10 Feb 2023
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 […]
09 Feb 2023
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 […]
11 Jan 2023
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 […]
06 Jan 2023
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 […]
15 Dec 2022
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 […]
13 Dec 2022
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 […]
09 Dec 2022
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 […]
08 Dec 2022
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 […]
07 Dec 2022
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 […]
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