May 19th, 2021 by vhairiScottish Environment LINK welcomes the appointment of the First Minister’s new cabinet today. At the start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the cabinet must focus on addressing the nature and climate emergency and meeting international targets. Government action over the next five years will be essential if Scotland is to achieve its ambitious 2030 climate target and to put in place robust measures to reverse declines in nature.
With crucial international climate talks taking place at COP26 in Glasgow and biodiversity talks at COP15 in China, at a time when 1 in 9 species is at risk of extinction in Scotland, the new Scottish Government must place tackling the nature and climate emergency top of its priorities for government.This includes embedding action to reverse declines in nature and reduce carbon emissions across all ministerial portfolios. It must also include rebalancing our unsustainable consumption of natural resources, which jeopardises our food security and weakens the basis of our economy. LINK members welcome the creation of the posts of Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Climate and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands. These two posts will need to work closely together to drive coordination across government to meet climate and nature targets. LINK also believes that the appointment of a Minister for Nature will be needed to help support these two critical portfolios.
The new Cabinet Secretaries Michael Matheson and Mairi Gougeon will be crucial to efforts to deliver nature restoration to meet expected international biodiversity targets, with both the EU Commission and UK Government expected to set their own nature recovery targets later this year. Mr Matheson and Ms Gougeon will also have a leading role in delivering nature-based solutions to climate change, including restoring Scotland’s peatlands, driving an expansion of native woodland and creating a Scottish Nature Network. They will also need to put Scotland’s agricultural sector on track to meet net zero climate targets, reducing emissions that have remained static since 2008, and to reverse the continuing decline of biodiversity through support for nature-friendly farming.
The appointment of the new Scottish cabinet team is a welcome step to giving the nature and climate emergency the priority needed to drive ambitious changes over the next five years.
NOTES
[1] Details of cabinet appointments are available here: https://www.gov.scot/news/new-cabinet-appointed-1/
This statement has been prepared by LINK’s Deer Group.
We welcome the Scottish Government response to the independent Deer Working Group report. We support all 99 recommendations set out in this document. We encourage the development of a new Deer Act in the next session of the Scottish Parliament to implement about half of recommendations, and the remainder can be implemented now by NatureScot and other stakeholders.
In the absence of natural predators, deer populations have to be managed in a humane way and by humans to control their numbers and reduce public impacts. The population of deer in Scotland is now estimated to be over one million animals and still increasing. This process is about reducing deer populations to sustainable levels and not eliminating deer, which we also value as an important part of the natural heritage.
We will simply not meet Scottish Government priorities of restoring peatlands, and increasing woodland cover through tree planting and natural woodland regeneration, unless deer populations are better managed and reduced to sustainable levels (research advises less than 5 animals per sq km). These habitats are our vital carbon stores important for addressing both climate and nature emergencies. Human impacts from high deer populations such as road traffic accidents and the prevalence of Lyme disease are also increasing and must be addressed.
The current largely voluntary approach to deer management is not working. We need effective and modern systems to manage deer populations in the public interest, focussed on addressing deer impacts, and covering the whole of Scotland.
We need more deer managers not less. Enhanced deer management will create jobs in rural communities.
The urgency of the direction of travel needed is now self-evident. There have been decades of public tensions around deer management in Scotland, and the changes required will be challenging. They will need public investment in both NatureScot support systems and in deer stalking effort. Bringing people together to make these changes happen in ways that respect all aspects of this long running issue will be an important part of the transition now needed.
LINK Deer Group
March 2021
Photo credit: Sandra Graham
Joint press release by ERCS, Friends of the Earth Scotland & Scottish Environment LINK
Environmental groups have welcomed the recommendation to include the human right to a healthy environment in Scots law [1]. The Scottish Government’s National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership published detailed proposals for a new human rights law today and recommend that the new law is brought forward by the new Parliament.
Emilia Hanna, Advocacy Officer for the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, said:
“Everyone in Scotland deserves to live in a safe, clean, and healthy environment, so it is very welcome news that the Scottish Government’s advisers have recommended that this fundamental human right is enshrined in our laws. We call on the new Scottish Parliament to table the Human Rights law this year and are confident that all parties can come together to support this. A human right to a healthy environment is a positive way to tackle the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.”
