The Cost of Inaction to the Scottish Public Purse: Why Restoring Nature Is Now an Economic Necessity for Scotland

The Government’s Biodiversity Strategy commits Scotland to being nature positive by 2030 and to have restored and regenerated biodiversity by 2045. This new Parliament will be largely responsible for delivering these commitments.

Despite stunning landscapes, Scotland’s natural environment is in a state of widespread degradation, with far-reaching consequences for wildlife, people, and the economy. Scotland’s landscapes have been heavily shaped by human land use, in many cases with limited consideration of long-term sustainability.

For example, decades of intensive land management and drainage have left soils nutrient-poor and prone to erosion (37% of Scotland’s land area is at moderate-high risk of soil erosion). Rivers have been disconnected from floodplains, reducing their ability to manage water and leading to inevitable increases in flood risk (43.9% of Scotland’s water bodies are in “less than good” condition). Additionally, climate change is leading to more extreme weather events, causing further damage to already degraded landscapes.

Scotland now stands at a crucial tipping point: failing to act will lead to further environmental damage, making solutions more complex and expensive. For example, soil erosion is a self-reinforcing cycle: the more soil degrades, the more rapidly it erodes, and the more costly and difficult restoration becomes. 

Inaction is itself a choice, and it carries real consequence. Decisive action must be taken to restore Scotland’s landscapes at scale.

The cost of inaction

The costs of environmental degradation are already evident, including:

• Flood damage costs rising to an estimated £500 million per year.
• Agricultural losses of up to £286 million annually due to extreme weather and soil erosion.
• Rising forestry losses from storms, pests, and disease, with ash dieback disease alone estimated to cost over £120 million per year.
• Damage from invasive non-native species rising to an estimated £499 million per year.
• Degraded peatlands emit approximately six million tonnes of CO₂ annually, equating to an estimated £1.6 billion in global damages.

These examples represent only a snapshot of the escalating costs of inaction.

Additionally, the impacts are not only economic. Wildlife is central to Scotland’s identity, yet biodiversity continues to decline. Since 1994, species abundance has fallen by an average of 24% (with some declines steeper, for example, seabird abundance has declined by 49%). Scotland now ranks among the world’s most nature-depleted countries, with 11% of species at risk of extinction. These numbers are not just statistics; they represent quieter skies, emptier landscapes, and a loss of the natural heritage that communities across Scotland recognise and value.

Nature-based solutions

Scotland’s historic response to environmental challenges has been short-term fixes, such as barriers in response to flooding, irrigation for drought or fertiliser for soil decline. However, these interventions do not address the root causes of environmental issues, meaning the same problems will recur year-on-year and will often worsen over time.

Nature-based solutions offer a different approach: using natural systems to address environmental challenges by restoring, enhancing, or sustainably managing the environment.

For example, a town experiencing flooding could build costly barriers that require constant maintenance and risk being overtopped. Alternatively, upstream interventions such as tree planting, river re-meandering and the creation of new ponds can slow and store excess water, increasing the capacity of the whole system and reducing the likelihood and severity of flooding. Additionally, these approaches deliver year-round co-benefits including improved water quality, wellbeing, and biodiversity.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is urging MSPs and decision-makers to act now. Nature degradation comes at a significant cost, and nature-based solutions offer a clear opportunity to save money in the long-term while benefiting both people and wildlife.

Investing in nature is not an optional environmental concern, it is a fundamental economic necessity. 

Click here to read the full Cost of Inaction report.

This article is sponsored by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk