Capercaillie Emergency Plan 2025 - 2030 - Flipbook - Page 9
Research and monitoring plan
A Scientific Advisory Group, chaired by NatureScot and composed of academics
and technical experts in capercaillie and forest ecology will develop and oversee
a comprehensive research and monitoring plan to assess the effectiveness of the
management actions within this Emergency Plan. The critical question being:
are the positive influences of the management actions sufficient to increase the
UK capercaillie population.
An Integrated Population Model will be key to answering this question by enabling
historical survey data to be combined with new evidence e.g. improvement on nest
or chick survival in response to diversionary feeding, or juvenile survival in response
to fence removal. Using this data, the model can predict the future trajectory of the
UK capercaillie population and inform adaptive management and the prioritisation
of actions and funding where necessary. The Capercaillie Integrated Population
Model developed by the University of Glasgow is particularly well-suited for this
task and will be adopted to annually review and update this Emergency Plan.
Findings, key insights and recommendations from interim data analysis will also be
fed back to the Programme Board on a rolling basis to enable timely adjustments
to strategies as needed. New scientific findings may also identify a need to adjust
approaches, and the research and monitoring plan will be reviewed and updated
as required to reflect adapted approaches and incorporate new information.
CaperMap will be used to present research and monitoring data spatially and in an
accessible format to enable a collective understanding of progress and where
adapted approaches are required. CaperMap has already proven effective as a
communication and planning tool within the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project.
Fundraising strategy
The estimated funding required to deliver this plan is outlined overleaf. A wide
range of public, private and voluntary mechanisms will need to be secured to
fund delivery. Whilst a significant amount of public funding is already directed
towards measures that benefit capercaillie conservation, public money and
resource alone will not cover the whole cost of delivery of the Emergency Plan.
Rather, it will act as a catalyst for driving inward investment from other sources.
The Cairngorms Capercaillie Project is a proven example of how a blended
finance model can be successfully applied to deliver benefit for capercaillie. The
project budget constituted over £900,000 of investment from private, public and
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