Chamber and committees

Ailsa Raeburn wanted to come in; Paul Walton is waving as well. I do not know whether you have already picked a hand, Monica.

I am tempted to ask the witnesses to give a yes or no answer, but I know that that is not going to work—you will all have views on the matter. However, I ask you to keep your answers short.

If you are happy, Finlay, I will just work along the line from Bruce Wilson to Caroline Brown and then to Ailsa Raeburn.

The one part of Finlay Carson’s question that none of you answered was whether there was enough money to achieve all of this and where that money might come from. Perhaps that question should be left hanging at the end of the session, given that we are now out of time.

I thank the witnesses very much for coming here and giving evidence this morning, and I thank Ailsa Raeburn for doing that so well online. I knew exactly when she had finished and when it was appropriate to bring the next person in.

The committee will now consider the evidence that has been given. Later this month, we will hear from the Scottish Government in relation to the plan.

RSPB Scotland is a big landowner in Scotland; it has huge tracts of land. Does the organisation need de-risking so that it can do the right thing, or will it get on and create more woodlands on its reserves?

I will bring in Bruce Wilson briefly. It seems to me that both of you are saying that, although we have not reached the targets, the old scheme of local biodiversity action plans, if they had been properly implemented, might have been the way forward.

Good morning, and welcome to the first meeting in 2024 of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. I suppose that this is probably the last time that I will get a chance to say this: I hope that everyone has a very happy new year and that it brings everything that they want.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Item 3 is to consider the evidence that we will hear today on the biodiversity delivery plans, and item 4 is to consider our work programme. Are we happy to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session on the draft delivery plan to accompany the Scottish Government’s new biodiversity strategy. The committee is continuing work that we started in late 2022, when we took evidence on the draft strategy. On 12 December, we discussed the delivery plan with a panel of experts on marine biodiversity. This morning, we will hear from a panel of experts and stakeholders on the terrestrial aspects of the plan.

I am pleased to welcome Dr Caroline Brown, director for Scotland, Ireland and English regions at the Royal Town Planning Institute; Sarah Cowie, policy manager for the National Farmers Union Scotland; Dr Paul Walton, head of habitats and species for RSPB Scotland; and Bruce Wilson, head of policy advocacy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Joining us remotely is Ailsa Raeburn, chairperson for Community Land Scotland.

I point out to those watching and to committee members that Dr Hannah Rudman, who was down to attend as a witness, has been unable to attend. Thank you to all those who have attended. I am pleased to welcome Finlay Carson MSP and Rhoda Grant MSP from the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, who are in attendance for today’s evidence session. You will both get a chance to ask questions nearer to the end of the evidence session.

We will spend about 90 minutes on this session and move straight into committee members’ questions. Before we do, because the evidence is on the biodiversity strategy on land, I will make a voluntary declaration of interest and remind members that my entry in the register of members’ interests shows that I am a member of a family farming partnership—we farm land—and that I am also involved in a wild salmon fishery, where I am a partner. Both of those have possible relevance to what we are discussing this morning. Full details can be found in my entry in the register of members’ interests.

On that note, I turn to the first questions, which come from Douglas Lumsden.

Ailsa, you are on mute at the moment.

We need to move on. I am sorry—I need to be quite tight on the questions. I will go to Jackie Dunbar for the next questions.

I have just one broad supplementary question. The panel has talked about targets and achieving them, and about zoning, and I understand that. However, since 2018, not one of the woodland targets has been met by the Government. In fact, if you tot it all up, we have reached only 80 per cent. If you tot up all the figures from before the targets were adjusted downwards, the Government reached probably only about 65 per cent of the woodland that should have been created in Scotland. Furthermore, we have just seen that there will be a 45 per cent cut in woodland grant scheme moneys, in the budget.

We also know that we are not spending the money that we need to spend on peatland, because we cannot get contractors to do the work. There is not enough money and there are not enough contractors. There are great ambitions, but no delivery. How are we going to get round that?