Looking to the Future
NatureScot is reforming Site Condition Monitoring to support adaptive management, nature recovery and healthier protected areas across Scotland.
We are in a nature emergency. To reach our targets of halting the decline of nature by 2030 and restoring nature by 2045 across our land, rivers and seas, we must take ambitious action on our protected areas.
What is our vision for a new approach?
Building on previous reviews, we continue to recognise the need for reform of our Protected Areas Monitoring Programme (currently Site Condition Monitoring). We have come a long way in determining what a new way of doing things will look like.
By 2030 we will be able to:
- Monitor protected areas more consistently and see the bigger picture across the land/seascape;
- Better understand and document what is already happening on each site;
- Establish a clear connection between monitoring and managing sites;
- Look wider than only monitoring specific features;
- Incorporate evidence from trusted data sources and makes use of the latest technology where appropriate; and
- Efficiently and effectively manage sites for nature recovery.
In summary, the new approach puts greater emphasis on delivering management and ensuring this management is effective, as well as providing greater flexibility to meet site-specific needs and encompass future Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECM).
For more information on the motivation and strategy behind this work see the paper on Protected Areas Monitoring Reform which was presented to the Scientific Advisory Committee in January 2024 and Monitoring to Deliver Healthy Ecosystems presented in March 2025.
Below are ten guiding principles for the workstream which will help us deliver a solution which fulfills our criteria and delivers transformative improvements without eroding the value of our current approach (see Davidson, et al. 2024).
Updated guiding principles for the protected areas monitoring reform to reflect the consultation feedback.
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The infographic lists the 10 guiding principles of the protected areas monitoring reform proposal which were the result of a stakeholder consultation exercise (Davidson, et al. 2024). The guiding principles that are to be used going forwards are:
1. Prioritise informing management. Refocusing our protected area monitoring programme to inform management action, with a sub-sample approach to measuring responses. We suggest this could be done by categorising attributes as either ‘action’ (focused on informing management) or ‘response’ (focused on the state of the feature).
2. Site-based approach. Our current approach monitors features in isolation of each other, which can sometimes result in duplicated sampling of similar attributes and conflicting targets. To improve the efficiency we proposed eliminating duplicated sampling by taking a site-based approach, through a rationalisation process to streamline our attributes.
3. Incorporate the wider landscape. Our existing monitoring results demonstrate that the most frequent and impactful pressures frequently act at a landscape/seascape-scale (Annex 1). As such we propose that our new approach should also gather information at a scape-scale to inform our assessment of a site’s health and inform management at the most effective scale
4 Assess attributes on a scale. Currently, we employ a simplistic pass/fail system for assigning condition at a feature level. However, moving forward, in light of principles 2 and 3, we will have data at multiple spatial scales. Further work is required to explore how we effectively assess and present monitoring results across spatial scales.
5. Make best use of existing data. SCM is a scientifically sound and robust programme with 20-years of detailed feature assessment. We proposed rationalising our existing attribute set to prioritise those that inform management while, at least in the short/medium term, ensuring our continued ability to meet feature-level reporting requirements.
6. Incorporate innovative technologies. New monitoring technologies are becoming more accessible due to their increasing maturity and affordability. We therefore explore ways of integrating new data collection methods into our national monitoring programme, where appropriate, e.g., EO, LiDAR, eDNA etc. This may include early adoption of less mature technologies, with the ability to assign confidence levels (qualitatively and quantitatively).
7. Species monitoring considered in wider context of species-monitoring framework. We currently monitor species only within protected areas; however, many species populations are determined by larger scale processes. This is often reflected in the scale of regional and national monitoring programmes, with extracts used to inform within-site assessment. This principle explores whether the protected area scale is the most appropriate for all designated species. It has been added in response to the important concern that the DHE approach could have a detrimental impact on species conservation.
8. Validated against existing approach. This principle recognises the risks of rationalising attributes as proposed in the other principles. It emphasises the need for assurance that by primarily monitoring and informing responses to pressures and threats, we are delivering the outcomes of the SBS, i.e. halting the loss of species and delivering functional and resilience ecosystems. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of calibrating the new approach to ensure continuity of the Official Statistic on Protected Areas.
9. Maintain ecological expertise and skills. This principle acknowledges the significance of nurturing in-house ecological skills and emphases the value of site-visits for staff understanding of those sites and the cultivation of relationships with landowners.
10. Links to funding mechanisms. This principle acknowledges that the ability to implement effective management normally requires access to funding. Monitoring can help prioritise funding to support both on-site and wider landscape action.
What is happening and when?
We are in the process of turning our vision, led by our principles, into a deliverable framework. The framework will be tested and rolled out in phases over the next few years. This needs to be done carefully to ensure we deliver transformative improvements while not eroding the value of our current approach. We will be providing general updates via this website and relevant stakeholder groups.
- We will continue to deliver the protected area monitoring programme following the SCM approach over the next few years.
- We’ve already completed the project’s discovery phase, which included a consultation with our internal and external stakeholders. This helped us complete a set of 10 principles (see the ‘What is our vision for a new approach?’ section above) to take forward into the feasibility phase.
- We are currently in the feasibility phase, where we are discussing and developing the concepts with expert working groups. For example, the Centre of Expertise for Waters is working on what an ecosystem health approach means for freshwaters and wetlands which will be delivered in early 2025.
- We will then test these concepts which will involve an iterative process of testing and review.
- We aim to phase in the first elements of the new approach in 2025 with a full transition in 2028.
Are you involved in SCM and want to know how your engagement with SCM might change in the future?
We are not transitioning to the new monitoring approach until we are ready. However, a new computer system called Ecosystem Management Insights (EcoMI) has been developed to deliver SCM monitoring in its current form (including prioritising and planning monitoring; data collection; and condition assessment). This has been an essential step to allow us to improve our way of working and to replace the current end-of-life computer system.
You may see some changes to the way we manage SCM monitoring as a result. For instance, with the new system, we can manage monitoring activities at different sites at the same time and more easily combine information from site visits with other data sources. We’ll share details about how these changes will affect staff and contractors, including guidance and training as we start using EcoMI.
Crucially, staff and contractors will continue to do SCM-style monitoring and report on the condition of features in the same way as they currently do using EcoMI. Elements of the new approach will be gradually phased in during 2025, with the aim of transitioning to a new way of working by 2028. We’ll share details about how these changes will affect staff and contractors, including guidance and training in due course.
We may ask you to take part in pilots to test elements of our new approach. These are yet to be determined and will most likely be restricted to specific features or areas. We will be in touch with identified partners in 2025 to support us with our pilot phase of iterative testing and review.
We will be providing general updates via this website and relevant stakeholder groups. If you have any feedback or questions, please contact: SCM_Help@nature.scot or DHE@nature.scot.
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