Mary Church, Head of Campaigns, Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:
“The global repercussions and unequal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the fact that the right to a healthy and safe environment is essential to all other human rights. As we face the unprecedented challenges of climate and nature emergency against a backdrop of growing inequality it is more important than ever that our response is underpinned by robust protection of human rights. The Taskforce’s recommendations are both timely and welcome and we urge Parties to work together to bring forward this vital legislation in the first weeks of the new parliamentary session.”
Dr. Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“The National Taskforce’s recommendation is a very welcome and important step forward. However, we have a lot to do if both the substantial and procedural elements of our human right to a healthy environment are to be effective and fulfilled in Scotland. In delivering on this right, the Scottish Government needs to take significant and direction changing steps on protecting and restoring Scotland’s nature to fulfil this generation’s and protect future generation’s right to a healthy environment by tackling the global nature and climate crises.”
Amid a nature and climate crisis, and with 76% of Scots becoming more aware of nature’s importance during lockdown [2], environmental organisations stress the paramount importance of introducing a human right to a healthy environment.
LINK members believe the introduction of a human right to a healthy environment offers new opportunities to support citizens demanding improvements to their local environment and urging politicians to take action on the climate and nature crisis.
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[1] National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership Report was published on 12 March 2021: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/independent-report/2021/03/national-taskforce-human-rights-leadership-report/documents/national-taskforce-human-rights-leadership-report/national-taskforce-human-rights-leadership-report/govscot%3Adocument/national-taskforce-human-rights-leadership-report.pdf.
[2] Scottish Environment LINK Poll, Aug 2020: ‘Most people living in Scotland want a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic’ https://www.scotlink.org/most-people-living-in-scotland-want-a-green-recovery-from-the-covid-19-pandemic/.
[3] Link to Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland’s Blog on why we need a Human Right to a Healthy Environment, Feb 2021: https://www.ercs.scot/campaigns/why-scotland-needs-a-human-right-to-a-healthy-environment/.
[4] Link to Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland & Scottish Environment LINK Briefing on a Human Right to a Healthy Environment, Feb 2021: https://www.ercs.scot/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/HumanRightHealthEnvironment_BriefingSummaryforMSPs_Feb21.pdf.
[5] The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) exists to assist members of the public and civil society to understand and exercise their rights in environmental law and to protect the environment: www.ercs.scot.
[6] Friends of the Earth Scotland is:
* Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 75 national member groups, and 5,000 local activist groups.: www.foe.scot.
[7] Scottish Environment LINK is the forum for Scotland’s voluntary environment community, with 40 member bodies representing a broad spectrum of environmental interests with the common goal of contributing to a more environmentally sustainable society: https://www.scotlink.org/.
Scottish Environment LINK welcomes additional funding for nature announced as part of today’s (8 March) Scottish budget deal. An additional £10m funding for biodiversity towards a new scheme supporting a wide range of projects to restore Scotland’s nature, protect our wildlife and address the causes of the nature and climate emergency is welcome. We hope this is the start of an ongoing and longer-term commitment to funding work to restore nature in Scotland.
The budget deal, agreed between the Scottish Government and Scottish Green MSPs, also secures an additional £5 million of funding to support farmers and land managers to adopt nature and climate-friendly farming practices.
Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, said: “At a time when Scotland needs to kickstart a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, today’s announcement of additional funding to support nature in the next 12 months is very welcome. The funding will support additional projects to restore Scotland’s nature and landscapes and Scotland’s environmental charities are ready to play their part to reverse the nature and climate emergency while creating opportunities for skills training and employment. The increase in funding for nature-friendly farming is welcome at a time when we know emissions from agriculture and the negative impact on biodiversity needs to reduce. However in order to fully address the impacts of nature loss and climate change a substantially revised funding settlement with climate and nature at its heart is needed for farming in future years.”
