Biodiversity

The fourth Biodiversity Strategy sets out a partnership approach to guide the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in South Lanarkshire to 2030, to ensure a focus on being nature positive. The aims of our strategy are focused on how protecting our local biodiversity can contribute to national and global priorities, to help us promote the protection, enhancement and creation of habitats, and to facilitate a wider understanding of locally important habitats and species.

We are facing a climate and nature emergency. Biodiversity has declined dramatically in recent decades and strong action is now required to bring about the transformative change needed to halt this loss. Guidance from Scottish Government states that we need to be nature positive by 2030, where there is more nature than there is today, and by 2045 Scotland’s nature is well on its way to full recovery.

South Lanarkshire’s Biodiversity Strategy continues to follow from the previous plan:

• a partnership approach to guide the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity, to ensure a focus on being nature positive
• an outline of how local biodiversity can contribute to national and global priorities
• how we can help to promote the protection, enhancement and creation of habitats

The strategy continues to focus on an ecosystem approach to protect individual species and habitats by conserving the whole of the environment in which they are found. This not only benefits wildlife but also people through the maintenance of ecosystem services. The strategy continues to protect the six ecosystems which are of greatest importance within South Lanarkshire:

• freshwater and wetland
• lowland and farmland
• peatland
• upland
• urban
• woodland

With associated outcomes and actions taking into consideration five cross-cutting challenges:

• climate change
• soils and geology
• invasive, non-native species
• key sites
• people and nature

The strategy provides information on key issues relevant to each ecosystem and the progress we have made since the last strategy. Our Action plan report summarises the progress we have made since the last Biodiversity Strategy and Biodiversity Duty Implementation Plan 2018-2022.

For further information email CAG@southlanarkshire.gov.uk.