Register of Interests - NatureScot Board and Committees

The following paragraphs set out the kinds of interests, financial and otherwise which Board Members have to register. These are called “Registerable Interests”. 

For more information, please see the Code of Conduct for Board members of NatureScot.

Colin Galbraith

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT   

  • Chairman, NatureScot
  • Income from property

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Holder of a Schedule 1 bird License to undertake ecological surveys. NatureScot Board rep on JNCC 

CONTRACTS 

  • Colin Galbraith Environment Limited has undertaken contracts for the United Nations, a number of UK government Agencies and the private sector. The work undertaken is ecological research and interpretation in nature. Current work relates to climate change, the ecology of the golden eagle, red kite, red throated diver and the saker falcon 

ELECTION EXPENSES

-         

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS      

  • Property in Edinburgh and Argyll

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES 

  • Director Colin Galbraith Environment Limited

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY    

None

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES)  

  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
  • Appointed Councillor on Climate Change to the UN Convention on Migratory Species. 
  • Honorary Professor at the University of Stirling. 
  • Member of RSPB.
  • Member of the Scottish Ornithological Club.
  • Founder member of the Argyll Bird Club.  

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Jill Robbie

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Professor, University of Glasgow
  • Deputy Chair, NatureScot

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Protected Areas Committee
  • National Park Project Board

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES    

-    

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES)

  • Board Member, Association of Law, Property and Society 
  • Member, University and College Union
  • Chair, Scottish Beaver Advisory  

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

  • Sister, Morwen Mands, is Director of Sustainability at Gleneagles, where there is a SSSI

Margaret Davidson

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Joint ownership of Abriachan Garden & Nursery

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES    

  • Audit and Risk Committee     

CONTRACTS

None

ELECTION EXPENSES     

-   

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

  • Owns a house and land at Abriachan Nursery

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

None

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Board Member – Highland Hospice
  • Board Member – Abriachan Forest Trust
  • Member – National Trust of Scotland
  • Member – Royal Horticultural Society
  • Member – Scotland’ Garden Scheme

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Ian Gambles

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Vice-Chair of the Ernest Cook Trust. The Ernest Cook Trust is a charity supporting outdoor education for disadvantaged children and young people. The Trust has significant land and residential property holdings in England.

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Chair, Audit and Risk Committee

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Honorary Fellow of the James Hutton Institute

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Jaboury Ghazoul

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Professor of Ecosystem Management, ETH Zurich

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES   

  • Scientific Advisory Board: Precious Forest Foundation
  • Science Advisory Board: Open Climate Solutions
  • Science Advisory Board for the IUCN Academy, Protected Areas Committee.
  • Scientific Advisory Committee      

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES      

-  

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

Member of:

  • British Ecological Society
  • Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation
  • Scottish Wildlife Trust
  • Commonwealth Forestry Association
  • Royal Scottish Forestry Society
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Honorary Professor University of Edinburgh
  • Member of the UKRI review college

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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James Harrison

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Professor of Environmental Law, University of Edinburgh
  • Board Member, NatureScot
  • External PhD supervisor, University of the Arctic, Tromsø

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Protected Areas Committee

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES     

-   

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS    

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

  • Non-Executive Director, Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (Company number SC399582) (unremunerated) Secretary, Broughton After-School Club (Company number SC253124) (unremunerated)

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member, John Muir Trust
  • Member, Marine Conservation Society
  • Editorial Board Member, Journal of Environmental Law
  • Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law
  • Editorial Board Member, Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Peter Higgins

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT 

  • Professor of Outdoor and Environmental Education, University of Edinburgh 

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, NatureScot Board rep on JNCC

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES

-        

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS

 -    

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY 

-  

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member of the Board of Trustees of a national environmental education charity - the Field Studies Council
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Association
  • Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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David Johnstone

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

Partner and Owner of Annandale Estates, a family run rural property estate in south-west of Scotland just south of Moffat. This involves rural occupations, farming, forestry, renewables, residential and commercial property, tourism.