Notes
Details of the budget deal are available at: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/correspondence/2021/03/correspondence-between-scottish-government-and-scottish-greens-on-support-for-budget-2020-21/documents/scottish-government-letter-outlining-details-of-the-agreement-with-the-scottish-greens-to-support-the-scottish-budget-2021-22/scottish-government-letter-outlining-details-of-the-agreement-with-the-scottish-greens-to-support-the-scottish-budget-2021-22/govscot%3Adocument/Letter%2Bfrom%2BCabinet%2BSecretary%2Bfor%2BFinance.pdf
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.”
“Conservation is not a luxury, an optional extra we can afford when the economy picks up, but a vital necessity if our species are to have a long-term future.” Prof. Aubrey Manning, 1997
Scotland’s nature and natural landscapes are rich and diverse. While this diversity and richness is celebrated, all is not well. Scotland’s wildlife has declined considerably over the years and remains in danger. This is important to us all: at the most basic level, biodiversity is important because we all depend on it for our existence.
The importance of nature and the value it provides to us all through food, building materials, clean air and water, for example, is why protecting nature and restoring it for future generations is so important. As Environment Secretary, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, said, on 14 December 2020: “Dealing with the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss is one of the most important challenges of this generation.… As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, nature-based solutions such as woodland creation, peatland restoration, urban green infrastructure, regeneration, and a great range of sustainable enterprises will not only help the environment but create jobs helping us build a greener, more inclusive economy.”
On 24 February 2021, Scottish Environment LINK publishes Still Delivering the Goods, which shows what Scotland’s environmental charities are doing to help. The 15 case studies in this report show the action that is being taken, and planned, for nature, for employment and skills training and for climate. These case studies, including completed, ongoing and planned future projects all demonstrate that Scotland’s environmental charities stand ready to increase delivery for and on behalf of Scotland’s people.
Despite the successes, however, this review also highlights several challenges, especially the difficulties associated with raising funds for such work. It further reveals the enormous reliance, by Government and public bodies, on the charities’ members and donors, and charitable funds they can access, to achieve their public policy goals.
The targets the world needs to meet on climate and biodiversity are steep, even in Scotland. We need to invest as a country in more and larger projects of the type illustrated in this report. Together, with investment of resources and human energy, progress towards the climate and nature emergencies can be made. With supportive policy mechanisms, and targets for nature as well as climate that focus effort, more of us can work together to achieve the scale of change needed.
This report and these 15 case studies show how Scotland’s environmental charities and civic society offer a key to success through their sustained action on the ground, working together at scale and over time.
Find the report here.
Scotland’s new National Planning Framework (NPF4) needs to take us to net-zero and support nature’s recovery – but transformative change is lacking in the Scottish Government’s Position Statement
Scottish Environment LINK members are calling on the Scottish Government to develop a NPF4 that truly delivers the transformative change needed for Scotland to secure its role as a global-north climate leader ahead of COP26 in Glasgow and successfully contribute to a post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
LINK members have submitted a response to the Scottish Government’s Interim Consultation on the NPF4 Position Statement. The environment organisations welcome many of the positive signals in the Statement. However, the organisations are asking that these are accompanied by measures to ensure that the Plan can enable sustainable development and prevent those developments which are not consistent with the Government’s Climate Change Plan and aspirations for the next Biodiversity Strategy. We need a binding framework to address the twin challenges of nature loss and climate change and cannot rely on piecemeal amendments to business as usual.
The NPF4 will take Scotland through to 2050. As such, Scottish Environment LINK members are conscious that it needs to deliver on Scotland’s ambitious target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 as well as supporting nature’s recovery by reversing biodiversity declines. When COP26 comes to Glasgow in November, the eyes of the world will be on Scotland as host destination and its action on climate and nature will be under scrutiny. The NPF4 will lay foundational building blocks in Scotland’s efforts towards tackling the twin crisis of nature loss and climate change; Scotland’s leading environment organizations believe it needs much greater ambition if it is to build on Scotland emission reduction targets and enable developments that deliver positive outcomes for nature. The LINK response to the consultation stress that ecosystem and biodiversity values must be incorporated into the planning system. In a year where the world is coming together to agree on a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, Scotland needs to significantly strengthen its environmental policies if it is to secure its role as a global-north leader.
