Safeguards needed in Natural Environment Bill to protect nature and rural jobs

Press Release

Rural business organisation Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) is calling for safeguards to be introduced to the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill  to protect both nature and rural livelihoods, as the Bill progresses to a debate in the Scottish Parliament on 30 October, ahead of Stage 2 scrutiny.

Ross Ewing, Director of Moorland for SLE, said: “We support ambitious statutory biodiversity targets and modernised frameworks for environmental governance, but these must be practical, evidence-led, and underpinned by consultation with those who manage land every day. Our members already deliver nature restoration at scale – from peatland and rainforest recovery to woodland expansion and sustainable sporting management. We are committed to working with Parliament to ensure this Bill enables, rather than hinders, that progress. 

“With the right safeguards, funding, and regional flexibility, Scotland can meet its climate and biodiversity goals while also sustaining rural jobs, communities, and the economy.”

SLE welcomed the findings of the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee’s Stage 1 Report, which included a recommendation to narrow Scottish Ministers' broad powers within the Bill and to embed safeguards. Land managers consider that any changes to Environmental Impact Assessments or Habitats law must include a commitment to non-regression, parliamentary scrutiny, consultation, and impact assessment.

In addition, the Bill must require affirmative parliamentary procedure for any regulatory changes and impact assessments, to evaluate costs for businesses, farmers, and estates. To achieve the objectives set out in the Bill, regional flexibility and consultation with land managers is vital before any regulatory changes are made, SLE reports.

Ross Ewing continued: “Land managers are delivery partners – success depends on working with those who manage Scotland’s land, ensuring effective consultation and practical implementation. Biodiversity recovery cannot succeed through legislation alone. It is land managers and rural businesses that are delivering benefits at scale, through practical conservation efforts.”

Many members of SLE are engaged in action at a landscape-scale across estates, farms and community-owned land, which offers the most effective path to biodiversity recovery. Any legislative changes should encourage and enable this further. 

SLE is making the case to Ministers that Scotland’s National Parks should reflect the realities of rural life, supporting rural jobs, housing, farming, forestry, tourism and country sports, alongside nature recovery. Before designating new National Parks, an independent review of existing National Parks should take place to identify lessons and ensure best practice.

Part 4 of the Bill relates to deer management.  Around 80% of deer management in Scotland is delivered by private interests, including estates, farms and other land-based rural businesses. The Bill as currently drafted is primarily focussed on regulation of deer management rather than incentivisation. It proposes new grounds for NatureScot to ‘intervene’ in the management of wild deer, for nature restoration purposes. The precise circumstances in which NatureScot will intervene are to be set out in an updated Code of Practice for Deer Management, yet to be published.

Ross Ewing continued: “We have significant concerns about the lack of clarity and foreseeability inherent within the new ground for intervening in deer management for the purposes of nature restoration. 
“It is important that land managers understand the circumstances in which intervention under the new ground is likely to take place. At present, this simply is not provided for, and we have major concerns about allowing intervention to be governed by a yet-to-be-developed code of practice.” 

SLE believes that to support deer culls in Scotland, an incentives-orientated approach would be more effective, with regulatory intervention used as a backstop where incentives fail.