National scenic area (Scotland)

National scenic areas are designated by the IUCN as Category V Protected Landscapes, the same international category as Scotland's two national parks. Within the United Kingdom the NSA designation is regarded as equivalent to the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The national scenic area designation does not have a high profile when compared to other conservation designations used in Scotland: in 2018 a survey by the National Trust for Scotland found that only 20% of Scots were "definitely aware" of national scenic areas, compared to 80% for National Parks.

History

After the Second World War, the Labour government passed the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which led to the creation of ten national parks in England and Wales between 1951 and 1957, although no parks were created in Scotland. A committee, chaired by Sir Douglas Ramsay, was however established to consider preservation of the landscape in Scotland. The report, published in 1945, proposed that five areas (Loch Lomond & the Trossachs, the Cairngorms, Glen Coe-Ben Nevis-Black Mount, Wester Ross and Glen Strathfarrar-Glen Affric-Glen Cannich) should receive a level of protection. Accordingly, the government designated these areas as "national park direction areas", giving powers for planning decisions taken by local authorities to be reviewed by central government. After a further review of landscape protection in 1978, additional areas were identified for protection, and in 1981 the direction areas were replaced by national scenic areas, which were based on the 1978 recommendations.

Following the passage of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, two national parks were established: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and the Cairngorms National Park. Both of these parks included areas that were already designated as national scenic areas, and the NSA designation remains in place alongside national park status for the areas in question.

Scottish Natural Heritage reviewed the national scenic areas between November 2007 and March 2009 to try to identify what makes the scenery of each NSA special; however no formal review into the number and extent has been undertaken since the original report. The current national scenic areas, which therefore remain as originally mapped in 1978, were legally redesignated in 2010. Despite calls from bodies such as the John Muir Trust for the protection to be extended to other areas to protect landscape and support tourism, the Scottish Government has stated that it has no plans to designate further areas. In September 2017 the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee asked the government to explain why it is not reviewing the NSAs.