Convener of the Scottish Environment LINK Planning Group, Clare Symonds, said:
“The Scottish Environment LINK community, which represent 40 of Scotland’s leading environmental organisations, have worked together to provide a comprehensive response to the Government’s consultation. We do this because we collectively recognise that this is an opportunity we simply cannot afford to miss. The NPF4 is an influential and wide-ranging plan, which has the potential to make a significant contribution to a better, greener Scotland. The Government has ambitious intentions, however unless there are fundamental changes to the way we approach planning, prioritise nature and limit developments which impact negatively on our planet, we will not achieve the necessary changes to overcome the serious challenges of the climate and nature emergencies.”
Bruce Wilson, Natural Capital Projects Manager at Scottish Wildlife trust, said:
“We are in a climate and nature crisis, and for the NPF4 to meet the scale of the challenge it must commit to applying a strategic approach to delivering nature-based solutions. Adoption of a Scottish Nature Network is the way to do this and holistically tackling the intertwined nature and climate crisis. This will deliver a whole host of other positive outcomes for our society and economy”.
Diarmid Hearns, Head of Public Policy at the National Trust for Scotland, said:
“The new National Planning Framework will determine what kind of Scotland we live in. We would like to see an ambitious framework that conserves our natural and cultural heritage, that supports the enjoyment of our heritage by residents and visitors, and that moves us to being environmentally sustainable. This opportunity will only come once, and we need to make the most of it.”
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election must place policies for nature and climate at its heart.
Environmental charities in Scotland have launched a call for the next Scottish Government to prioritise actions to tackle the nature and climate emergency ahead of Holyrood elections in May.
Scottish Environment LINK, a network of Scotland’s leading environmental charities, has published a new Manifesto for Nature and Climate setting out key steps that can be taken over the course of the next Scottish Parliament to secure Scotland’s role as a leader on climate change policy and kickstart nature’s recovery.
At a time when dramatic and widescale loss in wildlife and habitats is happening around the world, and in Scotland, and is exacerbated by climate change, Scotland’s decision makers must take bold action. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fundamental importance of treating nature with respect and its role in sustaining our wellbeing during difficult times. The LINK manifesto for a transformational green recovery from the pandemic, where investing in nature is part of the solution and where people’s wellbeing is improved while sustaining our environment for future generations.
Deborah Long, Chief Officer, said:
“We’re pleased to be launching Scottish Environment LINK’s manifesto at a critical moment for nature and climate. There is an urgent need for action on and investment in the nature and climate emergency – Scotland’s green recovery needs to centre on protecting and promoting a healthy and resilient environment. If we fail to put Scotland on track to an environmentally sustainable society, not only will today’s generation continue to lose out but future generations will not forgive us for choosing short-term economic fixes over long-term wellbeing.”
Priorities in the manifesto
The manifesto sets out 12 priorities that should be taken forward by the next Scottish Government to kickstart action to address the interlinked nature and climate emergency. The next government and parliament need to take us hallway to meeting Scotland’s ambitious 2030 climate target, as well as take effective steps to drive nature’s recovery. The next Scottish government must commit to delivering:
1. A Nature Network for Scotland.
2. An Environment Act setting legally binding nature recovery targets.
3. A plan for ocean recovery.
4. Sufficient funding to tackle the nature and climate emergency.
5. Legislation and policies to decarbonise and build a Circular Economy.
6. Future farming policy with nature at its heart.
7. Protections for our peatlands.
8. Regional Land Use Frameworks by 2023.
9. A new Deer (Scotland) Act.
10. At least 50% of all new woodland to be with native species.
11. An end to wildlife crime.
12. Protections for our freshwater habitats and species.
Click here to read the Manifesto for Nature and Climate.
Scottish Environment LINK welcomes the Statement of Intent on Biodiversity, published 14 December, which clearly recognises the importance of addressing the nature crisis at a critical point for our ecosystems. These are encouraging steps: it is vital that the plans to address the nature crisis are matched by ambitious actions and significant investment to deliver them.
As we enter the UN’s Decade of Ecosystem Restoration in 2021, action to reverse biodiversity declines in Scotland has never been more urgent. The State of Nature Scotland 2019 report found that 1 in 9 species are at risk of national extinction, while Covid-19 has brought to the fore the urgent necessity to treat our natural world with respect, highlighting the unequal access to nature across our society.
