NatureScot Business Plan 2025-26

Business Plan 2025-2026 (pdf version)

Introduction

1. There is a nature-climate emergency in Scotland which is why this final year of our 2022 to 2026 Corporate Plan is so important as we plan for the next 5 years. This plan sets a pathway for working across boundaries and appealing to people across Scotland and internationally to take action today to restore biodiversity and ensure the health of the planet for future generations.
2. One of our guiding principles is to work collaboratively with the Scottish Government and partner agencies so in November 2024, we were delighted that the Scottish Government launched the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) and a six-year Delivery Plan which includes 130 actions, of which we lead 62 and support 33.
3. It is vital that the SBS gets off to the best possible start. This business plan for 2025-26 reflects that and sets out four foundation blocks which are essential for success. Whilst our action on the ground encompasses a broader range of activity, these four areas provide focus and depth to our work:

• Drive nature positive change in agricultural practice, land use and the marine environment
• Achieve our 30x30 commitment to safeguard 30% of our land and sea by 2030
• Increase public and private sector investment in nature and ensure good development
• Promote nature positive land and wildlife management through strengthened regulation

Our Context

4. The Scottish Government has been clear on its top four priorities, eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency and reforming public services. Our work is vital in support of these priorities across all of Scotland, guided by a number of underpinning strategies. These strategies need to reinforce each other if nature is to recover and be resilient in Scotland and we are to achieve Net Zero by 2045. These include Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation and the Infrastructure Investment Plan, a Climate Change Strategy, an Environment Strategy and a National Adaptation Plan, the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, an evolving framework for marine management and a Vision for Agriculture.
5. Action to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change requires a healthy and recovering natural environment. The Vision for Agriculture looks to nature to enable regenerative agriculture and build long term resilience in the sector. Marine protection offshore is a process that will support biodiversity whilst balancing the needs of fishermen, communities and tourism. Increasing the deployment of private finance to deliver public good and to provide returns to investors is firmly in the Scottish Government’s sights.
6. Scotland is a global leader in tackling climate change and addressing biodiversity loss. We are ambitious to continue to make the nature- based case for tackling climate change and local inequality. We will seek opportunities to share internationally the lessons learned from Scotland’s approach to addressing loss and damage and to learn from others. Proactively, we aim to showcase Scotland’s expertise in the clean energy transition and capitalise on our potential as a location for low carbon investment whilst demonstrating our responsiveness to support the nation’s transition towards Net Zero.

Key Trends

7. There are two key trends that are building momentum. Firstly, increasing interest in nature and the pressure it faces, and as a result, clamour for change. Secondly, concerns about the impact of action for nature recovery on the livelihoods of people working in sectors vulnerable to change. Whilst the benefits for the environment are felt generally, the impacts can be narrow. The ensuing tension plays out in social media, mainstream media and politics. We have to engage with all sections of society, including business, to listen to concerns and discuss the positive role of nature.

Our Values and Partnership Working

8. Our passion for nature, our scientific expertise, and our enthusiasm for collaboration places us at the heart of partnership working involving people and organisations interested in nature recovery based on good evidence. Our leadership in this space is powerful and successful when a shared approach is adopted.

Our “Must Do’s”

9. We are moving to a structure that focuses on a refined number of foundation blocks and key actions as a pathway to a new Corporate Plan. As a matter of urgency, we must focus our time and resources on making transformational changes which help support resilient, healthy ecosystems.
10. Many of our resources are dedicated to delivery of statutory functions defined by legislation. Some of these are essential components of Scotland’s planning framework and we expect statutory consultations to rise at an increasing rate with onshore and offshore developments over the next few years. We will work with developers to direct mitigation and compensation towards restoring nature. We have also made significant improvements in our licensing procedures that protect vulnerable species and habitats, and ongoing efficiency improvements will enable us to deliver new regulations.

Building on 2024-25

11. As well as the SBS, we saw the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 and the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 come into force. Both Acts legislate for the changes needed for a prosperous, resilient nature rich future. The recently introduced Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill aims to support the protection and restoration of Scotland’s natural environment, and to assist the delivery of the Scottish Government’s net zero and biodiversity objectives. At sea, the Scottish Government is working towards enhanced management measures of marine protected areas and priority marine features, which we will support.
12. In the summer of 2024, the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland was accredited as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in recognition of the global importance of its carbon and wildlife rich peat bogs. Our action on peat will accelerate the restoration we have enabled in recent years.
13. With tight public finances, national priorities and global pressures, the value of nature positive action faces significant scrutiny. The public look to the Scottish Government and its Agencies to drive nature recovery sustainably and give communities and businesses the confidence to act positively for nature whilst adapting to the reality of a changing climate.
14. We will continue to distribute significant funds to achieve nature positive activity. These include peatland restoration, nature recovery on land and sea, enhancement by farmers, and developing blended finance models.

Our Transformation

15. The NatureScot Way is our approach to seeing change as an opportunity for colleagues to adopt new ways of working, supported by evidence, to achieve our priorities. Activity will continue to focus on our existing three pillars of: Leadership, New Ways of Working and a Happy and Resilient Workforce.
16. The emphasis is on organisational transformation, with a high priority on evolving our digital services, driving efficiency and strengthening our approach to strategic resource and workforce planning alongside future skills development.
17. To secure improved across the public sector and value for money, the Scottish Government continues to promote public service reform. We will continue to deliver strongly on this work focusing on digital development, estate rationalisation and models for stronger collaboration.
18. This Business Plan sets out what matters, and our priorities for 2025 and 2026. There is much activity not captured here which is vital to our mission, including our ongoing liaison with communities, outdoor access, informing work on statutory targets, Scottish Biodiversity Strategy monitoring and support for the Natural Environment Bill provisions. Our work on National Nature Reserves inspires new connections with nature, demonstrating leadership in nature restoration and recovery.

The NatureScot Way 

The NatureScot Way describes our corporate culture, our values and how we act towards each other - it’s the way we do things. We want NatureScot to have a fantastic reputation, not just for what we deliver, but also for the way we work to Protect, Restore and Value nature.

Additional Performance Metrics

Our success is measured through a suite of key performance indicators which, together with the milestones, provide evidence of our our impact on delivery of our corporate plan outcomes. These have been assessed against our objective and can be cross cutting, evidencing the improvements we seek to make in a number of areas. The key performance indicators are aligned with our corporate plan themes of Protect, Restore, Value and NatureScot Way. 

Our Resources

Our funding comprises our Grant-in-Aid of £65.958m plus depreciation. Our balance of time and project spend is presented overleaf. As with previous years, our funding is augmented with additional in year budget revisions which support our ongoing mission to protect, restore and value nature.

Our budget

Our total Grant-in-Aid from Scottish Government for 2025/26 is £68.153m.

Resourcing Our Plan

Each year we set out to deliver the priorities set out in our Corporate Plan. To do this our resources are allocated through the activities we undertake. These activities provide the conduit for flexible working across the organisation. The tables below show the start-of-year budget and resource allocation by these activities for 2025/26. 

We will retain flexibility throughout the year to deploy extra funds that become available through our efficiency programme and re-prioritisation that we undertake as part of our 90 day business planning process which allows us that flexibility to support our 4 key priority areas.