Guidance Note - Biodiversity Duty Explained

Under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, public bodies in Scotland have a duty to further the conservation of biodiversity when carrying out their responsibilities. Every public body in Scotland is also required to produce a publicly available report, on compliance with the Biodiversity Duty.

This guidance provides advice on what actions public bodies could take and how to report on them. It includes links to reporting templates as well as information on how reporting on your Biodiversity Duty contributes to national and international targets.

Published: 2020
Revised: 2023

Contents

• What is the Biodiversity Duty?
• Why is biodiversity important to public bodies in Scotland?
• How you are contributing to national and international targets
• What do public bodies need to do?
• Selecting a reporting template
• Illustrative examples of biodiversity actions

Biodiversity is the web of life. It is the variety of all living things and the ecosystems where they live (on land or in water). It comprises the living organisms in a particular space, whether in a window-box, garden, park, meadow, peatland, river, loch, estuary, ocean, beach or mountain top. It has enormous value in its own right but is also central to our survival as a species. Our economy, jobs, health and wellbeing depend on it. 

The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 places a statutory duty on all public bodies in Scotland to further the conservation of biodiversity. Section 1 of the Act states:

“It is the duty of every public body and office holder, in exercising any functions, to further the conservation of biodiversity so far as it is consistent with the proper exercise of those functions”.

The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 introduced a requirement for all public bodies in Scotland to make a report publicly available on their compliance with the biodiversity duty. Biodiversity duty reports are required every three years.

The Biodiversity duty is not only about protecting biodiversity through managing specific sites, habitats and species. It also aims to:

• Increase the level of understanding and connection between people and the living environment;
• Promote consideration of all our impacts on the natural world through our actions and decisions, including through procurement and use of resources; and,
• Encourage staff, partners and customers to engage with, understand and consider biodiversity.

Biodiversity is fundamental to the living networks (the ecosystems) that provide us all with a healthy environment and a regulated climate.

Biodiversity provides many vital services that enrich our lives and that we depend on. Biodiversity underpins much of our food and drink production through maintaining healthy soils and pollination, it captures carbon and helps to clean and cool the air, it protects us against flooding and it regulates our supply of fresh water.

Human activity is causing biodiversity to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate and these losses can be irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life systems we all rely on.

Biodiversity loss and the climate emergency are intimately linked. Climate change increases the pressure on biodiversity while the living world provides us with nature-based solutions to climate change and to a wide range of associated socio-economic outcomes in rural and urban areas alike.

Many organisations, even those that don’t manage or regulate the use of land, rely on healthy biodiversity to provide them with goods and services that are essential to their operations and to the wellbeing of their staff, customers and users.

The public sector can play a key role in leading by example and it can make a real contribution to Scotland’s efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity and implement our international obligations such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity .

It is likely that most Level One and some Level Two organisations, as described below, will be carrying out a range of activities that contribute directly to Scotland’s national biodiversity targets. While completing sections 1 to 7 of your Biodiversity Duty Report, you may wish to consider your activities in the light of the current Scottish Biodiversity Strategy* and the draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045, which will be going to consultation later this summer.

Every public body is different, but each can contribute to protecting and enhancing biodiversity and in raising public awareness in some way.

Below sets out guidance for selecting a template to assist in compiling your Biodiversity Duty report. The templates guide you on what, and how much, information is needed in your report. Illustrative examples are also provided below, showing how public bodies have delivered against their Biodiversity Duty and how you might report on it. Finally, links are provided to the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to assist your consideration of how your activities contribute to its delivery.

If you have any questions, or require further assistance in completing your report, please contact the Scottish Government at: [email protected].

Answering yes or no to the following questions, will indicate which of the reporting templates is best for your public body. These templates are proportionate to the likely level of information that you may wish to provide, dependent upon your organisation’s role and remit. These templates incorporate the key elements on which you may wish to report. They are not an exhaustive and it is likely that there will be a range of additional work that your organisation has carried out in support of biodiversity on which you may also wish to report.

Question 1: Does your public body own or manage land, regulate land use, or is one of your main responsibilities linked to biodiversity?

If yes, your public body has the opportunity to implement a wide range of activities for biodiversity. To report, consider using the Level One Template.

If no, move onto question two.

