Natural Care - Introduction

From 2007, Natural Care will be integrated into the Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013. This will become the primary source of funding for land management in Scotland, including funding for management on SSSIs and Natura sites.

SSSIs and Natura sites are the country's very best wildlife and geological sites. They include some of our most spectacular and beautiful habitats – the wind-swept and wild west coast mountains, grasslands and pastures in the east, flower-rich meadows and machair, wetlands teeming with waders and waterfowl, majestic rivers and lochs, remote heather moorlands and our northern peatlands which form the most extensive tracts of blanket bog in the world.

It is essential to conserve our remaining natural heritage for future generations. Wildlife and geological features are under pressure from development, pollution, climate change and unsustainable land management. All SSSIs and Natura sites are important as they support plants and animals that find it more difficult to survive in the wider countryside. Protecting and managing these sites is a shared responsibility, and an investment for the benefit of future generations.

Natural Care was launched in October 2001 to help conserve and improve these wonderful places. It offers financial help to support land managers to manage SSSIs and Natura sites and to make sure that these sites are managed in the best possible way. Effective management is essential to conserve the special wildlife and geological features. Examples of the types of management needed to maintain SSSIs include:

• grazing animals at particular times of year
• controlled muirburn
• controlling water levels
• clearing scrub

The unique and varied habitats of SSSIs and Natura sites have developed over hundreds of years through management practices associated with grazing and forestry, and need active management to maintain their conservation interest. Scottish Natural Heritage works with over 10,000 separate owners and land managers, who work very hard to conserve these important sites.

Natural Care will help farmers and other land managers to improve and maintain the condition of SSSIs. Our aim is to use the knowledge and skills of land managers to help develop Management Schemes that will bring benefits to the natural heritage. Maintaining goodwill and building upon the enthusiasm, knowledge and interest of owners is vital to successfully manage these nationally and internationally important sites.

Both agricultural and sporting managers may be able to obtain financial assistance through Natural Care. Management Schemes provide standard management requirements and offer standard payments and are therefore quite different to the individually negotiated Management Agreements of the past. Because of this we hope that they are easier to understand and administer and provide fair payments to all, reflecting local conservation and other management needs.

• You can view the full range of Natural Care Management Schemes to see if there is one in your area or you can check with your local office.
• Natural Care Strategy - This publication gives the background to Natural Care and gives detail on how the programme has been developed
  

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Contacts

We are always keen to receive feedback on our Management Schemes. When developing schemes we recognise that it is important to try and make sure that we take into account the needs of farmers as much as the needs of the natural heritage.

Please tell us what you think.
You can email the Natural Care team at Natural.Care@snh.gov.uk

Natural Care Team
Scottish Natural Heritage
Battleby
Redgorton
PERTH
PH1 3EW
Tel. 01738 444177

(If you are emailing us to obtain a copy of a Natural Care publication, please state whether you would like an electronic or hard copy.)

Further information regarding the protection afforded SSSIs and other notified sites can be found here.