News on Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Partnership Plan 2024-29

Today, we have published what we are recommending as the Final National Park Partnership Plan for 2024-2029. This Plan will set the strategic direction for the work the National Park Authority and the many other named partners within the Plan from 2024-2029.

The Plan sets an ambitious vision for what Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park will be like by 2045:

By 2045… the National Park is a thriving place that is nature positive and carbon negative .

The Plan expands on what we mean by these terms:

A thriving place is one where our communities and businesses can live and work in sustainable and climate resilient places, and people can meet most of their daily needs as locally as possible, supported by a good range of services, homes, jobs and training opportunities. People living, working and visiting the Park feel connected to it as a valued place, with positive relationships with the area’s nature, landscape, culture and heritage, as well as with one another, ensuring strong social networks and supporting health and wellbeing.

Nature positive means that nature loss has been halted and reversed so that nature in the National Park is more abundant. Through the work set out in the Future Nature Route Map, we have committed to ensure the decline in nature has been halted by 2030 and that there is widespread restoration of nature across the National Park by 2040.

Carbon negative (or carbon sink) means that the National Park as a place (both through its land and the activities that take place here) is absorbing more carbon than it emits. Our aim is to become a Net Zero National Park by no later than 2035. This target date would mean that the National Park is supporting the level of change needed for the UK to meet its obligations under the Paris Agreement and will help Scotland become a Net Zero Nation by 2045.

The National Park Authority and its partners are focused on reversing the decline in nature in the Park by 2030 (widely restoring it by 2040) and making the National Park at Net Zero place by 2035 (and significant carbon sink beyond that). There’s no doubt this is ambitious, but that is what’s needed if we’re going to make the impact that is needed to make that 2045 vision a reality.

The Plan has moved on from the Draft Plan that we asked for feedback on earlier in the year. What we heard through the consultation and from partner organisations since has helped shape the final Plan. The support for much of what was proposed in the Draft Plan, the challenge that came on some proposals and the ideas and perspectives we hadn’t necessarily considered have all helped us refine what’s gone into the Final Plan.

In December the National Park Authority Board will be asked to approve the final Plan to go to Scottish Government for their Ministerial approval. The papers for the December Board meeting include a covering paper that sets the context for the final Plan, the Final Plan in a text format, and a set of Appendices, that provide more detail on the what’s in the Plan itself.

We’ve done our best to make this final Plan easier to read, shorter and more focused on what needs to be delivered and how we’ll know if we’ve succeeded. We’ve removed as much jargon as we can and provided a glossary for any terms that might need further explanation. If you spot any terms in it that you think need further explanation please let us know by emailing nationalparkplan@lochlomond-trossachs.org

Once this has been discussed by our Board, and when they are happy to approve it, we will submit the Plan to Scottish Government Ministers for their approval. We’ll be working away in the background on ways to bring the Final Plan to life for everyone. We’ll keep using Commonplace to provide updates to you. If there’s any area that you’re particularly keen to hear more about contact us at nationalparkplan@lochlomond-trossachs.org