Scottish Land & Estates Newsletter

Follow this link to the latest newsletter from Scottish Land & Estates.

Moorland Forum members may be interested in the articles on:

• The SL&E response to the Land Reform consultation
• Wildlife Estates - 23 estates accredited, 5 pending.
• Rule changes for farm and forestry tracks
• The HT / GWCT Golden Plover Award 2015

Rural Scotland in Focus 2014 Report

The third Rural Scotland in Focus 2014 (RSiF 2014) Report has been published today by SRUC.  Previous reports were published in 2010 and 2012.  The report of the summary can be downloaded from the SRUC website.

The Report continues to monitor how rural Scotland is changing, focusing on: population trends, the lives of young people, the levels and experiences of poverty and disadvantage and how use of our finite rural land resource is negotiated through planning and other means.

Key Policy Messages from the 2014 Report

• At a time of economic constraint there is an increased need for rural perspectives to be brought to national issues. 
• This is a particularly timely moment to ensure that this happens since this year we are seeing the further development of the Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), National Planning Framework (NPF3), Land Use Strategy and its regional pilots, Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, National Marine Plan, Land Reform Review, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform (including changes to ‘Pillar 1’ and ‘Pillar 2’, the Scotland Rural Development Programme encompassing LEADER) and the first meeting of the Scottish Rural Parliament. 
• It is vitally important that the needs of people and communities are taken into account and integrated effectively with the need to manage natural resources sustainably. The national policy context provides a very important driver for putting people at the centre, given its growing emphasis on community empowerment, capacity building and community ownership of land and other assets. 
• In our RSiF Reports we are not arguing that rural should be privileged over urban. Rather, that the evidence shows that the design and deployment of policies and practices must be ‘tailored’ to the local specifics of rural Scotland. 
• The evidence leads us to conclude that there should be an over-arching, comprehensive vision and strategy for rural Scotland, aligned with and supporting the delivery of the National Outcomes. Such a strategy will allow for rural needs to be recognised and addressed, and support the development of further resilience and vibrancy across rural Scotland. 

For more information on the work of SRUC’s Rural Policy Centre, contact: Dr Jane Atterton, Manager and Policy Researcher, Rural Policy Centre, SRUC, T: 0131 535 4256; www.sruc.ac.uk/ruralpolicycentre.

The John Muir Conference: 12-13 May 2014

This conference marks the centenary of John Muir's death.  The conference is about the challenges and opportunities of managing protected areas in the 21st century - the excellent range of speakers are expected to really examine and challenge current practices! 

Part of the Conference programme includes study visits to see and hear first-hand how the challenges of balancing the protection of the natural heritage with economic development and facilitating high visitor numbers are being tackled. There is something for everyone as the tours cover a range of projects from landscape-scale habitat restoration, to renewable energy generation, to innovative visitor management.

The Conference will be of particular interest to land, conservation and visitor management professionals operating in protected or sensitive landscapes across the UK. 

Those watching budgets or who are hooked into the 'Tesco shopping' culture might want to note the current‘Buy 2 Get 1 Free’ offer!

More details

Nature of Scotland Awards - Nominations

The Nature of Scotland Awards 2014 are now open for entries! Celebrating excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement in Scottish nature conservation, nominations are welcomed across eight categories:

Marine Conservation; Sustainable Development; Politician of the Year; Innovation; Outstanding Contribution; RSPB Species Champion; Community Initiative; Youth and Education.

If you know of an organisation, group or individual who has made a unique contribution to Scottish nature conservation, then the RSPB wants to hear from you.

To make your nomination visit www.rspb.org.uk/natureofscotland where you can download an entry form and find out more about the awards. The awards are free to enter and all applications must be submitted online.  The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2014.

SCA Survey

 

The SCA is conducting an online survey of members and non-members about the role of the SCA, and they would be grateful for contributions.  They promise that it will not take too long to complete (~5 mins) and the survey is anonymous, although it is possible to fill provide contact details to receive additional information.

We are being to circulate the link to encourage as many people as possible to provide some input.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ScottishCountrysideAlliance

Update for Members

Langholm - November 2013

SNH Sharing Good Practice events

Following a meeting at Battleby, last Friday, the aim is now to work up more detailed proposals for  events to cover hill tracks and peatland restoration.

The hill tracks events will be developed in conjunction with SL&E and SNH.

The peatland events will link to the Green Stimulus Peatland Restoration Project and will help to deliver this project, as well as raising awareness about peatland restoration issues.


Moorland Management Best Practice Guidance

As an extension of the Sharing Good Practice work, discussions are taking place about developing best practice guidance for moorland management.  Long servers on the Forum will recognise that this would be a development of the 'Principles of Moorland Management' that the Forum published in 2003.

