CREW Code: CRW2024_04
Theme: Land and Water Resource Management
Project status: Project complete. Click here to visit the publication page to view the project outputs.
Type of project: Capacity Building Project
Lead research team: SRUC
Scotland is globally renowned for its natural resources like clean rivers, rich wildlife, heather moorlands and fresh air. Protecting, enhancing and restoring these resources provides us with many benefits and is essential to safeguard our future environment, wellbeing and the economy. River Basin Management Planning (RBMP) provides a framework to reduce pressures on Scotland’s water environment and protect and enhance the benefits that our rivers, lochs, wetlands and groundwaters provide.
In the past, RBMP has focussed mainly on actions close to rivers, potentially missing opportunities to restore natural resources across the wider river catchment. Going forward, RBMP provides an opportunity to adopt a natural capital approach, building our understanding of the range of benefits that restoring nature provides and ensuring that these are better incorporated into decision-making.
This project aimed to build our understanding of how natural resources within catchments influence the water environment and the benefits provided. This will inform future policy and help identify and prioritise actions to protect, enhance and restore these resources.