Natural Environment Bill

The RSE was pleased to have the opportunity to provide written evidence to inform the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s Stage 1 scrutiny of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill seeks to introduce important changes to the protection and management of Scotland’s environment. In particular, the translation of nature recovery aspirations into legally binding targets will place new expectations on the Scottish Government to deliver on its environmental commitments, a welcome development at a time when progress on environmental issues is stalling or even regressing in many jurisdictions around the world.

Download the RSE policy advice paper, Natural Environment Bill (385KB, PDF)

A strong Bill will ensure that Scotland is able to take bold action in the face of the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity depletion and withstand future impacts. However, said action must be coupled with a clear plan for delivery, centered on accountability, evaluation, risk management, and adequate resourcing. Importantly, the Bill and its powers will need to be appropriately situated in the broader Scottish policy landscape so that interdependencies and unintended consequences, particularly those stemming from large-scale land use changes such as forestry and agriculture, are properly identified and addressed.

A multidisciplinary group of Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Fellows contributed to the preparation of this response. Their main recommendations are summarised in the table below and span the Bill’s key areas. The RSE strives to be an asset to policymakers by providing independent and authoritative policy advice and would be pleased to engage further as the Bill progresses through subsequent stages.

Recommendations

1. The Bill should include statements to support evidence-based targets and strategy and delivery plan targets.
2. The Bill should identify the programme management structures to be adopted for successful delivery of the targets.
3. The Bill should indicate that Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is being given expanded powers to ensure that its enforcement role is unambiguous.
4. The Financial Memorandum should be revised to include recognition of the additional resource costs of effective delivery of the targets and the additional resources which ESS will need to receive.
5. Scottish Ministers should make a clear commitment to the re-prioritisation of those programmes (such as infrastructure development, agriculture and forestry, and fisheries) to ensure that those expenditures aid the delivery of the biodiversity targets as, currently, they do not.
6. The Bill should outline the potential negative consequences for biodiversity and climate change unless there is redistribution and re-prioritisation of other government programmes which presently have adeleterious effect on the twin crises.
7. The Bill should include a clause or package of targets establishing the development and implementation of a mandatory scheme of habitat and ecosystem connectivity for the whole of land and water areas for Scotland.
8. The Schedules to the Bill should include clear and unambiguous definitions of restoration and regeneration.
9. The Bill should be amended to clearly define ‘threatened’ species.
10. The Bill should amend the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 to deal with invasive non-native species (INNS), including a definition and the actions required to remove threats to biodiversity.
11. The Bill should also provide for the updating of the UK Forestry Standard with regard to INNS as non-native conifer species are having a negative effect on protected habitats and species. The current iteration does not go far enough in recognising the longstanding and continuing problems which are caused by INNS, especially from single species plantation forestry.
12. The provisions granting Scottish Government powers to modify or restate Environmental Impact Assessment legislation and Habitats Regulations should be removed from the Bill. They should be replaced by clauses with the clear intent of strengthening the protection and restoration of nature.
13. The Bill should be amended to regulate that all forestry planting applications over 50 ha be subject to a compulsory EIA, with smaller projects continuing to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
14. The Bill should specifically state that there should be no tree planting or other destructive activity undertaken on peats or peat-rich soils.
15. Section 9(6) of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 should be updated to recognise the prime role of national parks in ameliorating the effects of the twin crises. It should be placed in Section 5 (Aims of National Parks), with any other objectives recognised as secondary.
16. The Bill should provide a definition of nature that is applicable to all sections of the Bill.
17. The Scottish Ministers should announce a formal, independent and objective review of the existing National Parks before any new National Parks are designated.
18. Scottish Ministers should agree to tailor-made agri-environment schemes for each National Park.
19. The Bill should make provision for all public authorities to formally adhere to their roles and responsibilities in achieving the approved National Park objectives and plans, rather than the weak ‘have regard to’ provisions.
20. The Bill should be amended to give NatureScot powers of enforcement of deer management plans.
21. The Bill should make provisions for a free and accessible national repository of environmental data and ensure resourcing of the infrastructure of critical environmental data collection.
22. Scottish Ministers should make clear the role that agriculture, forestry, and land reform policy and implementation should have in improving the conservation and protection of nature and in improving biodiversity.
23. The Scottish Ministers insert a clause in the Bill on the “rights of people to have access to a healthy environment”.
24. The Bill should provide for the development of a Rights of Nature Charter and a Nature Stewardship Code.
25. Scottish Ministers should give a firm commitment to full implementation of the Scottish Government’s responsibilities under the Aarhus Convention.
26. The Bill should provide for the implementation of the Flood Resilience Strategy, including adequate promotion of the blue and green infrastructure agenda.
27. As part of the implementation of the Flood Resilience Strategy, the Bill should mandate better reporting of incidents of noncompliance with wastewater regulations.
28. Scottish Ministers should serious consideration to the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain as a legal requirement.
29. Scottish Ministers should explore mechanisms to ensure that funding from biodiversity offsetting is deployed to best effect on a national scale.

Download the policy advice

Download the RSE policy advice paper, Natural Environment Bill (385KB, PDF)