SCOTS think that their country’s natural environment is worsening and that the Scottish Government isn’t doing enough to protect it, new polling has found.
The survey, conducted by Survation for Scottish Environment LINK – a forum representing around 50 members including the National Trust for Scotland, the WWF, the Soil Association, RSPB Scotland, and the Woodland Trust – found that the plurality of Scots (44%) think the country’s natural environment has worsened in their lifetime.
Scottish Environment LINK said this showed that a growing number of people in Scotland say the state of our natural environment is getting worse, pointing to previous polling from 2022 in which 39% said Scotland’s natural environment has worsened in their lifetime.
Around one-third of Scots (31%) said that Scotland’s natural world has remained about the same, while just 16% said it had improved. The remaining 9% said they did not know.
Elsewhere, the Survation poll found that half of Scots (49%) do not think that the SNP Government is doing enough to protect the environment. Around one-third (32%) said it was doing the right amount, while 5% said it was doing “too much to protect the environment”.
The coalition Scottish Environment LINK said that the findings should be a wake-up call ahead of John Swinney’s Programme for Government, which is expected to be delivered next week.
Deborah Long, the chief executive of Scottish Environment LINK, said: "The loss of Scotland’s nature in our own lifetimes has been dramatic, and people are really noticing it. You don’t need to have lived for a long time to witness the damage – young people in their twenties will be seeing much fewer insects and birds than they did in their childhoods.
“Sometimes the loss is quite sudden and shocking, such as with bird flu or this summer’s wildfires, and these events are increasing people’s awareness of what’s at stake.
"Our polling makes it clear that there’s strong demand for action to protect Scotland’s environment.
“John Swinney's government should take heed and show that it’s taking this crisis seriously by putting the action in place to protect and restore the nature we all rely on.”
Jeff Waddell, the National Trust for Scotland's head of nature conservation, said: "As a major conservation charity, our own Plan for Nature is helping restore nature across our sites and we’ve shown that it’s possible to reverse the degradation of habitats and protect threatened species through targeted investment. We need similar ambition from government if we are to stop nature decline by 2030 and reverse it by 2045.
“The Scottish Government needs to fully fund environmental protection, reduce adverse impacts from land use, and have robust delivery plans for nature recovery."
Climate Action and Rural Affairs Secretary Gillian Martin said: “Protecting and restoring nature is absolutely imperative to our response to the climate and nature crisis. We are seeing real progress in addressing the challenges that have arisen, including the benefits communities across the country are seeing from the investment of more than £75m through the Nature Restoration Fund, and the matched funding it encourages.
“We know that this is just the start, and our Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery Plan set out clear, long term goals for what we want to achieve. This poll shows how important this issue is to people and we will continue to work with all our partners, including Scottish Environment Link, to tackle nature loss and climate change and restore biodiversity.”
