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Scotland campaign win and celebrating in the Scottish Parliament

3 minute read

Catherine Gemmell

Catherine Gemmell, Policy and Advocacy Manager

24 Sep 2024

Find out what’s been happening in Scotland with our latest politics round-up.

Programme for Government

Earlier this month, First Minister John Swinney announced his Programme for Government which highlights the focus areas of the Scottish Government over the next year. We were pleased to see key environmental issues included, such as the Natural Environment Bill, action to push forward with a Circular Economy, protection measures for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and tackling sewage pollution.

The introduction of the Natural Environment Bill is great news, as this will establish the framework for legally binding targets for the recovery of nature across land and sea, requiring metrics such as species abundance, distribution and extinction risk and habitat quality and extent to be measured and reported on.

Seabirds off Coll West Scotland Mark Kirkland

Seabirds off Coll, West Scotland

Credit: Mark Kirkland

This is a huge campaign win for everyone who supported the Scottish Environment LINK#ScotlandLovesNature campaign - thank you to everyone who added your voice!


Also mentioned was the charge on single-use cups - an important piece of secondary legislation following the Circular Economy Act. A consultation on this is now live, which you can contribute to. If you'd like some guidance on how to respond in a meaningful way, we’re running a free ‘How to respond to a consultation’ workshop . You can sign up here.

Coffee cup on beach

We were also pleased to see the Scottish Government commit to completing protection measures for inshore Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features, which will ensure that Scotland’s entire MPA network is adequately protected from the most damaging forms of fishing – something we’ve been pushing for with your support since 2016.

Another development for Scotland’s MPAs has taken place, with a consultation for tailored fisheries measures in Scotland’s large offshore MPAs (those beyond 12 nautical miles) finally launched. We welcome this crucial next step, following almost a decade of campaigning for such measures.

We’re currently supporting the Save Scottish Seas campaign to show as much public support as possible for the management options that provide the most protection for these sites. The consultation on offshore MPA measures is currently running – add your voice today.

Scottish seascape

Credit: Catherine Gemmell

The Programme for Government included mention of tackling sewage pollution in Scotland by supporting the continuing work with Scottish Water to improve the resilience of Scotland's sewerage systems to intense rainfall and drought.

Our Beachwatch volunteers have played a key role in gathering vital evidence on sewage-related debris such as wet wipes on our coasts, which we’ve used to evidence the urgent need for better monitoring of Scotland's sewer system.

Wet wipes at Cramond beach clean, Scotland, Kirsty Crawford.jpeg

Wet wipes found at a beach clean in Cramond, Scotland

Credit: Kirsty Crawford

Publicly available overflow data from monitoring has already increased from 4% coverage to 7% this year. By the end of this year 1,000 new monitors will also be in place; these will be visible to the public and will be included in the annual data publication by Scottish Water in 2025.

We’ll keep up the pressure to ensure this progress continues and more support is given to switch to reusable products.

Celebrating in Holyrood

Following the Programme for Government announcement, we attended the Scottish Environment LINK parliamentary reception that evening which was sponsored by Rhoda Grant MSP and focussed on the importance of community.

Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, Deborah Long, spoke about the importance of the Natural Environment Bill and working together with both communities of place and communities of interest to restore nature. We understand exactly how important community is in marine conservation, which is why we work alongside them in our projects, from oyster restoration and beach cleans to education and our Youth Ocean Network.

Catherine Gemmell and ScotLINK colleague, Esther

Policy and Advocacy Manager Catherine with Esther from ScotLINK

Credit: Catherine Gemmell

The event was a great opportunity to catch up with Cabinet Secretary Gillian Martin, who is keen to join us on a beach clean soon, as well as fostering ocean optimism and re-energising the LINK community to take effective action to protect and restore Scotland’s seas in light of the announcements.

It’s great to see our advocacy, projects and campaigns helping to bring about ocean-positive change, but it wouldn’t be possible without the support of our community, members and volunteers. We'll keep working with partners such as Scottish Environment LINK to ensure the Scottish Government delivers on its commitments and takes ambitious action to restore Scotland's seas.

Learn more about our work in Scotland

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