2026

With nearly 70% of Scotland’s land used for agriculture, farmers will play a key role in addressing the biodiversity and climate crises. In order to document what habitats are present and their condition, NatureScot has been developing tools to help farmers to quantify their habitats and how they are performing.

Every year when most of our farmland wildlife is hidden away, our scientists are faced with a wall of samples collected over summer to provide deeper insights in to the dynamics of biodiversity in different farming systems. 

The GWCT welcomes the amendment to muirburn legislation as it removes a provision that was not based on scientific evidence. It is our hope that the amended legislation will facilitate carrying out legal muirburn as a conservation tool with vital benefits to blanket-bog management and carbon sequestration.

On Monday 26 January 2026, GWCT Scotland sent an open letter to the Scottish Minister of Agriculture and Connectivity, Jim Fairlie MSP, which sets out our views on muirburn licensing and peatland management in the context of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

Across the globe, thousands of people are quietly helping to shape the future of conservation, not through grand gestures, but by taking part in something simple, powerful and increasingly essential: citizen science. 

2026 sees the GWCT’s Big Farmland Bird Count return to its spiritual home of the Allerton Project, the GWCT’s research and demonstration farm on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, where it was originally launched in 2014.

In order to support Scottish participants taking part, the GWCT will be running two free bird ID sessions. These workshops will provide you with the skills required to identify birds you may encounter during the count and how to record them, and will be followed by a short walk to practice your new skills.

In the latest episode of the Countryslide podcast the GWCT's Dr Alastair Leake and director of Schöffel Country Marcus Janssen joined Richard Prideaux and Callum McInerney-Riley to discuss the launch of the 2026 Schöffel Countryside Awards in partnership with the GWCT. 

The National Audit Office (NAO) has just released a report on Environmental Regulation which covers the role of Defra, Natural England (NE) and the Environment Agency (EA) in its delivery. 

Having grown up on a smallholding further south in the Pennines, as well as having some prior experience grouse beating, I arrived in Teesdale already with a keen interest in upland landscapes. As such, I feel so privileged to be on a placement which actively conducts research into upland management and enables me to expand my own understanding in so many areas.