Events and Blogs

Today, the Scottish Government released their new Economic Action Plan, which sets out a number of new and existing actions which they believe will “work together to build a strong, vibrant and diverse economy that promotes wellbeing and attracts investment.” Within this new plan, it is recognised that Scotland’s high-quality natural assets, such as water, soil and nature, “are the…

The Scottish Forum on Natural Capital and Scottish Natural Heritage have joined forces with business, education and the arts industry to offer young people the opportunity to share work inspired by Scotland’s nature.   The short film competition is seeking entries that combine passion and creative talent with the latest facts to make a powerful case for why businesses should…

The Scottish Forum on Natural Capital is pleased to announce that David Watt, Executive Director of IoD Scotland, has been selected to Chair its Steering Group. The Scottish Forum on Natural Capital brings together a growing number of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to protect and rebuild Scotland’s natural capital. To date, there are over 100 member organisations. The…

Crown Estate Scotland, SEPA, Farm Advisory Service and SAC Consulting are currently working toward finalising the scope of a project on Natural Capital and Integrated Land Management Plans. This project will explore the most effective way to include Natural Capital element in Integrated Land Management Plans (ILMP). The aim is not to make substantive changes to the normal ILMP format…

The Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority are looking to build on previous activities that have supported community-led action planning and stakeholder engagement on land use within the Strathard area of the National Park. Later on this year, they are looking to engage a range of stakeholders to produce a shared vision and consensus, forming a masterplan and…

Abstract Rewilding as a conservation strategy is gaining increasing scientific, political and public attention, yet empirical evaluations of its impacts remain scarce, especially with regards to ecosystem services. We provide evidence of the change in three ecosystem services (timber [provisioning], pollination [regulating], and aesthetics [cultural]) from up to 27 years of a moorland rewilding strategy in the Scottish Highlands using…

The Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) was updated in April with the most recent results showing that overall the potential of Scotland’s environment to improve wellbeing is increasing. Heath and peatland habitats continue to show signs of recovery since lows in 2012. This year a Story Map was launched that presents the latest results in a more user-friendly and accessible…

In March the first set of Scottish Natural Capital accounts was launched by SG. The accounts provide information on the physical flows and asset value for ten ecosystem services, outlined on the website. The accounts also contain estimates of the total asset value of the stock. This showed that the partial asset value of Scottish natural capital was £273 billion…

Today, the Scottish Government released the first set of Ecosystem Service Accounts for Scotland. These accounts, produced by the Office for National Statistics, provide the first comprehensive assessment of Scotland’s natural capital and includes information on 10 ecosystem services: Agricultural biomass  Fish capture Timber Water abstraction Mineral production Oil and gas production Renewable energy generation Carbon sequestration Air pollutant removal Recreation…

The existing Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) helps us track broad-scale changes in the quantity and quality of habitats and has been adopted as an indicator within the National Performance Framework. It includes terrestrial and (some) coastal habitats, but the index development did not include marine assets (largely due to data limitations). Advances in marine data and health indicators for…