Scottish Biodiversity Strategy: Delivery Plan Action 2.1

March 2026

Summary

Following an engagement paper on landscape scale nature restoration in October 2025 and careful consideration by agencies, a set of landscape scale exemplar projects and priorities for agency engagement have now been agreed. This document:

• Sets out the priorities for the year ahead
• Responds to feedback from the engagement process and provides an action plan to address challenges identified
• Sets out the next steps for the delivery of Scottish Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) action 2.1

Catchments, resilience and the climate emergency

Based on feedback to the engagement paper and further work within the agencies, we have strengthened the focus on river catchments and climate adaptation / resilience. In 2025, the urgent need to adapt to climate change became ever more apparent, with unprecedented flooding, wildfires and droughts affecting communities, land managers and businesses across Scotland. 

Nature restoration has an essential role to play in building resilience to climate change (Scottish National Adaptation Plan 3 – action NC2) particularly in the agriculture, drinking water and food and drink sectors. We have taken this into account when identifying the exemplars and priorities set out below. We will work with SEPA to further refine this approach in the development of River Basin Management Plan 4 to ensure agencies are targeting our resources at the locations where we can best help Scotland’s communities and economy adapt to climate change, taking account of the Flood Resilience Strategy and other plans.

River catchments are the most appropriate scale at which to prioritise action to build climate resilience and resolve conflict between competing priorities. We will focus our efforts on finding new ways to scale up delivery in two ‘Pioneer’ catchments, the Dee and South Esk / Angus Glens, helping to deliver Public Service Reform.

Background

NatureScot, working with the Scottish Government, Forestry and Land Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Water and Scottish Forestry, has reviewed and prioritised the existing landscape scale restoration projects across Scotland and identified 9 exemplar projects. These are the priorities for the agencies involved – to steer where we will focus our efforts and resources as agencies in the next financial year. They are not ‘priority landscapes’ – they are a prioritised list of current landscape scale projects in Scotland. 

There are three categories of project, summarised in the diagram below. The “Exemplars” are the highest priority for agencies, followed by “Areas of Focus” and then “Landscape scale projects led by local partners.”

It is important to emphasise that we have prioritised the landscape scale nature restoration projects in terms of agency engagement and resources. These priorities are not intended for, and should not be used by, other funders, stakeholders and investors to determine your own priorities. They are designed to target agency resources alone, helping us to deliver our own corporate outcomes. We encourage those investing in these projects to continue doing so using your own criteria and priorities and we welcome dialogue to help align our approaches to make sure that all landscape scale nature restoration projects in Scotland continue to receive the investment and support required.

We also emphasise that we have been prioritising existing projects through this process, not ‘landscapes’. We recognise that there are gaps across Scotland where landscape scale approaches will be needed in future and we will consider these in 2026/27. We are not suggesting that other landscapes aren’t important or that restoration isn’t needed – we’ve only prioritised the existing projects so far.

The projects listed below sit alongside:

National Parks

National Parks are de facto Areas of Focus. They are defined places where the public sector already works collaboratively to prioritise and focus effort around a set of ambitious targets for nature restoration at landscape scale. National Park Partnership Plans set the framework for all public bodies that work within the National Parks, supported and delivered by a range of private and voluntary organisations. The Park Authorities bring the additional resource, coordination and finance to make things happen on the ground. 

Scotland’s two National Parks are already high profile examples of the nation’s ambitions for collaborative action to deliver nature restoration at a landscape scale. Both have led or helped deliver existing exemplar projects such as Cairngorms Connect and The Great Trossachs Forest, which are already demonstrating the value of a landscape scale approach.

National Nature Reserves

National Nature Reserves also sit within, and have often helped drive forward, landscape scale restoration projects. Those reserves, owned and managed by a range of agencies and NGOs are, like the National Parks, important places where we can demonstrate what the highest standards of nature restoration look like.  Increasingly, National Nature Reserves are also demonstrating what high integrity, responsible private investment looks like to support delivery of the Natural Capital Markets Framework.

Existing case studies

Landscape partnerships, rivers trusts, NGOs and communities across Scotland have been working at landscape scale for many years.  The projects listed below, and the exemplars which we will focus on in the year ahead, sit alongside other examples of landscape scale restoration available on our website. We commend these projects and partnerships for leading the way, and we seek to build on your success.

Other actions in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy

This action is just one of over 100 in the SBS Delivery Plan. This work sits alongside a wide range of other activity including the Nature Restoration Fund, Peatland Action, Species on the Edge and the Scottish Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) plan, for example, all of which are helping to restore nature and tackle climate change. However, by driving landscape scale activity, action 2.1 is an overarching task which brings together a wide range of SBS actions to deliver these on the ground.

Priorities for 2026/27

Exemplars

The purpose of the exemplar projects, which have been confirmed by Ministers, is to demonstrate how collaborative, landscape scale nature restoration can support nature and help us adapt to climate change (see annex 1). We will work together to accelerate and scale up restoration in these areas. 

