Land

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.

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.

An interactive map showing information about publicly owned land, as well as land managed by Scottish Crown Estate, has been created.

The public land map allows anyone to view the location and range of much of the public land in Scotland. Users can explore information on individual land parcels, including its ownership and size.

The Scottish Land Fund (SLF) has awarded 10 grants across the country totalling nearly £2m this year to community groups.

The Fund supports rural and urban communities to become more resilient and sustainable through the ownership and management of land and land assets.

Members of the Scottish public have aided critical red squirrel conservation efforts by partaking in the sixth annual Great Scottish Squirrel Survey. In a year of mixed fortunes for red squirrels in Scotland, public squirrel sightings have proved more important than ever for work being undertaken by conservationists across the country.

A bumper year of entries saw excellence in all sectors, from community to forestry, conservation to farming and climate to schools. And each was showcased during a grand ceremony at the Scottish Parliament.

Local groups, farmers, foresters and large estates were all recognised at the national event, held by Scotland’s Finest Woods to coincide with National Tree Week.

Jean Nairn, Executive Director of Scotland’s Finest Woods, said:

Scottish Water has completed construction on a pioneering new type of hydro energy generation scheme at a reservoir in East Lothian, believed to be the first of its kind in Europe.