IPAs in Scotland • 2 • 5 • 6 • 3 • 4 • 15 • 10 • 11 • 14 • 16 • 12 • 13 • 9 • 7 • 8 • 17 • 19 • 21 • 26 • 29 • 23 • 25 • 27 31 • • 33 • 18 • 28 • 32 • 24 • 20 • 22 • 30 • 40 • 34 • 39 • 41 • 45 • 35 • 37 • 38 • 44 • 36 • 43 • 42 • 47 • 46 2 Contents Contents • 1 4 Foreword 6 Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures 12 Protection and management 13 Threats 14 Land use 17 Planning and land use 18 Land management 20 Rebuilding healthy ecosystems 21 Protected areas Code IPA name 22 Better targeting of 1 Shetland 25 Glen Coe and Mamores resources and support 2 Mainland Orkney 26 Ben Nevis and the 24 What’s next for 3 Harris and Lewis Grey Corries Scotland’s IPAs? 4 Ben Mor, Assunt/ 27 Rannoch Moor 26 The last word Ichnadamph 28 Breadalbane Mountains 5 North Coast of Scotland 29 Ben Alder and Cover – Glen Coe 6 Caithness and Sutherland Aonach Beag ©Laurie Campbell Peatlands 30 Crieff Woods 7 Uists 31 Dunkeld-Blairgowrie 8 South West Skye Lochs 9 Strathglass Complex 32 Milton Wood 10 Sgurr Mor 33 Den of Airlie 11 Ben Wyvis 34 Colonsay 12 Black Wood of Rannoch 35 Beinn Bheigier, Islay 13 Moniack Gorge 36 Isle of Arran 14 Rosemarkie to 37 Isle of Cumbrae Shandwick Coast 38 Bankhead Moss, Beith 15 Dornoch Firth and 39 Loch Lomond Woods Morrich More 40 Flanders Moss 16 Culbin Sands and Bar 41 Roslin Glen 17 Cairngorms 42 Clearburn Loch 18 Coll and Tiree 43 Lochs and Mires of the 19 Rum Ale and Ettrick Waters 20 Ardmeanach 44 South East Scotland 21 Eigg Basalt Outcrops 22 Mull Oakwoods 45 River Tweed 23 West Coast of Scotland 46 Carsegowan Moss 24 Isle of Lismore 47 Merrick Kells Citation Author Plantlife (2015) Dr Deborah Long with editorial Scotland’s Important comment from Ben McCarthy. Plant Areas Maps and data analysis by Plantlife: Stirling Beth Halski Scotland’s Important Plant Areas 3 Foreword On the edge of Europe and with the Atlantic crashing its shores, Scotland is home to a huge diversity of habitats that provide a haven to wildlife adapted to both the warm, dry continent and those that thrive in warmer, wet oceanic conditions. Add to this our rich geology and Scotland really is a treasure chest. Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are nature sites of exceptional botanical richness, supporting internationally significant wild plants. Just under 10% of Scotland is covered by IPAs, so recognising this kaleidoscopic diversity. This treasure trove needs to be cherished and protected. Careful management of the plant communities allows the ecosystems they drive to be more resilient and continue to provide key services such as clean water and carbon capture. But our wild plants offer so much more than this – they are key to our heritage, our culture and our livelihoods. They represent our most iconic landscapes: Ben Lawers and the Breadalbane mountains, the machair of Harris and Tiree, the coastal grasslands of the north coast, home to Scottish primrose, and the Celtic rainforest of the west coast. This report showcases the fantastic and awe-inspiring Important Plant Areas that we have in Scotland. It provides an insight into how we are working to celebrate their significance and deal with the pressures they face. Together, we can build stronger and more resilient ecosystems and invest in Scotland’s future through its natural environment. Why does Plantlife focus our conservation work on Important Plant Areas? 4 Foreword Aonach Beag in the Nevis range ©Dominic Habron Scotland’s Important Plant Areas 5 Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures IPA boundaries are identified using a two-stage process that maps: • Core areas where the qualifying species and habitats are present. They may consist of a single area or several unconnected areas comprising a series of plant sites. Top right: Atlantic woodland at • Zones of opportunity are adjacent areas, into Taynish, in the West Coast IPA. which the key species or habitats could expand, Bottom right: the sands if the land management is supportive. These at Huisnis, backed by machair are shown as a series of zones around the core and the Harris Hills beyond areas, filtered using key environmental factors that identify areas with the greatest potential Below: the Leans of Munsary for expansion. on the banks of the Allt-nan Scaraig, part of the Caithness and Sutherland Peatland IPA. Burn in Plantlife’s Munsary reserve, Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands IPA ©Michael Scott/Plantlife Munsary reserve, ©Michael Sutherland and Peatlands Caithness IPA Burn Plantlife’s in 6 Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures Scotland’s Important Plant Areas River running through the Cairngorms IPA ©Bob Gibbons/Plantlife 7 Bryophyte rich Atlantic Woodlands, West Coast IPA ©Sue Cooper/Plantlife Number and size of IPAs Scotland is home to 47 IPAs, covering 698,703ha between them, 9% of the entire land cover. Scotland’s IPA network includes large mountain ranges, entire islands and coastal regions. Over 60% of the Scottish IPAs have an area of 1,000 or more hectares. Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands, Cairngorms and the West Coast IPAs are all larger than 100,000ha. Qualifying criteria IPAs have been identified using at least one of three standard, internationally agreed criteria: the presence of threatened species (examples pictured below), a very high diversity of species (see graphic opposite), and the presence of threatened habitats.1 IPAs can contain a wide range of habitats and species and are rarely identified on the presence of one type of plant or habitat or under a single criterion. For example, 81% of Scotland’s IPAs qualify because of the high species diversity and 68% qualify because they contain a threatened habitat. Eight IPAs qualify under all three criteria. ©Gordon Rothero Adelanthus lindenbergianus Adelanthus scoticum ©Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Adelanthus lindenbergianus, a moss commonly known as Lindenberg’s featherwort, only found on Beinn Bheigier ssp. fontanum Cerastium IPA in Scotland. ©Gordon Rothero Cerastium fontanum ssp. scoticum, Scottish mouse-ear, found in the Cairngorms. Daltonia splachnoides Daltonia splachnoides, Irish daltonia, found in the Atlantic woodland in the West Coast of Scotland IPA. 1. Anderson, S (2002) Identifying Important Plant Areas. www.plantlife.org.uk 8 Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures Habitats with a large number of species-rich sites across Scotland Broadleaved deciduous Inland cliffs, rock woodland 13 IPAs pavements & outcrops 10 IPAs Coastal dune & sand habitats 9 IPAs Raised & Surface blanket bogs standing 9 IPAs waters 9 IPAs Alpine & sub-alpine grasslands 7 IPAs Scotland’sScotland Important Farmland Plant Report Areas 9 A typical woodland ravine in Argyll may contain as many as 200 species, which is comparable to the richest tropical rainforests...2 In Scotland, 27% of sites identified as exceptionally species-rich IPAs are broadleaved deciduous woodland. This is largely due to the high diversity of bryophytes and lichens found in these woodlands. Other species-rich habitats in Scotland include the Caledonian pinewoods, which lie at the intersection of the northern “boreal” zone, with habitats and species characteristic of Scandinavia, and the “temperate rainforest” zone, with species at home in very wet Atlantic woodland. This creates the special oceanic boreal forest, which is rare globally, and has highly unusual communities. A third type of species-rich landscape, typical of Scotland, is machair sites, which is home to a high diversity of coastal and sand dune plants. In a 1 metre square patch of typical machair, up to 45 species can be found.3 Scotland’s IPAs are also home to a wide range of habitat types. Number of IPAs by threatened habitat type in Scotland 15 14 12 12 9 9 5 5 Various ©Plantlife habitats Inland Bog & Grassland Scrub Forest Scree/rock Coastal & Dune water wetland & heath /stone halophytic Freshwater habitat types feature strongly in IPAs and include inland water habitats and bog and wetland habitat types. These sites are where we might find the slender naiad, Najus flexilis, and stoneworts – ancient unique underwater algae, many with a calcium carbonate structure, that only grow in very clean fresh and salt water. 2. Porley, R & Hodgetts, N (2005) Mosses and Liverworts. The New Naturalist Library, Collins. London. 3. Love, J (2003) Machair. Scotland’s Living Landscapes. SNH. Battleby. 10 Scotland’s IPAs: facts and figures Major habitat types on IPAs Major Total no. % of 100% >49% or Cover <25% or unknown habitat of IPAs total cover major 25% minor IPAs (47) cover –49% cover Mire, Bog & Fen 24 51 0 17 0 4 3 Woodland & Forest 22 47 0 16 0 5 1 Inland Surface Water 22 47 0 9 0 9 4 Grassland & Tall Forb 21 45 0 9 0 6 6 Inland Unvegetated/Sparse 17 36 0 6 0 5 6 Heathland, Scrub, Tundra 17 36 0 12 1 2 2 Coastal 15 32 0 8 0 7 0 Marine 6 13 0 2 0 4 0 Constructed, industrial 5 11 0 0 0 5 0 & other artificial habitats Other 4 9 0 0 0 0 4 Cultivated, Agricult, Domestic 2 4 0 0 0 1 1 Mire, Bog & Fen Woodland & Forest Inland Surface Water 24 Total no. of IPAs 22 Total no. of IPAs 22 Total no. of IPAs 17 >49% or major cover 16 >49% or major cover 9 >49% or major cover 4 <25% or minor cover 5 <25% or minor cover 9 <25% or minor cover 3 unknown 1 unknown 4 unknown Grassland & Tall Forb Heathland, Scrub, Tundra 22 Total no. of IPAs 17 Total no. of IPAs 16 >49% or major cover 12 >49% or major cover 5 <25% or minor cover 2 <25% or minor cover 1 unknown 2 unknown Scotland’s Important Plant Areas 11 Protection and management 96% of Scotland’s IPAs overlap, either wholly or in part, with some level of protected area designation: 311 nationally important SSSIs overlap with 43 IPAs, and 114 Special Areas of Conservation of European importance overlap with 24 IPAs.