Environment

A National Flood Advisory Service will be established to improve Scotland’s flood resilience and embed best practice on a nationwide scale.

The service is one of the actions in Scotland’s first National Flood Resilience Strategy, published today. It will provide support and advice on building flood resilience to delivery partners and communities, and provide the governance framework for progressing high value flood actions such as flood protection schemes.

The 32nd International Leadership Workshop for Rural Youth will be held on 14 - 27 August 2025 with the theme of "Sharing Skills – Shaping Change”.

Agri-food systems around the globe are undergoing a huge transformation process. To help meet these challenges, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) promotes international cooperation and networking as an important cornerstone of peace policy.

During 2024, 11,039 encounters of whales, dolphins, porpoises, and other marine life were reported to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) by members of the public, or citizen scientists.  Over 65,000 animals have been sighted in Scottish waters, from 17 different species.    

The data was collected during research expeditions run by the Trust and by people reporting what they’ve spotted through their community sightings network, Whale Track. 

The Moray Eco Youth Fund for Sustainability is now open to applications.

An amount of £33,333 from Moray’s portion of Just Transition Participatory Budgeting Fund has been dedicated to youth-led sustainability projects.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has applied to NatureScot for a licence to release beavers into Loch Beinn a Mheadhoin, in Glen Affric.

The move follows two years of consultation with local communities and land managers, carried out by FLS and project partners, Trees for Life.

If the application is successful, it is anticipated that beavers, translocated from parts of Scotland, will be released in Spring of 2025.

Highlands Rewilding has just published its Fourth Annual Natural Capital Report. 

The report focuses on a year of baseline biodiversity monitoring at the Tayvallich estate on the west coast of Scotland, along with monitoring and restorative updates from its two other Scottish estates, Bunloit, on the banks of Loch Ness, and Beldorney, in Aberdeenshire.

More than 1,200 hectares of degraded rainforest habitat are now on the road to recovery thanks to Scottish Government funding.

Almost £5 million has already been invested in rainforest restoration since 2023 and a further £5 million for ongoing restoration efforts was allocated as part of the draft 2025/26 Budget.

Actions to protect some of Scotland’s most vulnerable marine species are being consulted on by the Scottish Government.

Climate change, invasive non-native species such as brown rat, food shortages and other pressures are contributing to the dramatic declines seen in seabird numbers. Almost two thirds of Scotland’s seabird species have declined over the last 20 years, with eight including the Arctic tern, kittiwake and black-headed gull declining by more than 50%.

NatureScot has awarded grants totalling over £1 million to projects that will restore bogs for rare dragonflies in northern Scotland, create hedgerows for sparrows in Glasgow and help bring back native oysters to the Bay of Firth in Orkney.