Scotland, United Kingdom

A partnership including the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, NatureScot and other Scottish Government agencies, research bodies, universities, and NGOs developed a regional approach for the conservation of genetic diversity suited to Scotland and applicable internationally. To achieve this, a set of criteria was identified for defining terrestrial and freshwater species of socio-economic importance in Scotland, and an initial list of species was selected.

A simple, readily applicable Scorecard method was created for assessing risks to the conservation of genetic diversity in these species and the effectiveness of conservation measures in place. The Scorecard approach is not dependent on prior genetic knowledge, technology or expensive resources, and instead uses structured expert opinion assessments.

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