Environment

Scottish Forestry is investing £2 million towards timber transport projects across Scotland. The funding will help decarbonise the forestry sector and reduce the impacts of timber lorries on communities and the environment.  

In response to growing concerns in the Scottish farming sector about the suspected role of badgers in killing and eating lambs, a study was carried out by Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) in partnership with NatureScot, National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) and Scottish Land & Estates (SLE).

A new project from Trees for Life and Woodland Trust Scotland aims to discover Scotland’s ‘lost’ native pinewoods – home to wild Scots pines with an ancestry that can be traced back to the end of the last ice age – so they can be saved and restored before it’s too late.

More than £7 million has been awarded to 517 rural businesses in 2023 from the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS). 

Overall, £27m will be paid over the lifetime of the contracts to applicants, to help support land management activities that will benefit nature and mitigate against climate change.

A ban on the use of snare traps in Scotland has reached a key parliamentary milestone.

As part of Stage 2 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill, the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee voted in favour of Environment Minister Gillian Martin’s amendment to ban the use of snares.

The Scottish Government is proposing to make new laws around the heating systems that can be used in homes and places of work, which will help Scotland reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reach its legal binding ‘net zero’ targets.