With the publication of Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy in 2024, and society’s growing awareness of the twin biodiversity and climate crises, it is more pertinent than ever that land managers identify the biodiversity and conservation value of their land. The GWCT has a rich history of demonstrating, through research, that sustainable, best-practice land management enhances biodiversity and contributes towards our “three-legged stool” approach to conservation – habitat, food, and protection.
GWCT Advisory Services Scotland offer Biodiversity & Nature Conservation Services to help upland, farmland, and wildlife managers better understand the biodiversity value of their land and management practices and identify ways to enhance it. Services include:
Comprehensive Habitat & Biodiversity Assessment
Tailored to the individual needs of our clients, we are able to provide broad, qualitative ecological appraisals of habitats, land features and associated management. These assessments focus on enhancing the biodiversity and conservation value of land holdings through identifying areas of good practice and making recommendations for future improvements. Following an initial interview to establish objectives, we provide a qualitative appraisal of the habitat and land-feature conditions present through a walk-through survey and bespoke management advice, which is detailed in a final product report.
Quantitative Baseline Biodiversity Audit
As opposed to the qualitative appraisals described above, we are also able to produce more extensive, quantitative biodiversity-baseline audits, using a protocol in accordance with the Defra’s Statutory Biodiversity Metric. Following an initial interview to establish current and historic management practices, an intensive assessment of the current condition of all habitats present in a land parcel is undertaken during walk-through surveying. The assessed condition of habitats is then converted into a numerical score, which provides a baseline-biodiversity value for an area of land. Recommendations of practical actions to improve the quality of these habitats are provided alongside a calculation of the expected increase in biodiversity value. The final report for this product includes detailed habitat-feature mapping, which identifies the location and extent of habitats and linear features present within the assessed area.
Farmland Environmental Assessments
Drawing on our extensive research into enhancing farmland habitat, we are able to offer specialist farmland advice with a view to improving the biodiversity of habitats as well as game, wildlife, and invertebrate species. We can also offer advisory support with the establishment of Farmer Clusters, fully recognising that, through working together, farmers and land managers can deliver greater benefits for soil, water, and wildlife at a landscape-scale.
FAS Specialist Advice Plans
The Scottish Farm Advisory Service (FAS) provides Scottish Government funding for land managers to employ advisors to complete specialist advice plans to help analyse areas of interest or concern within their business. GWCT Advisory Scotland’s team is accredited to produce biodiversity, habitat and landscape management plans, which may include species or habitat surveys, advice on habitat creation or management plans.
These assessments are available to farmers and crofters provided they are registered with Scotland Rural Payments and Services, and hold a Business Reference Number (BRN) with IACS. Up to £1,600 of funding per advice plan is available, with a maximum of two advice plans per business permitted. Where they are registered, the business must pay the full VAT. For more information, see the FAS website.
Additional Services
GWCT Scotland’s Biodiversity & Nature Conservation Services are additionally experienced in undertaking in-depth surveys for a range of species, including birds, mammals, and invertebrates. For greater detail on bird surveying, see Ornithological Services. Additionally, if in-house conservation data collection is desirable, we can offer training to practitioners on data recording using our Epicollect5 mobile platform. Utilisation of this service enables land managers to collect long-term conservation data, which we are then able to analyse and produce regular reporting for. See Data Management & Reporting for further details.