Depth of feeling grows in Scotland for nature’s circular economy

AS COP15, the UN’s Biodiversity Conference, draws to a close, it’s clear that climate change and biodiversity loss are both huge challenges that we need to tackle in a comprehensive, systematic way.

The approach of relentlessly taking materials from the land, making things from them, only to eventually discard them as waste has become our default linear economic model. 

However, the alternative approach of a circular economy certainly has a vital role to play and could be our least-costly route out of the nature crisis, according to Scotland’s nature agency.  

NatureScot’s Strategic Resource Manager Dr Clive Mitchell explains: “Globally, the climate-nature emergency results from a broken carbon cycle, principally from our digging up and burning of fossil fuels, but also through land use.

“In Scotland, emissions from the land currently comprise 50 per cent of the greenhouse gas inventory. To achieve net zero, we need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, but we also need specific measures to fix the land-based part of the carbon cycle. We cannot get to net zero without addressing the ways we use our land and sea and how this affects Scotland’s nature.”

Dr Mitchell points out that land use will change “whether we like it or not.”

He adds: “Land use is going to change in the next few decades, either because we do the things we need to do to reach the 1.5 degree target to tackle climate change, or because we don’t. On a 1.5 degree pathway, we retain some measure of control, but the less we do to protect our land, the more we expose ourselves to the chaos and damage caused by an increasingly unpredictable climate.

“The 1.5 degree pathway is the sweet spot, with the lowest cost to people and planet, because the actions required to increase carbon removals through land use can be the same as those required to increase resilience to the effects of a changing climate. 

“That is where the circular economy has an important part to play.”
Today, to mark this week’s draft 25-year Scottish Biodiversity Strategy publication from the Scottish Government and the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP15), NatureScot will present the Edinburgh event, Making the Economy Work for Nature, promoting solutions to the crises of nature loss and climate change.

“The Scottish Government has been working on the circular economy for a number of years, with a focus on waste management – a move from the traditional ‘take, make, use, dispose’ linear economy, to a ‘make, use, reuse and recycle’ circular system,” explains Dr Mitchell.

“This now needs to extend to all parts of the economy, including the biological economy, which underpins our rural industries – farming, forestry and fisheries, everything to do with food and fibre. Regenerative, or circular, land management practices simultaneously maximise carbon removals, manage climate risks and enhance the state of nature.”

“It is important to emphasise that nature and climate are intrinsically linked and we must tackle both together, not one without the other.”
How we manage our lands and sea unavoidably affects emissions and removals of greenhouse gases, climate risks and the state of nature – all at the same time on the same areas.

Soils regulate key biological and nutrient cycles and soil health lies at the centre of this triple challenge, says Dr Mitchell, which also concerns other social and economic needs and risks including food, energy and water security.

“The level of climate ambition in Scotland is about right in my opinion, but the big challenge lies in the delivery, something that was laid out starkly by the recent, very hard-hitting report from the Climate Change Committee,” he says. 

Left, saltmarsh pools in Colonsay are a vital habitat for many Scottish animal and plant species

Dr Mitchell adds: “There is a need to act quickly as we are running out of time to reach the 1.5 degree target and halt biodiversity loss by 2030. We need a greater complexity and connectivity of vegetation across landscapes – our use of the land and sea must not only satisfy net zero but restore and regenerate ecosystems, and so be resilient to inevitable changes. 

Even the most aggressive emissions reduction scenarios involve global temperatures above 1.5°C around the 2050s before stabilising to 1.5°C by 2100. These consequences include an increased frequency and intensity of floods, fires, drought, pests, disease and pandemics – all of which we are already seeing with 1.2°C warming over the last 100 years.”

The draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy proposes ambitious targets to halt nature loss by 2030 and deliver nature restoration at scale across Scotland by 2045. 

“We know that if we restore nature it can also contribute more than 50% of Scotland’s drive for net-zero carbon emissions by 2045,” adds Dr Mitchell. 

The situation in Scotland is hopeful, he says, with some of the transformative work being done to restore nature due to be showcased at tomorrow’s Edinburgh event. 

Included are initiatives such as Species on the Edge, an ambitious project supporting threatened nature and wildlife on Scotland’s coastal fringe; Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI), set up to tackle the impact of non-native plants and animals; Riverwoods, which aims to create healthy riverbank woodlands and river systems across the country, through, for example, river shading which can boost freshwater fish production and reduce peak flows and flooding; and Seabirds in Peril, a project with enhanced significance given this year’s increase in avian flu. 

Other important work which NatureScot is involved in includes the Scottish Government’s £65m Nature Restoration Fund, which provides funding to conservation projects across Scotland, and ambitious plans to protect 30% of Scotland’s lands and seas and highly protect 10% of lands and seas, and connect Scotland’s nature-rich areas through nature networks.

Dr Mitchell adds: “The sooner we act, the better, in terms of maximising potential carbon stores and building that connectivity. 

“And of course, the later we act, the less effective biological systems will be in protecting our remaining carbon stores, and the less resilient they will be in the face of a changing climate.”
www.nature.scot

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Biodiversity will blossom from effective deer management

ALONGSIDE peatland restoration and regenerative farming, the management of species such as deer is vital to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, explains NatureScot’s Strategic Resource Manager Dr Clive Mitchell.

Controlling grazing and fewer deer mean trees, woodland understory and other vegetation (including peatlands) can come back, which stores carbon, reduces soil erosion and water run-off rates, and restores habitat richness.

NatureScot has a statutory rsponsibility to further the sustainable management of all wild deer species in Scotland 
 

“Deer are an important part of Scotland’s rural economy, but their high numbers and lack of natural predators mean they can have a negative impact by browsing on woodlands and other habitats,” says Dr Mitchell.

“The sustainable management of Scotland’s deer, including a significant reduction in numbers, is vital if we are to deliver on protecting and restoring nature, including forest regeneration, woodland creation, peatland restoration and habitat improvement.”
Biodiversity Minister Lorna Slater has committed to taking forward the actions that were recommended by the Deer Working Group in 2020 as a priority. 

In a recent article published in The Herald, she said: “Our previous approaches to deer management are simply inadequate and unsustainable.

“We need to take action now to reduce the negative impacts of deer if we are to meet our climate change targets.”

NatureScot is currently working with the Scottish Government and a number of other public bodies – including Scottish Forestry, Forestry and Land Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park – to co-ordinate deer management projects.

Dr Mitchell explains: “Real progress has already been made, with work ongoing to review incentives to make them more effective and efficient, and to prioritise reducing deer impacts in particular geographic locations – for example priority peatland areas, landscape scale woodland projects, areas where there is high agricultural impact, high risk of vehicle collisions or the highest densities.”

He adds: “The discussion has to move away from preferences about more or fewer deer, to being about consistency with both a 1.5 degree pathway and building the diversity needed for resilience to a changing climate. 

“That is the fundamental issue.”