Local Authorities - Nature Networks

Guidance for Local Authority staff tasked with the spatial design, mapping and delivery of Nature Networks.

Page last updated 3 March, 2026

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Read the Nature Networks for Planning Authorities guidance
LINK
By NatureScotA simplifier outlining how planning authorities apply the requirements of NPF4 for Nature Networks into Local Development Plans.
Read supporting information on the Nature Restoration Fund
PDF
By NatureScotThe Scottish Government provided Local Authorities with £5 million capital funding for Nature Networks. The Nature Networks Framework, along with this supporting information should be used in the allocation of this money.
Check out our information on Decision Support Tools
LINK
By Nature Networks ToolboxLocal authorities have been tasked with spatially identifying their Nature Networks. There are a number of data sources and decision support tools available to assist local authorities in starting to explore where Nature Networks could go.
Find out more about the Nature Networks Tool being developed by AECOM
LINK
By Nature Networks ToolboxNatureScot and Scottish Wildlife Trust are co-sponsoring a Challenge in CivTech 8 which looks to address how technology can help to create a nature network across all of the different areas of Scotland.
Read the Local Nature Conservation Sites guidance
LINK
By NatureScotAimed at local authorities, LNCS partnerships, Local Biodiversity Action Plan partners, eNGOs, developers, planners and ecologists, the guidance reiterates that LNCS can make a significant contribution to local nature networks and building a nature-positive future improving the health and resilience.
Read Plantlife's guidance on designing a nature network
LINK
By PlantlifeGuidance to support local authorities in Scotland in designing Nature Networks that deliver for plants, fungi, and planet.
Read guidance on using NRF funds to deliver Nature Networks
LINK
By NatureScot

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Glossary

30 by 30
Target 3 in the Global Biodiversity Framework “Ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed through ecologically representative, well-connected and equitably governed systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, recognizing indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable, and integrated into wider landscapes, seascapes and the ocean, while ensuring that any sustainable use, where appropriate in such areas, is fully consistent with conservation outcomes, recognizing and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, including over their traditional territories”. For Scotland 30 by 30 sites are made up of Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs).
Corridors
A geographically defined area which allows species to move between landscapes, ecosystems and habitats, natural or modified, and ensures the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological and evolutionary processes. (IPBES)
Ecosystem health
Ecosystem health is a metaphor used to describe the condition of an ecosystem, by analogy with human health. Note that there is no universally accepted benchmark for a healthy ecosystem. Rather, the apparent health status of an ecosystem can vary, depending upon which metrics are employed in judging it, and which societal aspirations are driving the assessment and ecological and evolutionary processes (IPBES).
Ecosystem services
Processes by which the environment produces benefits useful to people, akin to economic services (CBD).
Mainstreaming
In the context of biodiversity, means integrating actions or policies related to biodiversity into broader development processes or policies, such as those aimed at poverty reduction or tackling climate change (IPBES).
Nature based solution
Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human wellbeing and biodiversity benefits (IUCN).
Nature Networks
A Nature Network connects nature-rich sites, restoration areas, and other environmental projects through a series of areas of suitable habitat, habitat corridors and stepping-stones.
Private finance
Financial flow from the private sector (not under government control)
Protected area
A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values (IUCN).
Stepping stones
A habitat patch in a landscape that facilitates movement or offers refuge to species.
Wildlife friendly
Areas that provides a level of food and shelter or similar to support wildlife with minimal levels of disturbance.

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