Local Partnerships
As with the National partnerships, the Trust enters into many local partnerships to achieve conservation and community benefit. Examples include:

Local Biodiversity Action Plans
Trust staff participate actively in many Local Biodiversity Action Plan partnerships, helping to set and deliver targets designed to enhance the biodiversity valued in the locality.

Coastal Fora and partnerships
Most of the coastline of Scotland is covered by local coastal fora established to design integrated management policies for the coastal zone. Wherever appropriate (normally where we have coastal properties), the Trust plays an active role in these partnerships.

Deer Management Groups
Deer are wild animals and wander freely across property boundaries in upland areas. It is impossible to manage their populations effectively without cooperation between neighbouring landowners. The Trust participates in local Deer Management Groups to help determine what the local objectives should be and contribute to joint initiatives, such as periodic censuses.

Voluntary Marine Reserve
The St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve was the first marine reserve in the United Kingdom and was set up under a local partnership comprising 14 organisations. The Trust, as owner of the St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve, was one of the founding members of this partnership and has helped to steer its development ever since. With the development of the Berwickshire and North Northumberland Coast European Marine Site, this involvement has continued into the site’s management committee.

Local Nature Reserve
Montrose Basin Local Nature Reserve includes much of the low-lying farmland comprising the Trust’s Mains of Dun farm. We participate in the Reserve’s Management Committee and have introduced a number of measures to help to improve the nature conservation value of the reserve. One of the most spectacular of these has been the Rural Stewardship Scheme which Grant Baird, our farming tenant, has entered to allow the creation of 9ha of new wetlands in the heart of the reserve.