8th April 2026

In March the Cabinet Secretary for climate action and energy approved a final list of nine Scottish Biodiversity Delivery Plan 2024-2030 exemplars of which the South Esk catchment and Angus Glens is one.

The purpose of the exemplar projects is to demonstrate new ways to accelerate and scale up nature restoration, building on the experience of earlier initiatives and the good work delivered on the ground.

NatureScot is working with SEPA, Forestry and Land Scotland, Scottish Forestry and Scottish Water to prioritise and support landscape scale projects across Scotland. 

Being an exemplar project means that these agencies will:

• Prioritise staff time to engage in exemplar project, supporting governance and delivery;
• Maximise the use of existing funding streams to support delivery of nature restoration in project areas;
• Focus our efforts on removing barriers to delivery, such as: Deer management, nature finance, invasive non-native species control and tackling regulatory barriers;
• Work with exemplars to maximise the delivery of Nature 30 sites and Nature Networks;
• Support the development of climate resilience in projects, particularly at catchment scale and benefitting drinking water supplies; and
• Prioritise projects that support climate resilience, and particularly those which reduce flood risk, water scarcity and fire risk; and protect water quality.

Next steps include developing a project plan to determine how agencies can best support the South Esk catchment and Angus Glens project. A new national community of practice will be developed in 2026 to share learning and experience with the other exemplars and landscape scale projects across Scotland.

Further information can be found on the NatureScot website, Nature Restoration at Landscape Scale