We welcome the announcement that Scotland will protect 30% of its land and sea for nature by 2030. This aligns Scotland with progress in the EU, and signals ambition to go further, ahead of the global CoP15 summit on biodiversity in autumn 2021. We note that the developing global target includes provision for 10% of land and seas to be ‘strictly protected’; what this means for Scotland will need to be considered and developed. As this commitment is combined with robust and positive management to enable recovery and support to ensure that protected areas deliver transformative positive change for biodiversity, this will be a major positive step.
Projects to restore nature and reverse biodiversity declines can make an important contribution to a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, providing new opportunities for workforce training and skills developing and contributing to the drive for new green jobs. Environmental NGOs are important delivery partners here and the NatureScot commitment to the Species on the Edge project illustrates what can be achieved through such collaboration. LINK partners look forward to close engagement in developing Scotland’s next biodiversity strategy and delivery plan.
LINK members welcome the commitment to explore what more can be done for biodiversity through NPF4. Securing positive effects for biodiversity through our planning system can go a long way to make significant impact on people’s daily lives while strengthening the resilience of ecosystems, for example through a Scottish Nature Network.
Scottish Environment LINK also encourages the development of ambitious and specific new targets for nature recovery to drive future action on biodiversity. The Putting Scotland on a Path to Recovery report sets out how targets are an effective mechanism for focusing policy development and driving measurable change. Developing targets for nature’s recovery can aid the delivery of the ambition set out in the Statement of Intent.
LINK looks forward to working with Ministers and our partners in Scottish Government, helping to deliver the intent in this statement over 2021 and make it a reality through the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. By coming together, we in Scotland can all play an important role in biodiversity restoration and community resilience.
Scottish Environment LINK, a coalition of Scotland’s leading environmental charities, has today welcomed initial improvements to the Scottish Government’s EU Continuity Bill, which delivers crucial post-Brexit environmental protections, including an environment watchdog.
From 1 January 2021, the EU’s world-renowned environmental protections will no longer apply to Scotland. The Scottish Government’s EU Continuity Bill seeks to establish a new environment watchdog to protect Scotland’s nature going forward, but campaigners have warned that major omissions mean the Bill must urgently be strengthened.
MSPs voted for several key amendments to the Bill this week (Tuesday 24 November and Wednesday 25 November) to increase the independence of Scotland’s new environment watchdog, Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS). The legislation now requires members of the watchdog’s Board to have environmental expertise and Ministers have also agreed to discuss further changes that ensure that ESS has sufficient funding, and that this sufficiency is subject to Parliamentary scrutiny ahead of the final vote on legislation in December. These changes will increase the watchdog’s independence from Scottish Ministers, heeding the concerns raised by thousands of supporters of the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign.
MSPs also secured commitments from the Scottish Government to discuss and seek to agree new measures in December to ensure Scotland’s process of maintaining alignment with the EU (the so-called ‘keeping pace’ power) secures high environmental standards. The Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign has said that these new measures will be vital for ensuring that Scotland can be a progressive leader on environment in the future and that there will be no backsliding in protections for nature.
However, Scottish Environment LINK has expressed concern that vital amendments to empower the watchdog to take enforcement action on individual complaints about environmental damage raised by citizens have not received government support. Without these changes to the draft legislation, people in Scotland are at risk of losing access to environmental justice once the UK leaves the EU at the end of 2020.
Vhairi Tollan, Advocacy Manager at Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“As part of our EU membership, Scottish citizens have enjoyed rights to raise complaints about cases of environmental damage and have the EU watchdog investigate and take steps to enforce changes. However, similar powers are not included in the Scottish Government’s proposal for a new Scottish watchdog. Environmental Standards Scotland would be unable to take enforcement action on individual complaints, raising concern that we will lose this crucial means of accessing environmental justice at the end of 2020. At a time when 1 in 9 Scottish species is at risk of extinction in Scotland, key changes to the Continuity Bill must be made ahead of MSPs’ final vote in December to ensure Scotland’s new watchdog is a credible and robust enforcer of environmental protections.”
