This document ranges across a huge swathe of interrelated issues, albeit in the barest outline, focussing on those where new thinking or approaches are needed. It should be seen as an essay rather than a referenced scientific paper – to provide an adequate suite of references would be a huge undertaking. Instead, photographs have been used to illustrate many of the points. The issues are based on observations by the author over many years and relate to the area north of the Highland Boundary Fault, in particular to the unenclosed land beyond or above the head dyke – not to the inbye land traditionally used for agriculture. Whether they have applicability south of this area is left for the reader to decide.

The term ‘biodiversity’ is here used to mean the habitats and species indigenous to an area, along with their natural arrangement. This document presents, in the author’s view, a unified and internally consistent approach to nature conservation/biodiversity action within the area (based on the above definition of biodiversity), at the same time matching the ecological evidence. It is to be hoped that it will stimulate debate, encourage further research and instigate a review of current policies.