Nature Restoration Fund

Applications are welcomed from:

• constituted community groups
• public sector bodies
• charities
• voluntary and social enterprises
• co-operatives and community ownership initiatives
• development trusts

Eligibility

The fund’s eligibility criteria are broadly the same as in previous years. It focuses on outcomes that address the main drivers of biodiversity decline on land and sea.

To deliver this aim, the fund supports five strategic themes:

• 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 (INNS) – impacting on nature
• urban – enhancing and connecting nature across, and between, towns and cities

This year, there is a particular focus on establishing ‘Nature Networks’ to better connect areas for nature. Also known as ecological connectivity, this is provided by wildlife sites, corridors and stepping-stones, landscape features, watercourses, and green and blue spaces that together form integrated Nature Networks.

Types of projects supported

The Nature Restoration Fund is a capital fund designed to deliver change on the ground. Eligible expenditure includes capital equipment, resources and materials to enhance biodiversity.

Projects that may be supported include:

• action for pollinators (equipment for maintaining and creating wildflower areas or verges including planting)
• improving condition and use of Local Nature Reserves (purchase and planting)
• developing a local Nature Network through planting of wildlife corridors, removal of barriers to wildlife movement and pollinator planting
• greening active travel routes (creating wildflower areas or verges including planting)
• natural flood management actions such as connecting rivers with flood plains, pond or wetland creation, de-culverting, in-stream works for habitat and flow variability
• removal of invasive non-native species (INNS) to improve the biodiversity value of the remaining habitat. INNS removal projects must be sustainable beyond the funding period and have a plan in place to manage sites thereafter
• habitat and species enhancement works using native stock, enhancing natural coastal defences through marram, addressing coastal squeeze

What we cannot fund

The following costs are not eligible for funding:

• staff time to administer or manage the project (this can be accepted as in-kind or match funding contribution)
• ongoing maintenance of any site
• activities which are a condition of planning or statutory obligations
• replacement of existing or new infrastructure where there is no biodiversity enhancement
• costs for delivering educational or community engagement activities
• interpretation materials apart from warning signs for the public where activity is taking place
• surveys, monitoring, data analysis or research
• feasibility studies or management plans
• single use plastics, for example for tree protection. Biodegradable or re-usable materials should be sourced
• contingency costs
• the purchase of livestock

Labour or contractor costs to work on sites are eligible.

We can fund small tree planting schemes or woodland improvement activity. However, applicants should check the Forestry Grant Scheme to determine if their project is more suitable for that fund.

Fair Work First

Fair Work First is the Scottish Government's policy for driving high quality and fair work across the labour market in Scotland. It is increasingly being applied to grants, other funding and contracts awarded across the public sector.

All applicants must provide a signed statement to show that their organisation is committed to advancing the ‘Real Living Wage’ and ‘Effective Voice’ criteria. Applications cannot progress without this signed statement.

We have produced a Fair Work First summary guidance for further information.