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Biodiversity and community owned land in Scotland – an analysis by UHI

2 July 2025

This image shows a small group of people working outdoors on a hillside covered in low, brownish vegetation. They are engaged in what appears to be a tree planting or reforestation activity. Each person is bent over the ground, handling green plastic tree guards and small saplings. Numerous wooden stakes and protective tubes are visible across the area, marking where young trees have been or will be planted. Behind them is a dense patch of young conifer trees, and beyond that, the hillside rises steeply, covered in a mix of heather and scattered deciduous trees showing autumn colors—greens, yellows, and browns. The sky is clear and bright blue, suggesting a sunny, crisp day. The scene conveys environmental restoration, community effort, and care for the land.
The Centre of Mountain Studies at the University of Highlands and Islands has produced a report on how to measure biodiversity on community-owned land. 
 
The report  highlights the need for better methods to measure levels of biodiversity, which will allow true assessments of success or failure, in what is a key strategy to address the climate and biodiversity crises.
 
This comes at a particularly critical moment as the Scottish Government is beginning to contemplate introducing an Ecosystem Restoration Code, which would seek to encourage private investment into biodiversity projects. Such a mechanism will only have ecological integrity if there is a viable means of measuring biodiversity ‘gain’.
Biodiversity is essentially the mix of all life forms in any particular location.
 
Enhancing and preserving biodiversity across Scotland is rightly a government priority.
 
But this new work from UHI concludes that there is no universal standard to measure biodiversity. Thus measuring success or failure of biodiversity initiatives is extremely challenging. 
 
The report, which focused on biodiversity assessments on community-owned land,  suggests that ‘Community landowners cannot know if or how they are achieving their biodiversity objectives if they lack the resources to monitor them.’
 
The report also found that, community ownership  is inherently geared towards biodiversity with, ‘12 of the 18 largest community landowners directly constituted to ‘conserving, protecting or enhancing the environment or natural heritage, and with environmental sustainability central to community aspirations.’
 
As well as standardising the way in which biodiversity is measured, the report recommends local people – with their often-detailed understanding of the area – should become more involved in the designing and carrying out biological monitoring.  It also calls for specific measurable targets for landowners around biodiversity objectives.
 
This image shows a wide, open moorland landscape under a bright blue sky with wispy white clouds. The terrain is covered in brownish vegetation, typical of peatland or heathland. In the foreground and midground are two teal-colored excavators (construction vehicles with long arms and scooping buckets). The closer one is more detailed and positioned left of center, while the second one appears farther away on the right side of the image. Both excavators are engaged in work on the peatland, possibly part of a restoration project. In the background, a large hill rises with two tall vertical structures visible on the summit: one appears to be a radio mast, and the other is a stone obelisk or monument. The overall mood of the image is serene and natural, with a focus on environmental management.
The report also found that making assessments of land use and management across Scotland is unnecessarily challenging due to the lack of land data and lack of transparency. In order to have robust climate and biodiversity projects there needs to be readily available data on land boundaries, ownership and land use so that successes, failures and differences can be assessed in our fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
 
The lack of transparency and clarity on land data and biodiversity measures will be a serious impediment to implementing an Ecological Restoration code – which the Scottish Government is currently consulting on.
Community Land Scotland, Director of Policy and Advocacy,  Dr Josh Doble, said  ‘This research from the UHI is very welcome, as it clearly demonstrates the issues inherent in Scottish landownership data and how to accurately measure biodiversity. It provides important pause for thought as the Scottish Government consults on how to leverage in private finance to biodiversity recovery. 
 
For our members there are important findings regarding the number of key ecological sites they are custodians of, as well as where ecological recovery needs to take place.’  ‘We wholeheartedly agree with UHI that community-led biological monitoring should have a far more prominent place in biodiversity assessments as well as the need for much stronger data to assist all landowners in understanding what biodiversity actions need to happen on their land.’
 
UHI, Researcher, Dr Mike Daniels, said  ‘It is surprising, given the high priority of biodiversity in public policy, how difficult it is to get data on biodiversity outcomes for specific areas of land. Scotland needs better availability of land ownership data and greater transparency on how it is managed.’
Information:

To learn more please contact Dr Josh Doble.

Full report can be viewed @ Latest Reports and Research