Question 2: Do you work to inform or engage directly or indirectly with communities, young people or the public?

If yes, your public body has the opportunity to implement a moderate range of activities for biodiversity. To report, consider using the Level Two template.

If no, your public body has the opportunity to implement a smaller set of activities for biodiversity. To report consider using the Level Three Template.

Illustrative examples of biodiversity actions

Previously submitted Biodiversity Duty Reports are available on the NatureScot website. The table below provides high level, illustrative examples of actions that were reported for the 2015 – 2017 period, aligned to the new reporting template sections and the likely level at which those actions would form a key part of your report.

Level 1

Section 2: Actions to protect biodiversity and connect people with nature

• (SEPA) In early 2016, on behalf of the Non-Native Species Habitat Lead organisations, SEPA launched a Non-Native Species reporting portal on Scotland’s Environment website. This supports citizen science involvement in reporting Non-Native Species of concern.
• (Loch Lomond and The Trossachs NP) Supported communities to enhance biodiversity in their local area through the National Park Grant Scheme, including through small scale native woodland planting, hedgerow restoration, rhododendron and community-led riparian INNS control, and support for community woodland groups.
• (City of Edinburgh Council) The Edinburgh Living Landscape initiative maintained 72 annual/perennial meadows of naturalised grassland, which accounted for approximately 10% of the Council’s amenity grass estate.

Section 3: Mainstreaming

• (Perth and Kinross Council) The Biodiversity Officer advises on how to protect and enhance wildlife across a range of Council services including Architects, Property, Housing, Education, Community Greenspace and Development Management.  The officer also screens Planning Applications for any potential impacts on biodiversity.
• (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) RBGE’s Environmental Management System ensures that operations are aligned to conserve biodiversity and promote sustainability. It is overseen by five Working Groups: Biodiversity, Procurement, Transport, Utilities, and Waste.
• (City of Edinburgh Council) The Council is the lead body for the Edinburgh Biodiversity Partnership, one of the first in Scotland and in place for 20 years. The Council employs a Biodiversity Officer to facilitate and Edinburgh Biodiversity Action Plan. Councillors oversee its production and delivery and oversee accountability through the committee process.

Section 4: Nature-Based Solutions, Climate Change and Biodiversity

• (SEPA) During 2017, SEPA Water Regulation and Ecology specialists worked with SNH to update its guidance to facilitate peatland restoration.
• (NHS Lanarkshire) NHS Lanarkshire ran a social prescribing programme ‘Gardening for Health’ (GFH) providing patients with mental health issues a programme of therapeutic horticulture and green activities which can contribute to their recovery programme and improve self-management of long-term conditions.

Section 5: Public Engagement and Workforce Development

• (East Lothian Council) Biodiversity was taught as part of the school curriculum. The Ranger Service supplements this formal education through visits to the classroom and by acting as ‘specialists in their field’, facilitating educational trips to the countryside.
• (Loch Lomond and The Trossachs NP) Created many online resources that are available to increase understanding of conservation priorities, whilst supporting the experiences and outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence.
• (Edinburgh Council) Has a network of 54 Friends of Parks groups, supported by Parks, Greenspace and Cemeteries staff, comprising volunteers who work closely with the Council and play a key role in enhancing and protecting local parks, woodlands and green spaces.

Section 6: Research and Monitoring

• (Aberdeen Council) the Council provided continued to support to the North East Scotland Biological Records Centre (NESBReC) ensuring that data were up-to-date and reliable. In return, NESBReC continued to provide information to assist the Council in making decisions on nature conservation and land use, and in contributing to biodiversity action plans.
• (Orkney Islands Council) As part of long-term monitoring, Rocky shore Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change surveys were conducted in a total of fourteen sites covering both the Mainland and North Isles of Orkney, along with a variety of marine non-native species surveys.

Level 2

Section 2: Actions to protect biodiversity and connect people with nature

• (Visit Scotland) VisitScotland incorporated sustainability actions into its Quality Assurance programme, to encourage and support circa 3000 Quality Assured tourism businesses a year to undertake sustainability actions, including supporting biodiversity, increase resource efficiency, and reducing waste.

