The national campaign

What is the national campaign?

The national campaign is the first part of the two tiered approach to mitigate diffuse pollution in Scotland. The focus of the work at the national level is to promote awareness and ensure compliance with the DP GBRs. It is expected to prevent further deterioration in the quality of the water environment and to deliver moderate water quality improvements.

There will be a general increase in good management practice as a result of this part of the plan which will deliver improvements to water bodies and protected areas across Scotland.

The national campaign will be organised and delivered by a range of organisations across Scotland. Successful delivery of the strategy will require sectors to be made aware of the impacts that their land use activities can have, and more specifically what measures they can use to help mitigate them. A joined up and supportive approach will help to raise awareness and promote appropriate action and will also rely heavily on a range of organisations playing an active role.

The national campaign will be based on:

  • a national awareness raising campaign on diffuse pollution issues – a comprehensive programme of guidance and training for land managers and their advisors;
  • site inspections by SEARS partners to check statuary requirements of practice are being adopted.

The initial priority will be to roll out a programme of guidance development, training and awareness raising for SEPA staff and SEARS partners and other key stakeholders. The success of the national campaign will depend on the establishment of local linkages between DPMAG members.

Organisations with responsibilities for the management of protected areas will coordinate their activities through DPMAG.

The national awareness raising campaign

The national awareness raising campaign is a comprehensive programme of information, guidance and training for land managers, their representatives and advisors. This programme will be delivered though a partnership approach by DPMAG members.

The steps to developing the national awareness raising campaign are to:

  • carry out stakeholder analysis;
  • agree key messages;
  • develop actions for a national communications plan for delivering the national awareness raising campaign;
  • agree resources to develop the communications plan. 

The impacts of rural diffuse pollution depend on several factors including rainfall, topography, geology, soil type and sensitivity. This, coupled with the overall pattern of land use in Scotland where arable farming predominates in the east and livestock in the wetter west, means the effects of rural diffuse pollution vary between geographic regions. Therefore implementation of an awareness raising campaign needs to be targeted at specific sectors and activities for maximum effect.

In order to allow the national campaign to provide appropriate advice across the country, maps are being produced to show the distribution of the main types of rural diffuse pollution. These maps provide information to support advice and where necessary regulatory action on particular types of agricultural practice, as well as the promotion of funding mechanisms eg the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP).

The national awareness raising campaign should be flexible and adaptable to regions and type of issues identified. The DPMAG communications plan (Appendix 2) will deliver the national awareness raising campaign with the support of area advisory groups in targeting specific areas.

Action area 6: Develop, maintain and deliver the national awareness raising campaign.

Action area 6.1: Agree key messages for dissemination.

Action area 6.2: Gap analysis of communications resources for delivering the key messages.

Action area 6.3: Develop actions to target specific sectors and impacts effectively.

Action area 6.4: Agree who will deliver  communications activities.

Action area 6.5: Deliver the national communications plan.

National inspection programme

Inspections of land holdings are delivered across Scotland by SEARS partners, with about 2000 inspections carried out every year. Such inspections will report land management practice which is not compliant with the DP GBRs.

The national inspection programme will rely on SEPA providing training for SEARS staff and guidance on diffuse pollution issues and awareness raising activities for land managers

Figure 3: Summary of the national campaign approach

Monitoring the success of the national campaign

The success of the national campaign will be measured by:

  • an awareness raising survey;
  • monitoring the use of good land management practice in relation to diffuse pollution;
  • national inspection programme;
  • water quality classification.

A baseline awareness survey is being conducted to measure land managers’ knowledge of rural diffuse pollution, best practice and the DP GBRs at the start of this process.

This study will be developed and repeated at an appropriate frequency so the level of awareness and the success of this campaign can be assessed.

Action area 7: Measure changes in awareness of diffuse pollution, best practice and the DP GBRs.

Action area 7.1: Agree project scope and resources.

Action area 7.2: Develop methods for measuring baseline awareness.

Action area 7.3: Measure baseline awareness.

Action area 7.4: Measure awareness at an appropriate frequency.

Increased good land management practice in relation to diffuse pollution will be measured through the uptake of diffuse pollution related measures, for example in SRDP. Other methods of measurement will also be explored.

Action area 8: Measure change in uptake of diffuse pollution related measures.

The national inspection program will be used to assess compliance with the DP GBRs across Scotland. Results from these inspections will be reported back to DPMAG.

Action area 9: Report on results from the national inspection programme as a measure of changes in the level of compliance with DP GBRs.