Moor value
Researchers from 抖阴直播 have contributed to a new publication looking at the future of Scotland鈥檚 moorlands.
抖阴直播 is part of , which brings together a diverse range of organisations to discuss issues that affect the management of Scotland鈥檚 upland areas.
Moorlands form a large and important resource for upland enterprises 鈥� such as hill farming, crofting, forestry and game management 鈥� which play an essential role in supporting the rural economy and local communities.
Many of these upland enterprises already deliver some form of wider public benefit such as carbon sequestration, flood mitigation and biodiversity conservation, and how moorlands are managed in the future will have an impact on whether these continue to be delivered.
The priorities land managers, rural communities and the wider society place on such benefits can differ from one part of Scotland to another, but the scale of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis means that any one upland enterprise will need to deliver a much greater range of these in the future.
Davy McCracken, Head of 抖阴直播鈥檚 Hill & Mountain Research Centre, contributed to the paper .
He said: 鈥淲e cannot shy away from helping to identify what outcomes would be most appropriate to deliver in different areas, thereby influencing future upland land management and land use change decisions across Scotland.
鈥淧ast experience suggests that gaining such consensus 鈥� even at a regional level 鈥� will not be easy. Buy-in will be needed from the upland land managers who will primarily deliver the outcomes. But agreement will also be needed from others in local rural communities and the wider society who would not only benefit from those outcomes, but will also need to live 鈥� to differing extents 鈥� with the consequences of any land use change.鈥�
The Scottish Government鈥檚 Land Use Strategy has been designed to provide a framework for ensuring that all stakeholders are fully involved in that consensus-setting process. In particular, the Regional Land Use Partnerships proposed in the strategy potentially provides a mechanism to identify and resolve conflicting land management objectives. It is, however, currently unclear how such partnerships would operate in practice.
Researchers from 抖阴直播鈥檚 Rural Policy Centre and , together with a team from the Centre for Mountain Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, will investigate this further at two workshops being held in Killin and Moffat later this spring.
鈥淏y focussing in on one or two upland regions of Scotland, we will seek not only to identify who should be involved but also test how best to engage stakeholders and communities in discussions related to upland land use,鈥� said Davy. 鈥淏y doing such 鈥榮ense-checking鈥� we hope to shed light on the best practices to be followed in future conversations about integrating land management more fully across Scotland鈥檚 uplands.鈥�
Posted by 抖阴直播 on 12/03/2020