Section 3: Mainstreaming

• (CalMac) During 2017, CalMac developed an Ecology Management Plan, and associated Biodiversity Action Plan (2017-2020), which highlights the current understanding of biodiversity at managed sites and identified potential positive and negative impacts on biodiversity.
• (Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd) In 2017 HIAL developed their Environmental Policy which adopts an Environmental Management System (EMS) to drive continuous environmental improvement at its airports including protecting natural heritage, promoting and supporting biodiversity, including threatened and endangered species where present.
• (VisitScotland) One of the key objectives in the organisation’s Sustainability Policy is to protect and enhance Scotland’s natural and cultural heritage.  It includes actions to support protecting and enhancing national assets and protected areas by working in partnership with relevant agencies, by promoting Scotland’s natural and cultural heritage to visitors, and by encouraging businesses to do the same.

Section 4: Nature-Based Solutions, Climate Change and Biodiversity

• (Scottish Enterprise) At one of their sites, Scottish Enterprise installed a water feature that not only provides attenuation of surface water through Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) but is also planted with oxygenating plants and shrubs which provide a nesting/resting place for local birds and other biodiversity.

Section 5: Public Engagement and Workforce Development

• (National Museums Scotland) The National Museum of Scotland offered ‘Animal Adaptations’ workshops for primary and secondary classes as part of the core schools programme. This involved handling animal specimens to determine which environment the animal had adapted to survive within.

Section 6: Research and Monitoring

• (National Museums Scotland) NMS undertake monitoring on fragile habitats, such as saline lagoons in Uist, and changing distributions of montane insects. The Museum is the national repository for natural history collections and makes the collections available to support monitoring of Scotland’s and international biodiversity.

Level 3

Section 2: Actions to protect biodiversity and connect people with nature

• (Scottish Road Works Commissioner) Encouraged replanting of verges after works and encouraged stakeholders to consider biodiversity when undertaking road works and vegetation maintenance.
• (Scottish Enterprise) The SE Dumfries office piloted some biodiversity projects including planters in the office garden areas and commissioned the building of bird boxes made from local sustainable materials for office garden areas.
• (Scottish Housing Regulator) Ten staff spent a day volunteering to increase biodiversity in Mugdock Country Park. The group dug out new ponds, and cut and moved rhododendron trees in the park. This was a successful initiative which was also promoted via social media and online articles.

Section 3: Mainstreaming

• (Scottish Information Commissioner) Has integrated biodiversity into its Environmental Policy by including an aim to “continually improve our environmental performance and to protect the environment by reducing pollution and resource consumption, and to operate in a manner that supports and encourages the natural diversity of plant and animal life”.
• (Scottish Funding Council) Has embedded sustainability into the tendering of procurement contracts by awarding 5% of the evaluation scoring for corporate and social responsibility aims.

Section 4: Nature-Based Solutions, Climate Change and Biodiversity

• (Suggested example) Green walls, such as green screen fencing made from a simple metal wire frames with ivy and other trailing species which is being piloted by the University of Glasgow, can provide an alternative to conventional wooden or metal infrastructure in which the vegetation intercepts and absorbs rainwater, slowing runoff and reducing risk of flooding, while capturing air pollution and providing habitat for wildlife.
• (Suggested example) Small natural raingardens are designed to use vegetation to slow down rainwater and stop it getting to the sewers from the increasingly impermeable surfaces in urban areas. They help to reduce flooding and protect our rivers from combined sewer overflows. They all help improve air and water quality, provide beautiful places for people to enjoy, and they benefit wildlife.

Section 5: Public Engagement and Workforce Development

• (Scottish Social Services Council) The Council encouraged staff teams to participate in away-days. These involved outdoor activities with a positive impact on biodiversity conservation, such as native tree planting or litter picks.
• (Scottish Housing Regulator) Set up a biodiversity working group to develop ideas to help learn more about biodiversity and conservation, and to consider how to make a practical difference.
• (Scottish Housing Regulator) Have raised staff awareness of the importance of biodiversity by using the staff Intranet to highlight the importance of biodiversity, signpost staff to schemes promoting quick wins and home composting, and share practical examples showing the benefits of growing vegetables at home.

Section 6: Research and Monitoring

• (Suggested example) Encouraging staff to take part in Citizen Science activities around the workplace, home or beyond can be a useful way to help the environment, contribute to biodiversity recording while broadening public understanding, enjoyment and involvement with nature.