This is a full-time occupation.

The estate has a number of projects that are either in planning, or about to be lodged for planning, for which NatureScot may be part of the planning consultee process.  These are

  • Possible access to the Daer and Rivox Windfarm through the estate –.
  • Ongoing re accreditation of Woodland Carbon Credits
  • Exploring the potential for restoration of Peatlands

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Chair, Protected Areas Committee

CONTRACTS

  • Annandale Estates has a contract with NatureScot involved in a management contract to look after and maintain Lochwood Oaks, an area of SSSi through to 2025.

ELECTION EXPENSES     

-   

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

  • As noted in “contracts”; there is a management contract in place between the estate and NatureScot for the management of Lochwood Oaks, which is an SSSi until 2025.

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

  • Director of South Community Housing

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY  

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member of Scottish Land and Estates, and take part in the South West regional Committee along with the Policy group, centred at headquarters in Musselburgh
  • Scottish Land & Estates Deer Advisory Group
  • Chairman of the local Johnstone Centre & Community Development Trust
  • River Annan fishery board
  • River Annan trust - the trust has been successful in a bid for FIRNS 2 funding. 
  • I would like to confirm that none of the pilot projects are on land or the river that I own and manage.
  • Moorland Forum - Chair

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Colin MacPhail

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Self-employed 
  • C A MacPhail Consulting Ltd – Director 
  • 5Agri Ltd – Director 
  • Agri-Ignite Ltd – Director 
  • Safe Worksite – Director 
  • H & E MacPhail (Callachally Farm) – Partner 

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Audit and Risk Committee

CONTRACTS

  • AECS Agri environment schemes
  • Sea Eagle Management Scheme recipient

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

Callachally Farm
Salen
Aros
Isle of Mull
PA72 6JN

Agricultural Support

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

Agricultural and business Consultancy for many Rural businesses and land managers.

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY 

-  

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Highland Cattle Society
  • Blackface Sheep Breeders
  • Chair of NSA Scotland Scotsheep 2024
  • RSABI supporter

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Wayne Powell

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Principal/Chief Executive, Scotland’s Rural Collage (SRUC).  
  • Board Member, NatureScot 
  • SIAG Chair - UK-CGIAR Science Centre

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES   

-      

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS    

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  •  Chair of Interface, part of the business element of Scotland’s Rural Collage (SRUC). 
  • Member - FCDO Research Advisory Group

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

Tina Barsby  - spouse

Employed

G’s Growers Limited ( part time)

Ownership

Director of Tina Barsby Limited, Consultancy, from September 2021.

Trustee/Directorships

Trustee John Innes Foundation 

Trustee Lawes Agricultural Trust

Stretham and Wilburton Community Land Trust

Farm Data Principles

Fenland SOIL 

Also

Chair Advisory Board for Future Biogas

Heather Reid

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT 

  • Self-Employed - Science Education Consultant – Teacher CPD provider and conference facilitator
  • Board Member and Convener – Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

  • Audit and Risk Committee

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Non-Executive Director/Trustee of Dynamic Earth (Science Centre)
  • Member of RSPB
  • Member of The National Trust of Scotland

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Nikki Yoxall

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Pasture For Life- Head of Research. 
  • Self-employed consultant, regenerative agriculture and agroecology. Clients include Auchinhandoch Farm Partnership and Highlands Rewilding Limited. 
  • Royal Agricultural University, external examiner. 
  • University of Gloucestershire– PhD Stipend. 
  • Director of Grampian Graziers Ltd.

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES     

  • Protected Areas Committee, Audit and Risk Committee    

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

  • Property in Aberdeenshire.

