A new vision for land use in Scotland: 6 conversations

The current climate emergency and biodiversity crisis require urgent and combined actions. However, the Covid pandemic has shown that while slowing economic activity reduce semissions, it also exacerbates pre-existing social, health and economic challenges and doeslittle to address biodiversity declines. The way land is used has profound consequences on all of these and post-pandemic change is needed to maximise its benefits.
SEDA’s 6 Conversations were timed to lead into the COP15 Biodiversity and COP26 Climate Change global conferences later this year, as well as the start of a new Scottish parliamentarysession.
Both Brexit and the Scottish Government’s plans to create new Regional Land UseFrameworks by 2023 provide the opportunity to act on the lessons learned here.Over the course of six weeks, nearly 50 of the best-informed speakers on all aspects of ruralland use participated in 6 Conversations with designers, architects, businesses, campaignersand the general public. Each focused on a different aspect of how land is used, and how itcould be better used, in Scotland.

The number of attendances across the 6 Conversations was over 1,250. Each Conversation created the space to go back to basics and look holistically at topics such as biodiversity, food production, renewable energy, health and well-being, identifying opportunities for cross-sector initiatives which deliver across a wide range of policy areas. Interspersed with contributions from poets and musicians, each Conversation was recorded and is available online at: https://www.seda.uk.net/resources
Each Conversation is summarised in this report and an immediate result has been the decision to form SEDA Land, a new forum for SEDA members and experts in land use to04Executive Summary05continue the discussion and seek to influence land use change . Details of how to join this forum will be published on the SEDA website.