Biodiversity and conservation

Biodiversity is a shortened term for ‘biological diversity’. It means the richness and variety of all life on Earth.

There is a twin crisis of declining biodiversity and the ongoing climate crisis. Biodiversity loss speeds up climate change. The changing climate feeds biodiversity loss. The natural environment is being degraded across much of our land and seascapes. Scotland has half the biodiversity it used to have.

The Biodiversity Intactness Index measures biodiversity change. It uses abundance data on plants, fungi and animals worldwide.

Development, management and implementation of the North Ayrshire Local Biodiversity Action Plan document is carried out by the North Ayrshire Biodiversity Partnership (NABP). The NABP includes council officers, government bodies, conservation organisations, landowners, and private individuals. Shared goals are to:

• halt biodiversity loss in North Ayrshire by 2030
• be nature positive by 2045

Stakeholders work towards shared objectives and to agree priorities for the limited resources. The overall aim is to support, encourage and positively influence the conservation and enhancement of biological diversity.

North Ayrshire's Ranger Service works with communities and partner organisations to utilise, promote, and enhance green spaces and designated land.

The Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) supports projects to help tackle the nature and climate crises, working to restore Scotland’s biodiversity and increase resilience to climate change, while improving the health and wellbeing of local communities. North Ayrshire Council aims to ensure that our NRF allocation in North Ayrshire delivers the maximum benefit for local nature. To do so the Council intends to utilise some of the allocation to support local projects being delivered by our partners and local community groups. Local projects will be required to meet one of the NRF priority themes and be delivered before 31st March 2026. The NRF priority themes are as follows:

• habitat and species restoration: management for enhancement and connectivity
• freshwater restoration, including restoration of natural flows in rural catchments
• coastal and marine initiatives which promote restoration, recovery, enhancement or resilience
• control of invasive non-native species impacting on nature
• urban: enhancing and connecting nature across, and between, towns and cities

The council seeks proposals from partners and community organisations for projects that promote nature restoration in North Ayrshire. We would encourage small, medium and large-scale projects to be submitted for funding support:

• small scale projects from £50 to £1,000
• medium scale projects up to £5,000
• larger scale projects up to £10,000

The following are examples of measures that your project could take to deliver on the priority themes are for Urban Projects, making Space for Nature:

• wee Forests (purchase and planting of trees)
• rain gardens (construction and materials plus planting)
• improving Greenspace for Outdoor Learning (purchase and planting, equipment for outdoor learning, small access improvements)
• action for pollinators (equipment for maintaining wildflower areas/verges plus planting)
• improving condition and use of local nature reserves (purchase and planting, equipment for outdoor learning, small access improvements)
• greening active travel routes (purchase and planting)
• urban woodlands - Climate forests (purchase and planting)
• nature networks

Other themes for rural projects, helping nature recover

• planting of wildlife corridors, removal of barriers to movement, pollinator planting
• natural flood management actions such as connecting rivers with flood plains, pond creation, de-culverting, in-stream works for habitat and flow variability
• removal of invasive non-native species
• habitat and species enhancement works using native stock, enhancing natural coastal defences through marram, addressing coastal squeeze
• supporting building the evidence base to better inform restoration, recovery and wider enhancement efforts
• nature network

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The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 places a statutory biodiversity duty on all public bodies and office-holders to further the conservation of biodiversity. This includes having regard to the:

• Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
• Convention on Biological Diversity

The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 (WANE Act) requires that public bodies report on their compliance with the biodiversity duty.

North Ayrshire Council’s Biodiversity Duty Report 2020 - 2023.

NatureScot provides guidance on Biodiversity Duty.

Contact us to find out more, or get involved.

To reverse declines in biodiversity, it is vital to develop a robust network for nature. Nature Networks are being delivered across Scotland to help achieve this.

The North Ayrshire Nature Network (NANN) Strategy document, approved by Cabinet on Tuesday March 18 2025, will help by driving actions like regenerating the natural environment, empowering communities to play their part and improving habitat quality for wildlife.

Although the council is spearheading the NANN, communities across the six localities will be consulted and encouraged to get involved by doing things like identifying suitable habitat corridors. Schools and individual residents can also play their part by planting seeds for pollinators.