Plan for Nature

The Trust manages land to protect nature and campaigns for its protection. We also provide access and education so that everyone can enjoy and benefit from nature.

Our nature work is defined by what is important and threatened in Scotland and in the places we care for.

We believe that when nature thrives, it underpins people’s lives and activities, providing physical and mental well-being, employment, sustainable economies, and protection against climate change. We believe that nature’s benefits should be accessible to all so they can be enjoyed by everyone.

We look after all of Scotland’s important habitats but have special responsibility for heathlands, pinewoods, and montane willow scrub in our mountains; seabird colonies and machair on our islands; and habitats defined by ancient and veteran trees in our parklands and wood pastures.

Our species conservation activity focuses on mountain plants and seabirds but also includes several other species for which we have unique responsibility at our places — hen harrier, red-necked phalarope, corncrake, Greenland white-fronted goose, narrow-headed ant, willow tit and vendace (a rare fish). We also look after endemic species that occur nowhere else in the world: the slender Scotch burnet moth (a day flying moth) and three species of whitebeam (trees), found only on Arran.

We also have a unique responsibility for about 200 species of invertebrates, lichens, mosses and fungi, which only occur at a handful of sites in the UK.

We aim to work in partnership for the above nature and for a broader range of habitats and species, where we can deliver a key role in wider landscape work, including restoring Scotland’s rainforest.

With the above work, the Trust will play an important part in delivering government commitments for nature, including the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy and tackling the nature and climate crises.

Read our full Plan for Nature on Issuu

Read our summary Plan for Nature on Issuu