The agencies will work with local partners to deliver benefits for biodiversity, climate resilience, communities, infrastructure and the economy.  These will be ‘lighthouse’ projects which will demonstrate the benefits of a landscape scale approach. We will scale up public and private investment in these areas, using FIRNS, LENS and other models to attract nature finance. 

We will use existing funding streams and tools to do this. Exemplar projects, and smaller projects within in them, are not guaranteed funding – they still need to meet the criteria in the various public grant schemes.

We have selected a range of exemplar projects which will demonstrate different approaches in different landscapes across Scotland, including: peatland, agricultural, rainforest, coastal and lowland contexts and across a wide range of land tenures.

Within the exemplar projects, two are particularly important: the Dee Catchment and the S Esk / Angus Glens. These ‘pioneer’ catchment projects will test new approaches to delivering Public Service Reform and attracting nature finance at catchment scale. They have a strong focus on resilience, demonstrating how nature restoration can protect communities, businesses and infrastructure from climate change.

Areas of Focus 

These are landscape scale nature restoration projects which are high priority for agency engagement. The engagement of agencies varies depending on the project scope and priorities. The Areas of Focus are not guaranteed funding from agencies and the existing criteria for funding schemes still apply. They are primarily about where we focus our discretionary staff time and effort.

The extent to which the agencies can pivot funding towards both the Exemplars and the Areas of Focus varies from fund to fund. For example, there is some flexibility in the way NatureScot targets the Nature Restoration Fund compared to the specific outcomes that are supported through the Water Environment Fund managed by SEPA.  Similarly, the Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme (SFGS) is already targeted at specific outcomes identified in the Scottish Forest Strategy (the SFGS will be reviewed in due course and until such time the SFGS criteria won’t change). Staff in Scottish Forestry will consider the landscape scale priorities alongside the existing SFGS criteria.

Landscape scale projects led by local partners 

These projects will make an important contribution to the delivery of the SBS (and other plans and strategies) but are of lower priority for agency staff engagement (see Annex 3).    We will continue to fund projects in these areas where they meet the criteria in grant funding schemes and budgets allow. We will continue to fulfil our statutory / regulatory duties for these projects (e.g. consents, advice on protected areas, protected species, licensing etc) – but our proactive engagement will be lower than for the “Exemplars” and “Areas of Focus”. Individual agencies may of course put more resource into some of these projects depending on statutory roles, individual corporate plans and any risks identified. 

Maps

Maps showing these projects are included on our webpage: Nature Restoration at Landscape Scale. It is important to stress that:

1. The maps do not imply that nature restoration will be delivered across the entire area shown
2. The boundaries show the scale at which partnerships are working, but not all land managers will be engaged, and some may not support, or be able to accommodate, nature restoration on their land
3. These maps do not replace existing plans such as National Park Partnership Plans, Regional Land Use Frameworks and other plans and strategies.  They simply show the extent of collaborative landscape scale partnerships

Responses to engagement paper

NatureScot shared an engagement paper on landscape scale restoration in October 2025 and received 25 responses. The agencies involved in this work greatly value the feedback received and appreciate the time that was put into these. The responses helped to:

• Shape our approach to this process
• Refine the list of exemplar projects, with one new project being added to the list and others being merged to provide a comprehensive suite of projects covering the habitat and land use types highlighted in responses
• Improve our understanding of the challenges faced by the organisations delivering landscape scale restoration projects on the ground.

Summary of feedback

The key messages in the responses were:

• Broad support for the process and the need to prioritise
• Support for landscape scale approaches and greater collaboration
• No specific criticism of proposed exemplars
• Several new projects identified and some additional projects proposed as exemplars
• Perception that the priorities are overly focussed on public land and agency projects
• Gaps identified for: Islands, pollinators, grassland, communities
• Expectation of wholly ‘new’ projects and some disappointment that ambition and resources are not being increased
• Concerns about the impact of prioritisation on funding and nature finance
• Habitat restoration, species and INNS should be prioritised together   

Key challenges identified

The key challenges identified in the responses to the engagement paper included:

• The need for long term funding for projects and organisations delivering projects. This was raised by the majority of responses and highlighted as a key barrier.
• The need to test the use of regulation 9d on protected areas to allow for appropriate habitat change to support nature restoration
• The slow pace of change on Agricultural Reform, which creates uncertainty amongst land managers
• Deer management and the impact of high deer densities on the delivery and cost of projects on the ground

Action Plan

To address the challenges identified in the responses to the engagement paper we have developed a short action plan in annex 4. The agencies will work together to address these challenges and provide an update on progress later in 2026.

Next steps

In financial year 2026/27 we will:

• Set up a community of practice to share lessons from the exemplars and other landscape scale projects
• Publish a new nature restoration dashboard on our website to show the range of restoration activity across Scotland
• Report on progress in the exemplars in summer 2026 and then again at the end of 2026
• Identify new projects in Q2 26/27
• Start work to co design a pipeline of projects out to 2045, including new landscape scale projects, with a wide range of stakeholders
• Work together on the development of River Basin Management Plan 4 to identify priority catchments for nature restoration

FAQs and Annexes 1-4