A possible process is that the Forum might prepare draft guidance and then road test this through events with stakeholders, and these events might cover one or several topics.

The plan at present is to develop an outline proposal for discussion at the Forum meeting that will be held in February 2014.  If agreed, the proposal would be worked up into something more detailed for discussion at the Summer meeting.


"Species Interactions"

My efforts to organise the planning meeting quickly have been frustrated by lack of availability and Friday, 17th January is now looking favourite.  It should still be possible to produce some sensible proposals in time for the next Chairman's Working Group and Forum meetings on 7th & 28th February, respectively.

Note that I have adopted Species Interactions as the working title for this work, in preference to Species Solutions, as I believe it to better represent what we are trying to achieve in this phase of the work. This can be subject to further change during the development phase.


Meetings with Scottish Government

Meeting with the Minister - January 2014.  Lord Lindsay hopes to meet the Minister for Environment, Paul Wheelhouse, MSP, to present the Annual Report to him and provide an update about the work of the Forum.

A meeting with Bob McIntosh, Director Environment & Forestry is being proposed for January or February.

Discussion are taking place about a meeting for the Forum with the Minister for Environment, Paul Wheelhouse, MSP, somewhere in the Borders, in June,

Moorland Forum Summer Meeting

We had an excellent meeting on Friday, 7 June.  The John Muir Trust were our hosts at their new Wild Space Visitor Centre in the centre of Pitlochry.  After a business meeting, Roger Burton from SNH described his work as the manager of the Wildlife Management programme within SNH.  Mike Daniels then provided an introduction to the JMT and specifically to the management of Schiehallion.  The weather gods smiled on us for the visit to Schiehallion that followed, where this photo was taken.  We chewed over several management issues that JMT set for us to consider and, as with all Moorland Forum meetings, there was no shortage of discussion.

My thanks to JMT for hosting the meeting and for organising the Schiehallion visit, and to those Forum members who attended.

Abundance of Scottish Terrestrial Breeding Birds

Photo: Patrick Laurie

Reprinted from a Statistical News Release circulated by SNH.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has today released the latest figures tracking the abundance of Scotland’s terrestrial breeding birds 1994 - 2011.

Over the long term, the abundance of terrestrial breeding birds increased by 11% from 1994 to 2011 (using the smoothed indices – see note 2). Farmland and woodland birds have increased (by 12% and 44% respectively) and upland birds have decreased by 11%.

Between 2010 and 2011, the main findings show that the abundance of all-species, woodland, and farmland terrestrial breeding birds were unchanged overall. However, the upland bird index decreased by 8%. The reasons for changes are not known for certain. Some evidence points towards land use changes as a possible cause. The recent harsh winters in 2009 and 2010 may have also had an effect on some of our resident birds such as wrens and robins.

Notes for editors
1. The full statistical publication can be accessed at: http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and-research/officialstatistics/official-stats/terrestrial-breeding-birds
2. Smoothed indices are a statistical way of removing the year to year fluctuations that naturally appear, for example because of weather conditions or sampling
variations, to allow the underlying trend to be more easily seen.
3. The data used in the report primarily come from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds (RSPB) Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) (http://www.bto.org/volunteersurveys/bbs )
4. Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
5. Scottish Natural Heritage is the government's adviser on all aspects of nature and landscape across Scotland. Our role is to help everyone understand, value and
enjoy Scotland's nature now and in the future. For more information, visit our website at www.snh.gov.uk. SNH media is also now on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/SNH_Tweets
6. Trend notes can be found at http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-andresearch/trends/scotlands-trends/

Director's Update

It has been a busy few days preparing the feedback report to the critique phase of the Muirburn Code review.  I have also drafted the report for SEPA as part of the commissioned work to "Evaluate measures and policy mechanisms to protect peatland".

Both these reports will be discussed at meetings in Dunblane on Thursday, 21 March, and the discussion will contribute to the development of the reports into a form that can be submitted.  Thanks to all who have contributed to drafting these reports and to those who are attending the meetings on Thursday.  There is plenty of work still to be done!

The funding of the Forum through the grant from SNH ends on 31 March and I have to prepare the final claim, this week.  Hopefully the Service Level Agreement approach that follows will be less bureaucratic.

I have circulated a 'save the day' note to members who will be invited to the next Chairman's Working Group meeting.  The date of this meeting has been changed to 10 May to match the Chairman's availability.

I am waiting for more details about the Research Exchange meeting that SRUC / JHI are organising in May, and we will circulate details as soon as we get them.