Next Steps for the Edinburgh Nature Network
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The Edinburgh Nature Network (ENN) is the first of its kind in Scotland. A pioneering approach to managing conservation activities and enhancing nature connectivity, the Edinburgh Nature Network’s creation was led in partnership between Scottish Wildlife Trust and City of Edinburgh Council as part of the realisation of the Edinburgh Living Landscape.. For more information, please head to the dedicated ENN page.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has been involved in various stages of development for the ENN over the last 6 years, including leading on the initial project scoping, conducting multiple stakeholder workshops, the mapping of ENN actions, and the recent creation of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
However, Nature Networks represent a long-term approach in managing conservation for local authorities. As a result, at the end of September 2024, the Scottish Wildlife Trust will handover the ENN toolkit created and general management of the Edinburgh Nature Network to the City of Edinburgh Council.
Johnston Terrace Garden Wildlife Reserve.
Partnership in Action
The Edinburgh Nature Network has been created and developed as part of a City of Edinburgh Council led initiative entitled Thriving Green Spaces. Funded by the Future Parks Accelerator, the Scottish Wildlife Trust have been partners with the City of Edinburgh Council on the ENN throughout its development.
Most recently, the Scottish Wildlife Trust has created a toolkit to demonstrate both the progress and impact of the Edinburgh Nature Network. The monitoring and evaluation framework helps to guide actions for nature across the Edinburgh Living Landscape and enables organisations and volunteers to report on the actions they are delivering across the city. The roll out of this framework has continued throughout 2024, and is now embedded within the City of Edinburgh Council’s Parks and Planning Teams.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has also brought relevant partners and stakeholders together to discuss the wider ENN strategy, has been engaged in a large number of mapping activities, for example mapping ecosystem service demand and supply and project delivery across Edinburgh, and has also created a route map for how the ENN will continue to evolve and grow into the future.
The immediate priority is to continue to collate projects and actions for nature which are currently being completed across Edinburgh by any organisation, as outlined here. If you believe you are contributing to the Edinburgh Nature Network by delivering one or more of the 200 identified actions, then please complete our survey and contribute to the ENN by clicking on this link!
All the while, the City of Edinburgh Council’s Parks Team have been firming up their biodiversity management practices, and using the ENN’s toolkit to identify new and exciting projects to deliver on the ground improvements to nature in different pockets of the city, for example improving habitat connectivity in Leith with the Linking Leith’s Parks project, and creating stepping stone habitats for the locally-rare butterfly species, the Northern Brown Argus.
Throughout this process, there have been positive conservations between the two partners relating to legacy, for example with who takes various responsibilities and ownership of tasks going forward. The City of Edinburgh Council’s Parks Team are already using the ENN to focus actions they are delivering for nature and people, and data collected through the monitoring and evaluation framework will help towards evidencing success through the Edinburgh Biodiversity Action Plan and Nature Network reporting.
Edinburgh Living Landscape
As the Scottish Wildlife Trust finalises this project-funded phase of the Edinburgh Nature Network in September 2024 and hands this over to the City of Edinburgh Council, the Edinburgh Living Landscape remains a key strategic initiative in which the Edinburgh Nature Network continues to deliver enhancements to biodiversity and ecological connectivity.
The Edinburgh Nature Network continues to be a key delivery mechanism which has involved many of the 10 different impact-focused organisations within the Edinburgh Living Landscape partnership. Delivering enhancements to biodiversity and ecological connectivity through the ENN will make a significant contribution to achieving the Edinburgh Living Landscape’s overall vision; to make Edinburgh one of the most sustainable cities in Europe by 2050.
The Edinburgh Nature Network is an exciting, forward-thinking initiative for the city of Edinburgh, harnessing the real impact that working in partnership can have on people and nature. It will continue to follow an exciting journey over the coming years as the City of Edinburgh Council follows the route map to take this forward.
Excitingly, others also believe that the ENN should be recognised as a brilliant and innovative project – the Edinburgh Nature Network has been shortlisted for the 2024 Nature of Scotland Innovation Award!
