biodiversity Strategy that protects the ecosystems our pollinating insects rely on. These habitats need to be connected and provide a network across which pollinators can move through the landscape. It is essential that we develop a comprehensive grassland database for Scotland to support the development of nature networks. We need to support species-rich grassland restoration, meadow creation and management in agri-environment schemes and support High Nature Value farming.
The Natural Environment Bill needs to legally protect ancient grasslands, hedgerows and field margins. We should encourage intercropping and use this opportunity to legislate to reduce pesticide use and ban certain pesticides eg neonicotinoids which we know are devasting for our wild bees.
As we manage the multiple competing targets within the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and make the changes we need to in order to tackle the climate emergency, we need to ensure we plant the right trees in the right place, avoiding planting on unimproved grassland.
Urban areas can also provide essential homes for pollinating insects, our cities and towns can contribute to Scotlands biodiversity and provide refuges in an otherwise impermeable landscape.
We need to use the Natural Environment Bill and Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to protect and maintain open mosaic habitats in urban areas, reduce light pollution which can negatively impact our insect populations, and increase the extent of blue/green infrastructure- green roofs, green bridges, walls, SUDs, rain gardens etc. We should use the Natural Environment Bill to ban or reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides by local authorities.
The Nature Restoration Fund is already helping many local authorities to make positive changes and they are doing a fantastic job. We need to ensure local authorities are supported and have the right resources, skills and capacity to deliver targets within the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and National Planning Framework 4.
Insects are essential to supporting and maintaining a healthy environment, so when their numbers fall that is an indication that nature is in trouble. Insect numbers can also show where wildlife is recovering, and so can be used to measure how the work supported through the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy is helping nature’s recovery.
Natalie Stevenson, Scotland and Northern Ireland Manager at Buglife
Image: Claire Pumfrey
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
It might seem strange for a plant enthusiast to be crossing their fingers and wishing for a thick layer of snow to cover up the vegetation, but that’s what I always find myself doing around this time of year. All season I’ve been taking every chance to enjoy our rare mountain plants – clambering about on steep slopes or hunting in the headwaters of the springs which bubble out of the rocks.
And it’s been a good season! Scotland is home to some fantastic, beautiful, specialist mountain plants – species which are perfectly adapted to brief, cool summers, and then long, snowy winters. Early in the year, when there was still snow on the high tops, purple saxifrage began to brighten up the crags and cliff faces with its clusters of pink-purple flowers. On a day in late March I found a scatter of these plants on a remote crag in Highland Perthshire. The same day, I watched a golden eagle displaying above the snowfields, and listened to a chorus of frogs in their high moorland ponds – all signs that spring was just around the corner.
Summer was a mixture of sweltering hot days, when I was cooling off on the summit plateaus amongst the trailing azalea and moss campion, and days of driving rain which I spent tramping across soggy hillsides looking for alpine meadow-rue, dwarf cornel, and hairy stonecrop, which stood out like a garish beacon on an otherwise dreary patch of moorland.
Now the plants have all settled down for a long winter sleep, and I’m waiting for snow. Why? Because many of our mountain plants require a thick blanket of snow to keep them insulated from cold winds and frosts. The harsh, snowy conditions also prevent other, commoner plants from moving up onto the mountain tops and out-competing the specialist species.
In a rapidly and chaotically warming world, our mountain plants face an uncertain future. New research by the University of Stirling published this year demonstrated how climate change is causing severe decline in mountain specialists, with one, snow pearlwort, being newly classified as Endangered as a result of this study. And Scottish Environment LINK’s Scotland’s Nature on Red Alert report showed that up to 93% of studied locations could become unsuitable for mountain plant species as average temperatures increase.
So, I might not get my snow. But I’m not losing hope for our mountains. This is because there are things we can do to make our mountains more resilient to a climate which is heating fast. We can reduce grazing pressure, to give mountain plants room to move in response to changing temperatures – too often, our rarest species cling to inaccessible crags, existing as isolated fragments instead of being part of a rich, vibrant, flourishing – and resilient – ecosystem.
We can restore our high-altitude mountain woodlands – a habitat so comprehensively destroyed by the activity of humans that it has virtually slipped from our collective cultural memory. Mountain woodlands offer protection from extreme events, provide habitat for rare plants, and slow down the rate of flooding and soil erosion – as demonstrated by this research by Sarah Watts and Alistair Jump. It’s time to recreate this lost habitat with a renewed urgency.
Our battered old mountains have weathered some storms in their time, and there’s a chance that they’ll weather this one. But only if we collectively decide to help them do so – and take action now, before it’s too late. Then we can all look forward to another season of dazzling technicolour plants fizzing and popping across the rolling mountains and craggy peaks.
