Identifying local priorities

A project run by Scottish Natural Heritage has developed an ecologically based framework to help LBAP Partners prioritise actions for priority habitats and species in their area.

The main output will be a "traffic light" list that will to identify which national priorities lie within each LBAP area and help to focus limited resources most effectively. The outputs from this project will be made freely available on the web so that LBAPs and others may use it to inform priorities within their biodiversity programmes.

The final report will make recommendations on how the resulting data might be presented in a simple to use web-based system and be integrated with the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway  .

The objectives of this work are to:

1. Identify which priority habitats and species are relevant to delivery in Scotland, in consultation with the Scottish Biodiversity Forum Ecosystem Groups.

2. Determine selection criteria to establish which LBAP areas are suitable for delivery for each species and habitat as identified in 1 above.

3. Establish criteria for evaluating the sign-posted actions for species and relevant Habitat Action Plan actions, where they exist, to determine which actions are suitable for local delivery.

4. Develop a simple traffic light system which clearly prioritises species actions and habitat actions within each LBAP area.

5. Gather relevant information on status and trends, such as distribution, population size/ extent and threats, that will help set the selected habitats and species in a local, Scottish and UK context and provide links to autoecology and habitat management guidance where these exist.

6. Make recommendations on how to present the outputs from 4 and 5 above in a user-friendly way that provides LBAPs with simple guidance on priorities for local action.