The State of Scotland's Environment and Natural Heritage

In the decade since 1992 there have been many new initiatives in Scotland aimed at achieving greater sustainability. These include the multitude of Biodiversity Action Plans at both national and local levels, as well as the development of the Agenda 21 process, again both nationally and locally. Scottish Natural Heritage came into being in 1992, and has published two important reports on the state of Scotland's natural heritage. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency was established in 1996 and has produced major reports on the state of Scotland's air, land and water environments.

This conference volume brings together the work of both SEPA and SNH with that of many other people who care for the ‘health’ of Scotland's natural heritage and environment generally. The chapters in the book synthesise what is known about the current state of both the environment and the natural heritage, as well as exploring the trends which are currently taking place and predictions about the future. This is focused on achieving greater sustainability in Scotland.

Copies of the book (price £35 + £3 p&p) can be ordered from The Stationery Office Bookshop, 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9AZ, UK. E-mail enquiries should be sent to TSObookshop.edinburgh@tso.co.uk. The book can be ordered from the TSO online bookstore. The book’s ISBN number is 0 11 497306 7.

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Contents

Foreword Allan Wilson MSP, Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development

Part 1: Scotland in Context

• Scotland in a European context: natural heritage and environmental trends - E.C. Mackey
• Scotland's environment: a European opportunity - Jim Currie
• Nature in Scotland and the Nordic countries: similarities and differences - Eeva-Liisa Hallanaro and Guy Söderman
• Land Cover Map 2000 – a data resource for Scotland - G.M. Smith and R.M. Fuller

Part 2: Scotland's Land, Air and Water

• The land resources of Scotland: trends and prospects for the environment and natural heritage - R.V. Birnie, J. Curran, J.A. MacDonald, E.C. Mackey, C.D. Campbell, G. McGowan, S.C.F. Palmer, E. Paterson, P. Shaw and M.C. Shewry
• Non-native species in Scotland - Julian Holbrook and Jeanette Hall
• Air pollution and atmospheric deposition in Scotland: environmental and natural heritage trends - D. Fowler, G.G. McFadyen, N.E. Ellis and W. MacGregor
• Modelling heavy metal deposition across Scotland - A.G. McDonald, E. Nemitz, U. Dragosits, M.A. Sutton and D. Fowler
• The state of Scotland's fresh waters - C. Ross Doughty, Philip J. Boon and Peter S. Maitland
• Environmental change in Scottish fresh waters - H. Bennion, G. Simpson, R.W. Battarbee, N.G. Cameron, C. Curtis, R.J. Flower, M. Hughes, V.J. Jones, M. Kernan, D.T. Monteith, S.T. Patrick, N.L. Rose, C.D. Sayer and H. Yang
• Conservation and restoration case study: the Millennium Link canal - Olivia L. Lassière
• The state of Scotland's seas - Graham Saunders, Judy Dobson and Anton Edwards
• Long term trends in mercury in the Forth Estuary - J.E. Dobson
• Temporal and spatial trends of organochlorine and mercury contamination in gannet eggs - H.M. Malcolm, D. Osborn, T.H. Sparks, C. Wienburg, L.C. Dale, I. Newton and R.F. Shore
• The Atlantic salmon: a case study of Scotland's environment and natural heritage - John Baxter and Peter Hutchinson -

Part 3: Issues Influencing Sustainability

• Managing the impacts of climate change on the natural environment - Andy Kerr and Noranne Ellis
• The potential impact of climate change on the hydrothermal regime of selected rivers draining the Cairngorms - S.J. Langan, L. Johnston, M. Donaghy and A. Youngson
• Scotland's biodiversity: trends, changing perceptions and planning for action - Michael B. Usher
• Hazardous substances: chemical, biological, radioactive - Ken Pugh

Part 4: Towards a Sustainable Scotland

• The role of indicators in reporting the state of Scotland and its environment - K. Dunion, J. Holbrook and B. Sargent
• Governing for a sustainable Scotland - Tim O’Riordan
• Sustaining Scotland's environment - Roger Crofts and Tricia Hento