Polls show strong public support for new National Parks

Recent articles in the press mentioning “referenda" and polls which turn out to be views of self-selected Facebook groups have been flooding the media. However recent professionally undertaken polls carried out under impartial and publicly stated circumstances show significant support from the public for new National Parks in Scotland.

Support for creation of one or more new National Parks

A recent study by NatureScot [1] (poll undertaken in 2022, published 2023) found that 89% of the Scottish Public supported the creation of one or more new National Parks in Scotland, with 44% strongly supporting and 45% tending to support the proposal. In fact only 3% opposed the suggestion while 8% didn’t know. When asked about the main reasons for establishing National Parks the most frequently provided reasons were to protect Scotland’s best wildlife and landscapes (71%) and to deliver more on the opportunities to restore nature as well as protecting what exists already (52%).

National parks and nature recovery and climate - leadership role

A poll [2] carried out by Survation for Scottish Environment Link in 2022 found that 78% of the Scottish public agreed that the overarching purpose of National Parks should be focused on nature recovery and tackling climate change (only 3% disagreed).

Coastal and Marine National Parks

It was encouraging to see the 2024 polling conducted for the Blue Marine Foundation which gauged support amongst the Scottish public specifically for whether a new National Park that included coastal and marine areas would meet with public approval [3].  On the one hand the very positive response is not a huge surprise given how varied and by turns achingly beautiful, idyllic or tumultuous and awe-inspiring Scotlands coastline and seascapes are. So it is surprising then, only in that the idea of a coastal and marine national park is a relatively untested and unknown idea in the UK but elsewhere in the world there are plenty, for example, Spain, France, Australia, , USA (Channel Islands, Cape Hatteras, Biscayne, Acadia).

[1] NatureScot Research Report 1335 - NatureScot Opinion Survey 2022

[2] Attitudes to Nature  - opinion poll. https://www.scotlink.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Scottish-Environment-Link-Summary-Document-updated.pdf
[3] Survation asked 1,029 residents of Scotland aged 16+ the following question:
The Scottish Government has committed to designating at least one new National Park by 2026. To what extent would you support a new National Park that includes coastal and marine areas?

Strongly support: 33%
Somewhat support: 30%
Total support: 63% (67% without don’t knows)
Strongly oppose: 3%
Somewhat oppose: 7%
Total oppose: 10% (10.6% without don’t knows)
Neither support nor oppose: 21% (22.3% without don’t knows)
Don’t know: 6%