North Ayrshire Nature Network

North Ayrshire Council are working to deliver the North Ayrshire Nature Network (NANN) as part of the wider Scottish Nature Network.

The Council are looking to deliver the Nature Network best suited to North Ayrshire. The Council aims to do this by using local knowledge and paying attention to local ecological conditions. To do this the vision for the North Ayrshire Nature Network (NANN) has been made using the Scottish Government’s best practice guidance.

The first step in this process was to identify the Council strategies that NANN would influence, and in turn would affect NANN (Delivery Principle 6: Policy & Mainstreaming). This process is key to the delivery of NANN. Failure to integrate NANN into the wider Council policy will result in the potential of the Nature Network concept not being fully realised in North Ayrshire.

Many of the strategies identified are at different stages of refreshment, adoption and delivery. This has resulted in many strategies not recognising the existence of NANN. By identifying these policies at an early stage, it will be possible to ensure that NANN becomes embedded in them when these strategies are refreshed.

Key to the embedding of NANN in the wider Council policy landscape was the Sustainable North Ayrshire Strategy 2024-2027. The Sustainable North Ayrshire Strategy outlines efforts to combat climate change. It details the Council’s roadmap. This includes nine strategic priorities, specific project actions and a Carbon Footprint and Project Register.

As luck would have it, the strategy was in development as the Draft Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 was published. For the first time the strategy sets out the link between climate change and biodiversity loss. The vision of the Sustainable North Ayrshire Strategy is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030, to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and to be Nature Positive by 2045. This sets the development of a Nature Network on an equal footing with actions for tackling climate change such as reducing area wide carbon emissions; developing and retrofitting both domestic and non-domestic properties; eradicating fuel poverty; strengthening the green economy and improving climate resilience of local communities. This sets the scene for the embedding of NANN in all future Council delivery strategies.

The strategy review has identified the need for the revision of the North Ayrshire Local Biodiversity Action Plan. The current NALBAP recognises the need for a landscape scale nature restoration project but has no mention of the Councils new commitment to halt biodiversity loss in North Ayrshire by 2030 and be nature positive by 2045, the upcoming biodiversity targets or the adoption of an Ayrshire wide Nature Network. The NALABP will require revision to align it with the new SBS content and timeframes.

The other key strategy for the implementation of NANN is the Local Development plan. Fortunately, North Ayrshire Local Development Plan 3 (LDP3) has just entered its evidence gathering stage. This has allowed work to begin on building the spatial mapping and related details into the evidence planning stage. NANN will be fully embedded in LDP3 when it is adopted in 2027.

To further embed NANN in Council policy a NANN Strategy document was developed. The draft NANN strategy is in the process of being submitted for ratification.

The next stage of the NANN delivery process was the undertaking of an internal stakeholder identification process (Delivery Principle 2: Participation, engagement and communication). The process was undertaken using Medelow’s matrix. The matrix helped identify stakeholders’ interest and ability to influence the development of NANN. This process helped to identify Council officers key to the delivery of NANN.

The key officers were made the focus of an internal consultation process. The consultation process had two elements. An online workshop and a prerecorded power point presentation. The prerecorded presentation was made available to all senior managers.  Both elements captured feedback through an imbedded MS Forms. This enabled feedback to be captured from those senior managers who were unable to attend the live workshop. Senior Manager feedback was then used to redraft/reshape elements within the draft NANN strategy

As part of the wider community engagement the Medelow’s matrix will be used to develop a focused community engagement plan. This community engagement process will piggyback on community engagement sessions being rolled out as part of the LDP3 evidence gathering process.

NANN will only be delivered through partnership working. The Council is short of capacity and the required skills to deliver on even a core network based on its own land holdings. To counter this the Council has looked to develop key partnerships.

The North Ayrshire Biodiversity Partnership (NABP) will be key in developing NANN. NABP regular meetings occur quarterly. A NANN steering group would involve additional commitment by NABP members. Due to the level of commitment required it has been put to NABP to define their own involvement with NANN. The partnership will meet to define their terms of engagement.

The Council has been working in partnership with the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and South Ayrshire Council to deliver the Ayrshire Nature Network. North Ayrshire Council has contributed £100,000 to the Ayrshire Nectar Network using money from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). The Ayrshire Nectar Network is a project led by SWT to create and connect nectar and pollen-rich habitats in North and South Ayrshire.

The Council’s funding agreement with SWT stipulates that the project will:

• Carry out habitat opportunity mapping using a GIS model to identify viable gap sites in the pollinator habitat network.
• Monitor and evaluate impacts of activities on pollinator populations at various sites within the Nectar Network using SWT’s bespoke landscape scale monitoring method, combining professional techniques paired with citizen science. This includes 3 created meadow sites within North Ayrshire managed by the Council along with a nearby amenity grassland site as control.
• Facilitate and deliver large scale habitat creation and enhancement working with the Council and other landowners, including the providence of advice on ground preparation, use of green hay, wildflower sowing, tree planting and bringing existing meadows under appropriate management.
• Establish Pollinator Friendly Communities to support communities to take community lead action to enhance and manage the habitat in their community for pollinating insects.
• Work with local communities and partners to agree a plan for habitat creation and enhancement.
• Facilitate and deliver skills training and experience in seed collection, sowing and native tree propagation with the development of a North Ayrshire based plant nursery based at Eglinton Community Gardens.
• Provide experience and skills training in habitat creation and management, pollinator and botanical ID and monitoring to local groups and volunteers.

These co-benefits will help the Council start to address some of the capacity and skills gaps that have been identified as barriers towards delivering NANN.