Scotland will fail to meet its ambitious rewilding and conservation targets unless it reverses deep cuts in funding for the environment, leading charities have said.
Nature and conservation funding in Scotland has been cut by tens of millions of pounds over the last decade, with ministers diverting the money to other policy areas, according to a group of 16 influential environment charities.
That “significant erosion” in spending meant that core funding for NatureScot, the conservation agency, had fallen by 40% in real terms. Funding for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), which investigates pollution and protects water quality, had fallen by 26%.
The cuts raise profound questions for the Scottish government about its ability to meet increasingly urgent nature and climate targets, which are likely to cost billions of pounds to achieve, the charities say.
The group, which includes the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the John Muir Trust, Trees for Life, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Buglife and Plantlife, have urged the Scottish government to increase environment spending at its next budget, later in December.
The programmes affected, they say, include a pledge made by Scottish ministers after an international biodiversity summit to protect 30% of nature by 2030, a target underpinned by the convention on biological diversity agreed in Montreal last December.
In a joint letter coordinated by Scottish Environment Link, an umbrella group of nature and conservation groups, the signatories said: “The Scottish government is rightly committed to setting ambitious targets for environmental action.
“But as the impacts of climate change and nature loss become more strongly felt, simply maintaining current environmental standards will become harder. The longer we do not act, the more expensive and less palatable it will become.”
The signatories said the cuts have meant:
Nearly 60% of Scotland’s legally protected sites of special scientific interest – the most precious in the country – have not been assessed in more than a decade, with only 65% in favourable condition.
Only half of the sites which make up Scotland’s “Atlantic rainforest” are in favourable condition.
Scottish government funding for nature fell from 0.55% of its total budget to 0.25% between 2010/11 and 2022/23.
Sepa’s budget cuts have made it heavily reliant on so-called “cost recovery” fees it charges to inspect private companies but those fees have not kept pace with inflation, falling by 14% in real terms.
Signatories to the letter report that at a recent meeting with Sepa they were told the agency now does the bare minimum of chemicals monitoring, including those of significant concern such as synthetic compounds known as PFAS, plastics and pesticides.
Sepa’s financial woes have been exacerbated by a significant cyber-attack in December 2020, which forced the agency to suspend many of its operations. Data on thousands of environment checks, farm inspection records and water quality reports were lost.
NatureScot has acknowledged there is a multi-billion pound shortfall in the amount of money available for its policy priorities, including restoring badly degraded peatland and meeting the new Scottish biodiversity strategy targets, so is hoping to attract significant private sector funding.
In response to the letter, Sepa said it was designing new approaches to its water testing and pollution operations, and expanding its work in those areas. It also collaborated with sister agencies and industry bodies across the UK on chemicals and pollution.
The Scottish government said other agencies, such as Forestry and Land Scotland, and crown estate Scotland, were working in similar areas, while NatureScot and Sepa had been allowed to increase their fees to boost income. Ministers have also pledged £500m to promote nature restoration over five years.
A spokesperson said the last budget increased year-on-year funding for NatureScot and Sepa by £18m “recognising the pivotal role they play to protect, restore and value nature, and maintain a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for the people of Scotland”.
