Centre for Scotland’s Land Futures What we are, and what we do •
What does Scotland want or expect of its land resources and landscape? Who is this vital asset worked and managed for the benefit of? If change is required how can that change be instigated?
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The Centre for Scotland’s Land Futures is a new initiative run by three Scottish universities: Dundee, the University of the Highlands and Islands, and Stirling. Its purpose is to investigate and engage with these issues in partnership with a range of stakeholders – political, economic, social and cultural – drawn from Scotland, the rest of the UK, and Europe.
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The Centre aims to operate in three main ways: to conduct interdisciplinary research into land issues past and present; through this to support teaching and learning from undergraduate through to graduate level; and offer a varied and stimulating programme of public engagement activity in order to enhance understanding of land matters, thereby to make for more informed discussion and policy making.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Commitment of three universities Narrow discipline base Commitment of team
Prestigious publishing and other partnerships (EUP/Scotland’s Land/Northern Scotland; Mountstuart, Argyll Estates, SNH etc) Timeliness: Land a major devolved responsibility (in Scotland) Timeliness: demand for independent thinking – for example…
Though CSLF is growing, we have no formal links with geographers/social scientists, environmental scientists, biologists, hydrologists, legal experts Relatively new, much to do to create sustainable, respected, ‘go to’ centre of expertise
…example ‘Woodlands “a threat” to Scottish landscapes’ (DT, 16.2.2017) Gamekeepers/mountaineers/landsc ape lobby v SNH and others – to cover heather heathland = ‘ecological vandalism’
Who’s to decide, on what grounds? Required: multidisciplinary investigation and impartial advice
Opportunities Contribute to major – live - debates about Scotland’s land, past, present and future: ownership, use (by whom, for what); responsibility (to whom); changing attitudes and expectations; sustainability…
Obvious ‘space’ for such work Established demand for advice, e.g. Community Land Scotland Convergence with CECHR: Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Opportunities for researchers – public engagement, utility, impact