The Scottish Government is consulting on a draft Marine and Coastal Restoration Plan which sets out actions to support and accelerate marine and coastal restoration in Scotland. Find out more about their plans and the consultation which closes on 19th October.

Excerpt from the introduction:

Thriving marine and coastal ecosystems provide many benefits, both to the people who interact with them and to the wider natural world. Scotland has an incredibly rich and diverse marine environment, which is one of the most important assets to our ecological and economic prosperity. Yet we are facing a twin climate and biodiversity crisis and our marine and coastal ecosystems are under increasing pressure from climate change, pollution, and historic degradation.

To combat this decline, there is growing interest in undertaking marine and coastal nature restoration across Scotland, especially through activities that can be described as active restoration: the creation or reintroduction of habitats and species. Examples of this are restoring seagrass meadows, seeding native oysters and other shellfish, saltmarsh planting, replenishing sand dunes, planting trees along rivers to support salmon populations, seabird reintroduction, and many others. (Scot Gov)