Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill Submission
Scottish Biodiversity Duty
From: Muir, Malcolm
Sent: 10 March 2010 15:21
To: McCann, Sean
Cc: 'Kristen Miller'
Subject: Scottish Biodiversity Duty
Hi Sean
Kristen Miller from COSLA had passed me your enquiry about the implementation of the Biodiversity Duty in Scotland.
The Biodiversity Duty as set out in the nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 is essentially non-prescriptive and wide ranging:
"It is the duty of every public body and office-holder, in exercising any functions, to further the conservation of biodiversity so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of those functions.
(2) In complying with the duty imposed by subsection (1) a body or office-holder must have regard to—
(a) any strategy designated under section 2(1), and
(b) the United Nations Environmental Programme Convention on Biological Diversity of 5 June 1992 as amended from time to time (or any United Nations Convention replacing that Convention)."
In many ways, the lack of detailed prescription in the clause is key to its long term success. What it did was to establish the principle that biodiversity was a fundamental asset and its protection was the responsibility of all public services, not just those charged with "nature conservation." This was fundamental since one of the key factors holding back effective measure to protect biodiversity had been the deep routed focus in Britain upon protecting the "rare and impressive" as opposed to dealing with the fundamental influences on biological diversity that are, almost entirely social-political: especially the direction of agricultural subsidies and the Planning and Land management functions within Local Government. The real potential "big wins" in protecting biodiversity were therefore to improve decision making across public services and, at the same time, provide better scientific and technical information to support evaluation, etc. This approach is not only effective but does not add any further, significant financial burdens on Local Government: what it does do is provide a focus on improving public service partnership towards resolving a problem that could have very significant, long term economic and social impacts upon Councils and the communities they serve.
Since the implementation of the Act, the Scottish Biodiversity Forum has, in common with most of the international community, adopted the "Ecosystem Approach" to biodiversity conservation. (http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/) Essentially, this looks at the "natural world" as a series of functioning "Ecosystems" that, when functioning effectively, produce a range of key services to the human community: i.e. food production, water management, air quality, carbon sequestration, timber and materials, tourism, health, recreation, cultural landscapes, etc. Looked at this way, the priority becomes to understand the functioning of these productive ecosystems and employ a whole range of Government directed influences to ensure that the long term health can be maintained within a wider environmental framework of economic development and productive agriculture, etc.
The structure for delivery in Scotland is headed by the Scottish Biodiversity Committee (Chaired by the Minister for the Environment). The main strategic direction comes from four specialist working groups covering the main ecosystem components - Lowland/Urban, Woodlands, marine, freshwater, upland - and two cross cutting groups covering communications and science. These report to an Action Co-ordination Group, Chaired by Scottish Natural Heritage, that reports directly to the SB Committee. Representation on these groups comes from academic and agency experts, as well as NGO's, land managers and other community stakeholders.
All 32 Local Authorities in Scotland (and the two National Park Authorities) participate in a Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) Partnership and, in most cases, support these through the employment of a Biodiversity Officer. These posts wore mostly in place before the implementation of the Biodiversity Duty but have a substantial contribution to the delivery of biodiversity protection across Scotland. Initially, these posts were part funded through Scottish Natural Heritage but funding was transferred directly to Councils in 2009. The role of Biodiversity Officers is primarily to support their Local Partnership and co-ordinate the production and implementation of the LBAP. Generally, these posts have proved to be extremely useful to their employing Councils and have greatly improved partnership working with the environmental agencies, Forestry Commission, and the Rural development Programme, etc. They also undertake a great deal of advisory and support work for the development planning function.
A number of Scottish Councils (such as my own – South Lanarkshire) are now taking steps no formally embed the Biodiversity Partnerships within the Community Planning process. All Scottish Councils are responsible for co-coordinating the local delivery of Single Outcome Agreements with Scottish Government; and Environmental outcomes, including biodiversity, fall within this framework. The LBAP process offers an opportunity for Local Government to substantially increase its influence on decision making in these areas and build new relationships with agencies such as Scottish Natural Heritage that are increasingly less regulatory and more based on partnership and specialist advice.
In conclusion, I would suggest that the implementation of a "Biodiversity Duty" in Scotland has been largely successful and has not placed any significant, additional financial burden upon Local Government. What it has done is directed a more informed and coordinated approach to the very real issue of biodiversity loss, encouraged improved public service partnership and increased the influence and contribution of Local Government to a process that is critical to the long term economic and social wellbeing of rural and urban communities.
I hope that this is of some help. Please e-mail me or telephone if you would like to discuss any other points.
Regards
Malcolm Muir
