Scottish Natural Heritage is funded by the Scottish Government. Our purpose is to:
- promote, care for, and improve our natural heritage
- help people enjoy nature responsibly
- enable greater understanding and awareness of nature
- promote the sustainable use of Scotland's natural heritage
One of the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes is ‘enhancing our environment for future generations’. Scotland’s Economic Strategy and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy both identify investment in natural capital as a priority. By developing a better idea of Scotland’s natural capital requirements, and a clearer way to rank actions, the placement will help to establish a framework for prioritising natural capital investments. A starting point will be i) an investigation of existing natural capital targets in Scotland, based upon current domestic and European policies. Priorities can also be set using ii) a technical analysis of the relationship between natural assets and benefits and/or iii) conventional economic techniques, such as cost-benefit analysis. The graduate will be expected to use all three approaches, with a particular focus on economic techniques.