Written by Ross Macleod, Head of Policy (Scotland)
The Scottish Government’s Natural Environment Bill was introduced to Holyrood in February 2025 and is aimed at protecting Scotland’s natural environment. Stage 1 debate took place on 30th October, with MSPs broadly accepting the general principles.
The Bill comprises four parts, covering statutory nature recovery targets, powers to modify or restate Environment Impact Assessments and Habitat Regulations, National Parks, and Deer Management.
Review of the Bill was undertaken by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands (RAI) Committee convened by Finlay Carson MSP. GWCT Scotland provided a written evidence response to their consultation and Dr Nick Hesford provided oral evidence to the Committee in May.
Our main engagement with the Bill has been in respect of nature recovery targets. Acknowledging current climate and biodiversity challenges, our chief concern is that whilst statutory designation for recovery places responsibility on Scottish Ministers, the biggest burden for delivery will fall on farmers, keepers, owners and other land managers who, ground up, look after over 70% of Scotland’s land area. We stressed the need to balance implementation of targets with support and guidance to achieve sustainable outcomes. These targets should be blended with incentives that stimulate good practice and evidence-building. Moreover, we emphasised the importance of doing so at landscape-scale to maximise progress, particularly in the light of emerging constraints on public funding.
We note the acknowledgement of Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin, in response to the RAI Committee report on the Bill that Scottish Government needs to ensure that it engages fully “…particularly with those who will play an essential role in helping us deliver our biodiversity ambitions, such as farmers and land managers.” For this to happen, several moving parts require co-ordination. Establishing statutory targets through a Natural Environment Act needs to be supported by complementary design within the Agricultural and Rural Communities Act, intelligent deployment of public funding support (particularly to generate efficient landscape-scale collaboration) and through the careful positioning of nature finance governance to encourage substantial investment in Scotland’s Natural Capital. Both the Natural Environment Bill and the 2024 Agriculture and Rural Communities Act are framework legislation, which means that a considerable amount of detail remains to be thrashed out even after passing into law. At the same time, the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy sets the goal of halting biodiversity loss to be Nature Positive by 2030, and restoring and regenerating Scotland’s land, freshwater and seas by 2045.
Our concern is not with the vision for recovery but the need to complement this clarity by galvanising action from grass roots upwards to move the dial on progress and outcomes. We all play a part in this endeavour, but it will be important for Scottish Government to marry its vision and framework legislation with practical levers for delivery. It will need the engagement of land managers to make rapid progress. GWCT is keen to play its part in this, especially where we can help to convene land management initiatives at landscape-scale for rapid progress.