Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 07 June 2022
The member is quite right that the aims of our parks were established in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. I remind all of us that the four aims are:
“(a) to conserve and enhance ... natural and cultural heritage ... (b) to promote sustainable use of ... resources ... (c) to promote understanding and enjoyment”,
and, as the member rightly points out,
“(d) to promote sustainable economic and social development”.
Our existing national parks, in the Cairngorms and in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, are at the forefront of actions to tackle climate change and restore nature, and they welcome, educate and manage millions of visitors a year.
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and Cairngorms National Park Authority devote significant resources to leading and working with partners and their communities on nature restoration and climate change mitigation in their park areas. As we know, halting and reversing biodiversity loss is inextricably linked to restoring nature and addressing climate change. The park authorities set out their ambitious plans for the natural environment in their areas through the future nature proposals in Loch Lomond and the nature plan in the Cairngorms. Both recognise that we can no longer be passive in protecting the biodiversity that we have but need to be proactive in vigorously rebuilding and restoring nature.
To do that, both parks are working with partners to address head-on pressures such as overgrazing, pollution, invasive non-native species and climate change; to restore degraded areas; and to better link areas to give nature the space to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. There can be no better places to see the aspiration becoming reality than the Cairngorms Connect partnership, with its 200-year vision to restore ecosystem functioning and biodiversity in huge areas of the eastern part of the national park, or in the work to secure and restore the great Trossachs forest—over 160km2 within the heart of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park.
Running through many of the projects that the parks are leading is active community involvement to identify and prioritise areas for action and to mobilise the volunteer workforce who will carry out much of the on-the-ground action such as the removal of invasive non-native plants.