24 Feb 2017 THE PROJECT OF THE MONTH: THE CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK MANAGEMENT

Situated in the north of Scotland and with an area of 4,528 km2, the Cairngorms National Park is Britain’s largest national park.

The Cairngorms National Park contains many natural habitats containing a number of rare and endangered species.

In order to preserve the ecological and cultural richness of the National Park, the OpenNESS project partnered with the ‘Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group’ to assess and promote the ecosystem services and natural capital concepts in relation to sustainable land management.

Since 2000, the main objective of this project is to enhance the management of the Cairngorms National Park. Considering different areas and objectives, four subprojects have been established:

Sustainable Management planning
Competitiveness planning
Human Well-being
Sustainable Management
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association is involved in the decision-making process and the process of maximising the ecosystem services and natural capital via the mapping of ecosystem services using GIS software; and in the collection of data to assess ecosystem service presence/absence from local stakeholders.

Regarding the Glenlivet Estate subproject, hunters are participating in the assessment of the economic valuation of the area considering different criteria such as the estimated hunting and fishing value. These recreational activities were converted to monetary values: hunting and fishing are respectively valued at £25 and £547 per person and year. The results of this case study are relevant to other mixed rural landscapes in Europe and beyond.

Contact and Sources:

Jan DICK – Landscape Physiologist at Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Scotland)

jand@ceh.ac.uk

More information can be found here