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member of NFU Scotland 
  • Member of the Land Workers’ Alliance. 
  • Moredun Institute Regenerative Agriculture Advisory Board 
  • Member of Agriculture Reform and Implementation Oversight Board. 
  • Soil Association Farmer Ambassador 

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Ruth Mitchell

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Employed as group lead for the Biodiversity and Ecosystems group.  A Plant and Soil Ecologist, carrying out ecological research on a variety of topics including impacts of: pollution, habitat management, land use change, climate change, habitat restoration and tree diseases on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This work includes projects funded by NatureScot, DEFRA, JNCC, BBSRC and the Scottish Government through its strategy research programme.

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

-

CONTRACTS

  • Previous contracts from NatureScot awarded to the James Hutton Institute (JHI) and previously supervised PhD students funded by NatureScot

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member of Defra Trees and Woodlands Science Advisory Group
  • Member of the British Ecological Society
  • Member of the Scottish Wildlife Trust
  • Life member of the RSPB
  • Life member of the National Trust
  • Life member of British Trust for Ornithology
  • Member of BSBI
  • Member of Prospect Trade Union

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Neil Metcalfe

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • University of Glasgow – Professor (full time)

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

-

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS    

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

Membership of:

  • British Trust for Ornithology
  • Fisheries Society of the British Isles
  • Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
  • British Ecological Society
  • Butterfly Conservation
  • National Trust for Scotland
  • Scottish Wildlife Trust
  • Historic Scotland
  • Garden Organic
  • University & College Union
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Member of Board of Clyde River Foundation 
  • Member of the John Muir Trust
  • Member of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Dan Haydon

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • Professor of Population Ecology and Epidemiology at the University of Glasgow

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES    

-     

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES)

  • Founding Director of the Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, and currently is Director of the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine within the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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Jane Reid

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT 

  • Professor, University of Aberdeen, UK.
  • Professor, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway. 

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES

-         

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES      

-  

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Director, Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust
  • Member, British Trust for Ornithology
  • Member, National Trust for Scotland
  • Member, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
  • Member, Scottish Ornithologists’ Club
  • Member, Grampian Ringing Group
  • Member, Glasgow Natural History Society
  • Member, British Ecological Society
  • Member, European Society for Evolutionary Biology
  • Collaborator, Scottish Chough Study Group
  • Collaborator, seabird research projects on Isle of May NNR
  • Supervisor of NERC-funded PhD student who is CASE supported by NatureScot
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Fellow of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters
  • Honorary Fellow of the American Ornithological Society

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Marian Scott

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • University of Glasgow, educational institution, full time employment as Professor
  • JNCC, nature conservation committee, non-executive director, advisory capacity (monthly) till May 2022
  • DEFRA SAC from June 1st 2022. (approx. 6 times per year)
  • SCHEER, EU scientific advice committee (approx. 3 times per year) till 2026
  • Member NERC science committee (from Jan 2024) (3 times per year)

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES         

-

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES  

-      

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • Member of the NERC net zero digital infrastructure board
  • Member of the Royal Society partnership grant committee
  • Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Fellow Royal Statistical Society
  • Co chair NERC Digital research infrastructure group
  • Board member of International centre for Mathematical sciences.
  • Fellow of the International Statistics Institute

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

-

Kathy Dale

REMUNERATION /EMPLOYMENT  

  • I do occasional self-employed work as an individual. This ranges from providing ecological training courses, through making grant applications for ecological work, to providing administrative support for a development 

RELATED UNDERTAKINGS/OTHER ROLES       

-  

CONTRACTS

-

ELECTION EXPENSES        

-

HOUSE, LAND AND BUILDINGS     

-

INTEREST IN SHARES AND SECURITIES

-

GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY   

-

NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS (MEMBERSHIPS OF CLUBS/SOCIETIES) 

  • I am the Chair of Tarland Wetlands Group, a sub-group of Tarland Development Group. This group was recently the recipient of a Nature Restoration Fund grant.
  • I undertake voluntary professional work for the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and I am a Fellow of this Institute.

CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS

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