Campaigning for nature targets

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By Miriam Ross, campaign coordinator, Scottish Environment LINK

The Scottish government talks a good talk on the natural environment. This matters, because since the re-establishment of the Scottish parliament in 1999, the environment has been one of the policy areas that’s devolved to Scotland, meaning that decisions are made at Holyrood in Edinburgh, rather than at Westminster.

A group of people hold banners and placards at a nature demonstration outside Scottish Parliament. — Stand Up for Nature demo outside the Scottish parliament, June 2025 (Andy Catlin)

The fine words we’ve heard from Scottish politicians on nature, from First Ministers down, are in no small part thanks to the dedicated, focused and coordinated efforts of the people working in and supporting Scotland’s environment charities. I write that as a relative newcomer to the sector, in recognition of the expertise and persistence of long-standing colleagues in those organisations. Over the years, many of the ideas proposed by environmental campaigners have turned into legislation and policy.

But while government rhetoric is often admirable, the reality is rather different. Despite being famed for its beautiful landscapes, Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Over the past two decades the Scottish government has produced a series of plans and strategies aimed at restoring biodiversity. But these documents have had no legal force, and as the latest State of Nature report (2023) illustrates, they have failed to stem the tide of loss and destruction.

Frustrated by the lack of progress, Scottish Environment LINK and its member organisations have been calling for many years for legally binding nature recovery targets on a par with our climate targets. Scotland’s climate targets were, when they first came into being, world-leading. While they have not always been met, and indeed were revised down last year, their impact has been undeniable. Yes, we need to do much more – but the significant progress we’ve already made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions would not have been possible without statutory targets.

A woman walks passed a campaign billboard. — Campaign billboards placed where many MSPs would see them on their way to work (Morag Wells)

Heeding our call, the Scottish government announced in 2021 that it would introduce a Natural Environment Bill in the 2023-4 parliamentary year that would set legally binding targets to restore nature. But that year came and went without any sign of the bill.

Meanwhile, the weakening of Scotland’s climate targets, along with the high-profile collapse of the planned Deposit Return Scheme and of proposed new marine protections, signalled that commitment to tackling the nature and climate crises could be faltering. Added to that was the increasing level of anti-environment rhetoric coming from a vocal minority.

With the next Scottish election due in May 2026, the time in which the bill could still be introduced and passed was limited. It would have to be announced in the programme for government in September 2024. How could we in the environment sector push the Scottish government to keep its promise and avoid the issue being kicked into the next parliament or dropped entirely?

Government ministers and their officials already knew that environment charities wanted nature targets - we’d been banging on about them for years. But to persuade them to act, we wanted to show them how much restoring nature matters to the Scottish electorate.

Scottish Environment LINK and its members launched the Scotland Loves Nature campaign in July 2024, with a very deliberate focus on people. Sometimes as a sector we’ve been guilty of leaving people out of the picture, as if our nature and our landscapes were devoid of people.

A graphic of a blue whale, text reads: Please tell me you will make nature a priority, Ewa, Clackmannanshire. — Messages from campaign supporters were sent to every MSP in Scotland (ScotLink)

We started with some great images of people in a rowing boat in Dubar harbour holding ‘Scotland Loves Nature’ signs, which were printed in the press, and with a series of short videos of people talking about their connection with Scotland’s nature. We asked people to email their MSPs (members of the Scottish parliament), calling on them to ask First Minister John Swinney to include a Natural Environment Bill in his programme for government. And we released the results of polling we had commissioned that summer showing that three quarters of people in Scotland believed there should be legal targets for nature recovery.

It worked. To our relief, John Swinney announced in September 2024 that his government would introduce the bill, and it did so in February 2025. With these hurdles cleared, we wanted to influence the bill as it made its way through the Scottish parliament, and to ensure that there was cross party support for legally binding nature recovery targets.

The Holyrood electoral system of mixed member proportional representation means that there’s often no single political party with an overall majority. This is the case at present, with the SNP (Scottish National Party), which has the largest number of MSPs, forming a minority government.

For this reason it’s important that MSPs from all political parties support nature targets – and also because action to meet the targets will require political will from future Scottish governments, which could be made up of different parties.

Campaigners dressed as animals hold placards outside Scottish Parliament. — The campaign brought nature to parliament on the day of the Natural Environment Bill debate (Colin Hattersley)

Over the next few months, as well as meeting with key MSPs, we did a series of things to keep the campaign in the public eye and to get it noticed by MSPs. We asked Scottish party leaders to join a photocall holding a sign saying ‘Scotland needs nature targets’. Some of them came, some sent deputies. We held a demo outside the Scottish parliament, attended by around 100 people, including a number of MSPs – not bad for a Thursday lunchtime.

We ran an e-action asking people to write messages about why nature matters to them, and sent a booklet of 40 powerful messages to every MSP. And in the week MSPs returned to parliament after the summer recess, we booked billboards outside Edinburgh’s Waverley Station, with the message, ‘1 in 9 species in Scotland is at risk of extinction. We need our MSPs to act now!’

Then on the day the Natural Environment Bill was to be debated in parliament, we turned up wearing puffin, bumblebee, wildcat and red squirrel costumes, resulting in print and broadcast media coverage.

As I write, the bill is at the stage where MSPs can make changes to it, so we’re again calling on supporters to write to their MSPs, asking them to support amendments to make the new nature targets as strong and effective as possible.

Seeing the bill become law and the targets in place will not, of course, be the end of the story. Helping Scotland’s nature recover will require committed leadership, funding, and support for communities to restore their local environments.

Crucially, with targets in place, Scotland’s people will be better able to hold our government to account on the state of nature. Environment charities will be making every effort to ensure politicians make restoring nature a priority.