Policy briefs

2021 has been dubbed the ‘super’ year for nature, but what does this mean for science policy in Scotland? 

This virtual two-part ‘Pie and a Pint‘ (PAAP) series hosted by the BES-SPG and CIEEM will aims to explore what ‘COP’ is, the effect it has on the science policy interface in Scotland and how it will be implemented in practice. 

This event report is for part one which as held in September 2021.

The Scottish Policy Group (SPG) and the Scottish Research and Policy Exchange (SPRE) held an online policy training event on the 22nd of September with the aim of Demystifying Policy and this is a summary of the event. Find out more in the event report.

In September 2020, Boris Johnson announced a commitment to protect 30% of land in the UK by 2030. After the success of our last online PAAP, this online event will focused on the challenges and opportunities associated with this policy in Scotland. The main question we want to debate is: What would successful protection of 30% look like for conservation?

The Scottish Policy Group (SPG) and Edinburgh Conservation Science (ECoS) held a joint Pie and a Pint (PAAP) event on Meeting the Challenge of 30% of Scotland as Protected Areas.

The event was be held on Zoom on the 21st of April.

This briefing summarises the key findings of a two-day workshop on adaptation indicators held in Cambridge in November 2018, organised by the BES Climate Change SIG with the BTO, Climate Resilience, the Committee on Climate Change, Natural England and the RSPB.

Insects provide vital goods and services for wildlife, food production and human health, and their decline threatens important natural processes. Despite some insects being in long-term decline, a few species are showing stable or increasing trends. Insects can respond to interventions quickly.

BES POST fellow (2019) Rebecca Robertson has produced a POSTnote summarising the evidence for insect declines in the UK, the drivers of trends, and interventions to support the recovery of insect populations.

This is a summary of a discussion held at the British Ecological Society’s Scottish Policy Group (BES-SPG) Pie and a Pint meeting in Aberdeen on the 19 March 2019. The event was open to all BES members and those interested in offshore renewables, mitigating climate change and marine conservation. About 45 people attended from a wide range of organisations.

The event was opened with five talks. After which, the participants split into break-out groups to discuss these questions:

• Should mitigating climate change be the most important policy driver?
• Are we dealing with trade-offs effectively?
• Are decisions being made at the right scale?

Agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, which has implications for food security.

BES POST fellow (2018) Heather Plumpton has produced a POSTnote examining measures to reduce the impacts of food production and agricultural land use on climate change (mitigation) and to adapt agricultural land use to that change (adaptation).

The BES-SPG has produced a briefing for the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill to provide context in terms of the likely impacts of climate change on Scotland’s natural environment.

A summary report from the Brexit Policy Social event, held on 18 December 2018 at the BES Annual Meeting in Birmingham.

The evening was split into four policy topics: 1) the Common Agricultural Policy, 2) the 25-Year Environment Plan, 3) the Environment Bill and 4) the future of environmental policy in devolved nations. Delegates were asked to write their views on post-it notes and place them on the relevant flipchart. The responses highlighted a wide-range of views, often conflicting, illustrating the immense challenge of delivering effective policies for such complex issues. This is a summary of the member feedback from the session, which the Policy Team will use to inform Brexit-related work in the future.