2. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the development of rural skills to help deliver its commitments in relation to peatland restoration in the programme for government 2023-24. (S6O-02681)

Training and retention of a skilled rural workforce is critical to delivering peatland restoration targets. A variety of skills initiatives is under way, including on-site demonstration days, a newly launched training course, a new entrants initiative and training on Public Contracts Scotland tendering.

Rural Skills Scotland was included in a discussion by the ministerial working group on the rural delivery plan. That meeting was attended by the Deputy First Minister as well as the Cabinet secretaries for rural affairs, land reform and islands, skills and education, transport, net zero and just transition, myself and other ministerial colleagues. My officials are now increasing efforts to expand our work in that area, including by utilising existing links with other ministerial responsibilities.

The programme for government 2023-24 outlines plans to

“Restore 10,700 hectares of degraded peatland” during the next year, as well as plans to “progress action with crofters” with regard to Scottish ministers’ crofting estates to support further peatland restoration. Can the Minister advise how the Scottish Government is measuring the restoration of peatland and ensuring the maintenance of its unique carbon catching properties across Scotland’s rural lands?

I thank the member very much for his interest in the topic. We are ramping up our progress towards achieving our targets in peatland restoration. Between 2023 and 2024, we will have increased our restoration of peatland by 40 per cent, while between 2022 and 2023 we increased it by 35 per cent. That shows that it is ramping up significantly.

NatureScot, for example, is delivering activities through its peatland skills plan and supplier development programme to assist

small and medium-sized enterprises in tendering successfully for such work, and we are also putting in place a range of training opportunities focused on key crofting areas in the Western Isles, Shetland, Sutherland and Skye.

In recent weeks, we have heard both the justice secretary and the environment secretary talk about the need to include peatland restoration in plans to bolster natural flood defences, and the Minister has also talked about ramping up peatland restoration, but the Scottish National Party-Green Government is well behind on its peatland restoration targets. Will the minister ensure that farmers and land managers are included in the Scottish Government’s flood resilience planning as we move forward?

I have come to the chamber to answer questions about skills development in peatland restoration, but I am very happy to write to the member with an answer to his question about including farmers in managing flood plains through peatland.

The peatland restoration industry is in its infancy, and there is likely much that we can learn from the rewetting of peatlands that has occurred in countries such as Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Can the Minister say to what extent Scotland’s peatland restoration industry has been disadvantaged by being cut off from the skills and experience of practitioners in Europe by the hard Brexit that we have now—and that Labour now seems to support?

It is clear that a hard Brexit has had a detrimental impact on our rural skills sector. However, the Scottish Government is alive to that risk, and it recognises that international co-operation is crucial in addressing the dual challenges of the climate crisis and biodiversity decline.

We sponsored the peatland pavilion at the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—to champion international co-operation on conservation, restoration and sustainable management of peatlands. Moreover, NatureScot is working with counterparts on the island of Ireland through its involvement in the shared island fund, which is supporting, among other things, a new investment of €15 million in peatland restoration that will benefit cross-border collaboration, knowledge sharing and expertise building.