To meet the commitments set out in the Scottish Government’s statement of intent on biodiversity, Scotland’s upcoming Natural Environment Bill in 2023 must contain ambitious nature recovery targets. The new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) needs to set out how those targets will be met and must prioritise a programme of species recovery. These actions will help give our mountain plants a future.
Alistair Whyte, Head of Plantlife Scotland
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
The COP15 biodiversity summit will take place in Montreal, Canada 7 – 19 December. The Montreal conference is the latest in a series of international UN biodiversity summits, equivalent to the climate COPs, aimed at conserving and ensuring the sustainable use of global biodiversity.
What is the Convention on Biological Diversity?
COP15 is the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. COPs take place every two years under the CBD. The CBD’s purpose is to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of biological diversity at every level.
At the 2010 talks in Nagoya, Japan, 194 countries (or parties) signed up to a series of 20 targets to be met by 2020. Dubbed the Aichi targets after the region in which Nagoya sits, they were created to address a wide variety of issues in support of global biodiversity. Following the conference, signatories were also required to devise national biodiversity plans to meet the targets. In the UK, biodiversity is a devolved policy issue, and so the devolved governments are responsible for creating and delivering their own action. The Scottish Government plan to publish the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy this month which is to be “the starting point in a process which will lead into the development of rolling delivery plans and, through the introduction of a Natural Environment Bill, statutory nature restoration targets.”
Fast forward a decade to 2020, and the 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook report revealed that these targets were spectacularly missed across the world. Despite world leaders promising a decade of concerted efforts to tackle the inexorable decline of nature, the world collectively failed to meet a single one of the 20 targets. Scotland only met nine of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity targets. This lack of progress and the deepening ecological emergency make it clear that while the last UN decade on biodiversity failed, this coming decade on ecosystem restoration cannot.
What’s the plan for COP15?
As parties prepare to meet in Montreal, initial plans for the new post-2020 biodiversity framework have already been drawn up. The final version will be decided at the conference but is expected to include an agreement to put global biodiversity on the path to recovery by 2030, and a target to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and seas by 2030.
We cannot afford to make the same mistakes and miss these targets a second time. The evidence is clear that continuing nature’s destruction will lead to thousands more extinctions, pose a serious risk to global food insecurity, and increase the likelihood of further pandemics like Covid-19. And as the climate crisis worsens, degraded ecosystems also limit our resilience and ability to adapt to extreme weather events.
What role can Scotland play in influencing the outcome of COP15?
A new international deal for nature must be matched by domestic ambition to bend the curve of biodiversity loss and deliver commitments made under the CBD. Although the UK is a party to the convention and will therefore be expected to deliver on the targets that are agreed, Scotland is responsible for the implementation of international agreements in devolved areas like biodiversity.
The Scottish Government has committed to protect at least 30% of Scotland’s land and seas for nature by 2030, and highly protect 10%. This commitment goes beyond those of the other governments in the UK and aligns with the European Union’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy. LINK also welcomed the Edinburgh Declaration on post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which has called for a collective commitment from subnational Governments, cities, and local authorities to raise ambition for nature’s recovery.
However, whilst these announcements are welcomed, Scotland needs to show that they are serious about tackling the biodiversity crisis by translating these promises into genuine action on the ground. We want to see:
Targets: To meet the ambitious commitments set out in the Scottish Government’s statement of intent, Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy and Natural Environment Bill must contain ambitious and meaningful legally binding targets, and be supported with the resources needed to deliver nature’s recovery.
Programmes of Ecosystem Restoration and Species Recovery: A habitat-focused approach, working to restore specific ecosystem types via dedicated programmes of action, will enable efforts to be targeted to where it is most needed. We need a national programme of species recovery targeted at helping threatened species to recover.
Adequate financing and a framework to track progress: A robust monitoring, enforcement, reporting, and verification system will also be crucial for assessing progress towards targets, and efforts to reach them must be supported by appropriate funding.
Mainstream: Mainstreaming biodiversity delivery across government will be critical to halting and reversing nature loss. Furthermore, integration of an effective biodiversity duty across all government sectors is now urgently needed with appropriate and transparent reporting to enable progress monitoring.
If it can make these things happen, and if it can help inspire the world to treat nature and climate with equal urgency, the nature COP might just be our next big chance to save the planet.
Juliet Caldwell, Advocacy Officer at Scottish Environment LINK
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks COP15 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members and Honorary Fellows who will be highlighting the importance of targeted action in protecting and restoring our precious nature over the course of the conference.
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