An exciting and ambitious project to find out how nature is doing in the National Park is about to be launched by the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA). For the first time in the UK, the Cairngorms Nature Index (CNI) will use an ecosystem based approach to assess nature within a National Park.
Following a review of international approaches the CNI will build on a successful method that has been used in Norway. Over the next 18 months CNPA will be working with Atmos Consulting Ltd and a Project Advisory Group to develop an approach tailored to the Cairngorms.
The new method involves the selection of indicators that can reveal the health of our ecosystems in the National Park, by looking at how they respond to pressures such as climate change, pollution and land use. For example snow bed cover, aquatic invertebrates and stream temperature are indicators which can tell us about water quality and the impact of climate change on our freshwater and alpine systems.
Dr Sarah Henshall, CNI Project Manager at the CNPA explains “We want to achieve a National Park that is richer in nature, understanding how nature is doing and what is driving change is hugely important. It can act as an early warning system allowing us to target the right conservation action in the right place to mitigate impact or reverse decline.”
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Posted On: 29/09/2020