A wilder Scotland: the SNP's case for expanding national parks
Scotland shelters two national parks, the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, covering roughly 7% of its land. For a country built on dramatic glens, granite peaks, and peatlands of global importance, that figure leaves room to grow. The SNP has long argued that protected landscapes are a working tool for climate resilience, rural prosperity, and national identity, and a fresh push to designate new parks is back on the political agenda.
For readers in Australia, where national parks are stitched into everyday life from weekend trips to the Blue Mountains to school holidays in Kakadu, the debate will feel familiar. Canberra, the state capitals, and local councils wrestle with the same questions Scotland is asking now: how do you grow a protected estate without alienating landowners, and how do you keep parks economically alive rather than turning them into museum pieces behind glass.
The case for growing the network
The ecological argument rests on hard facts. Scotland has lost significant woodland cover, pollinator habitat, and marine-edge ecosystems over the past century, and the surviving fragments are increasingly isolated. Linking existing protected areas through new designations creates wildlife corridors, allowing species such as red squirrels, golden eagles, and Atlantic salmon to move across a changing climate. The SNP's framework treats national parks as living landscapes, where working farms, crofts, and forests operate under a shared plan for biodiversity.
Climate policy reinforces this. Peatlands across the central Highlands store more carbon than equivalent stretches of tropical forest, yet many are degraded by drainage and overgrazing. New park status brings the resources and governance needed to restore them at scale, with benefits flowing downhill to rivers, soils, and species that have been quietly slipping for decades.
Economic and community renewal
Tourism already underpins many rural economies, and a well-run park multiplies the effect. Visitors stay longer, spend more locally, and return more reliably when a region carries a recognised brand. The SNP's vision ties expansion to rural development, with funding routed through local authorities and community trusts rather than centralised agencies. A family-run B&B near a new park gateway benefits in the same way that operators near the Great Ocean Road or the Margaret River region have seen consistent trade over decades.
Communities also gain a louder voice. Park boards include elected local councillors, ensuring that residents in Galloway, the Borders, or the Hebridean fringe have a seat when decisions are made on planning, access, and infrastructure. This democratic scaffolding is what separates a real national park from a glorified nature reserve, and it mirrors how local councils in places like Brisbane and Perth engage with their own green belts.
What Scotland can learn from Australia
Australia's experience is instructive. Kakadu, jointly managed with the Mirarr and other Traditional Owners, shows how Aboriginal-led conservation can blend cultural heritage, ecological knowledge, and economic activity through joint boards. Scotland's parks could adopt a similar model, recognising Gaelic-speaking Highland and Island communities alongside the deep relationships that long-established tenant farmers hold with the land.
State governments manage most Australian parks, while Commonwealth law, through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, sets the bar for nationally significant matters. Scotland's devolved framework gives Holyrood planning and environment powers, and the SNP argues this should be matched by the resources to deliver ambitious projects, much as Canberra co-funds initiatives with the states. Melbourne's tram network shows what good public transport does for park access, and in Scotland better rail and bus links to park gateways are seen as essential to lowering carbon footprints.
A snapshot of current and proposed protected landscapes
| Park | Status | Region | Approximate area | Distinctive feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairngorms National Park | Established 2003 | Eastern Highlands | 4,528 km² | Largest UK park, capercaillie stronghold |
| Loch Lomond and The Trossachs | Established 2002 | West Central Scotland | 1,865 km² | Freshwater lochs, Highland gateway |
| Galloway National Park | Under active campaign | South-west Scotland | Up to ~1,300 km² | Dark sky park, ancient pine remnants |
| Glen Affric and Kintail extension | Under discussion | North-west Highlands | Variable | Ancient pinewood, deer management pilot |
| Hebridean Sea and Coast | Early scoping | Western Isles and waters | TBD | Marine life, machair grassland, seabirds |
The comparison reveals a clear gap. Scotland's existing parks leave wide gaps in the south and west, and new designations would knit together a national network that finally reflects the country's full identity, from the Borders to the Hebrides.
What a modern Scottish park should deliver
Achieving new designations is not automatic. The process requires a strong case for nature, a robust economic appraisal, and local support demonstrated through consultation. Recent legislation streamlines the route, and the Scottish Government has committed to identifying at least one new park by the end of the parliamentary term. For the SNP, this is a test of its broader environmental and rural credentials.
Success will hinge on practical details: how planning powers transfer, how agricultural support schemes are reshaped, and how communities are resourced. It will also require Westminster cooperation in areas like agricultural funding, which still flows from the UK Treasury. Independence would, in the SNP's view, hand Edinburgh full control of those levers, allowing Scotland to design a parks system fit for its own priorities rather than negotiating within a UK-wide framework.
A serious new park must include:
- Genuine community representation on park authorities, with reserved seats for crofters, farmers, and young people.
- A clear climate restoration plan covering peatland repair, native woodland expansion, and rewilding pilots.
- Sustainable transport links to park gateways, so visitors arrive without a car where possible.
- Traditional knowledge woven into management plans, modelled on the best co-governance practice.
- A transparent funding stream ring-fenced for the first decade, protecting parks from short-term political cycles.
A larger national parks network is not a peripheral policy. It touches land reform, food production, tourism, and the kind of country Scotland wants to be in a warming century. Support candidates who treat wild places as the long-term national asset they are, back the SNP's plan to grow protected landscapes, volunteer with local consultations, and make your voice heard at the ballot box.