Draft Marine and Coastal Restoration Plan

The draft plan covers coastal, inshore (0-12 nautical miles) and offshore (12 – 200 nautical miles), and terrestrial restoration where it directly benefits marine and coastal habitats, or species that spend at least part of their life cycle in the marine environment.  In some areas objectives proposed will involve working with devolved administrations, including UKG where the devolution settlement requires.

The plan will focus primarily on supporting and enabling active restoration. Throughout the plan we use the following definitions:-

Active restoration is habitat (re)creation and species (re)introduction, and examples include those noted in the introduction like seagrass or saltmarsh planting, native oyster restoration and sand dune replenishment.

Pressure management, sometimes referred to as passive restoration, is the management of pressures to enable recovery of habitats and species. This can include restricting human activities, improving water quality, or measures such as management of predators, invasive, non-native species.

Active restoration and pressure management are both vital in supporting nature recovery. However, there are many policy programmes either already underway or upcoming that will deliver masures in relation to pressure management i.e. that seek to protect, recover and regenerate marine and coastal habitats and species.

The policy landscape in this space is busy, and as a result we consider that this plan can add the most value by focussing on active restoration while recognising that this is one part of a bigger picture. That is not to say pressure management is completely outwith the remit of this plan: we consider that it is included where it is needed to directly support active restoration efforts, and that it may become a priority for actions under future restoration plans in line with the five year review cycle noted above.

We have also considered whether active restoration should focus on areas where there is evidence a habitat or species was present at some time in the past. Evidence of historic presence of habitats and species can be a helpful consideration for identifying where suitable conditions for restoration might be present. However, historical data is not always available, complete or reliable, and environmental conditions within an area may have changed since observations were made.

Focussing solely on areas with historic presence would unnecessarily limit opportunities to undertake restoration activity and generate its associated benefits. Historic presence does remain an important factor that should be considered where possible in the development of restoration projects.

In line with our position on the role of historic presence, the plan will not look to a historical baseline(s) to stipulate what state we are restoring habitats or species to. Historic baselines, for example the emissions reduction target to reduce emissions against 1990 levels, can be useful in cases where data is available to support such an approach. However, this is not a feasible approach in relation to restoring marine habitats and species because of the complexity and variety of ecological factors and lack of historic data in the marine environment. The restoration plan will instead take a forward-looking approach towards improving our marine environment to contribute to achieving Good Environmental Status.

In February 2025 we introduced the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament, which is seeking powers to set biodiversity targets. Any future targets brought forward under this legislation, if passed, will need to be considered when the plan is reviewed and updated in future. For now, the marine and coastal restoration plan will not set targets for restoration nor be prescriptive in setting out specific areas or features to be restored. Instead, the plan will provide tools to improve understanding of what could be restored and where.